ISLAMABAD: Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari stepped into the National Assembly on Thursday with the authority of a man who had extracted concessions from a government desperate for his presence — and used the occasion not merely to endorse a budget compromise, but to deliver a sweeping indictment of how Pakistan’s federation actually functions beneath its constitutional veneer.
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Pakistan raises alarm over India’s 17 water projects designed to give it ‘hydro-hegemony’ over the Indus
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has accused India of actively pursuing at least 17 infrastructure projects on the Indus river system designed to give New Delhi “the tools for hydro-hegemony” — a striking charge that escalates a diplomatic confrontation over the two countries’ six-decade-old water-sharing agreement.
PM Sharif tells President Pezeshkian peace deal will ‘go a long way’ towards rebuilding Iran as Trump signs accord at Versailles
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told his Iranian counterpart President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday that the peace agreement brokered by Islamabad between Washington and Tehran would “go a long way” towards rebuilding Iran, as Donald Trump signed the deal at a candlelit dinner with Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles and critics on both sides of the Atlantic rounded on its terms.
Pakistan gets $700 million ADB loan to fix one of Asia’s most underpenetrated insurance markets
ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank has approved a $700 million policy-based loan to restructure Pakistan’s chronically underdeveloped insurance sector, the Manila-based lender said, as Islamabad accelerates a push to modernise financial markets that remain almost entirely dominated by banks.
FDI shrinks 69 percent as power sector pulls back
Pakistan’s appeal to foreign capital deteriorated sharply in the fiscal year through May, with total foreign investment plunging 69% to $478 million from $1.56 billion a year earlier, as a retreat from the country’s dominant power sector and turbulence in global equity markets eroded inflows that Islamabad has long counted on to shore up its balance of payments.
Pakistan tech exports surge 20 percent to $4.2bn, fueled by freelancer boom
Pakistan’s technology exports climbed 20% in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2026 to $4.2 billion, driven by a near-doubling of freelancer earnings and sustained international demand for the country’s software and digital services — figures that underscore how dramatically the sector has outpaced the broader economy.
Pakistan prepares pump-price relief after Iran peace deal breaks oil’s wartime surge
Pakistan’s petroleum minister signaled that consumers will see relief at the pump as early as this week, as tumbling crude prices in the wake of a US-Iran ceasefire framework give Islamabad room to unwind some of the sharpest fuel-price increases in the country’s recent history.
Pakistan maps 130 dangerous glacial lakes as El Niño threatens to deepen climate crisis
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s space agency has identified 130 glacial lakes capable of unleashing catastrophic floods on downstream communities, as the country simultaneously faces warnings of a weakened monsoon season, intensifying heatwaves and drought driven by the onset of El Niño.
Nine-year-old Australian girl struck by ten bullets as police officers open fire on family car in case of mistaken identity
CHAKWAL: A post-mortem examination has confirmed that Hania Ahmed, a nine-year-old Australian national killed during a botched police operation in Pakistan last week, sustained ten gunshot wounds — five bullets, each passing clean through her small body, leaving both entry and exit wounds.
Trump and Iran sign Islamabad accord to end four-month war — with Pakistan taking a bow
ISLAMABAD: Donald Trump put his signature to a ceasefire agreement with Iran at a candlelit dinner in the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday night, bringing to a formal close a four-month conflict that has convulsed energy markets, stoked inflation and pushed the Middle East to the edge of a broader catastrophe — while warning, in the same breath, that he was ready to resume bombing if Tehran failed to comply.