ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s farmland is fracturing into smaller and smaller pieces, and the water that irrigates it is slipping out of state hands entirely, according to the country’s newly released Agricultural Census, a survey that offers the most complete statistical picture yet of a rural economy in the middle of an unplanned transformation.
Trending
Bhutto-Zardari proposes truth panel as Kashmir region reels from deadly unrest
MUZAFFARABAD: The chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party proposed the creation of an independent truth and reconciliation commission on Wednesday to help end nearly six weeks of deadly unrest in Azad Kashmir, warning that continued bloodshed there was inflicting lasting damage on both the Kashmir cause and Pakistan’s standing abroad.
Karachi HIV cases linked to children’s hospital rise to 120, officials say
KARACHI: The number of people found to be infected with HIV in connection with a children’s hospital in Karachi has climbed to 120, provincial officials said Tuesday, as a public health investigation that began nine months ago continues to widen across working-class neighbourhoods in the city’s industrial quarter.
Trump threatens Iran’s power grid, bridges as Hormuz standoff enters fourth day of strikes
ISLAMABAD: US President Trump warned on Tuesday night that the United States would begin striking Iranian power plants and bridges next week if Tehran does not return to the negotiating table, escalating his rhetoric on the same day American forces carried out a fourth consecutive night of strikes against Iranian military targets and reimposed a naval blockade on the country’s ports.
Nine dead as security forces clash with banned Kashmiri rights group ahead of march – report
MUZAFFARABAD: At least nine people were killed on Tuesday in clashes between security forces and supporters of a banned civil rights group, officials said, a day before the group had vowed to march on the region’s capital in defiance of a monthlong government crackdown, media reports said.
Small retailers get simplified tax route under new FBR draft
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s tax authority unveiled a draft scheme on Tuesday that would let small shopkeepers pay a flat 1% levy on turnover in exchange for freedom from routine audits and digital invoicing requirements, the latest attempt by the government to widen a tax base that has long relied on a narrow slice of compliant filers.
Army chief Munir visits Turkey for defence, security talks
ISLAMABAD: Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, Pakistan’s top military officer, spent two days working through a tightly choreographed itinerary in the Turkish capital this week — an airport reception, a closed-door meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a medal ceremony, and a solemn stop at the tomb of modern Turkey’s founder — in a visit both governments cast as evidence of how close the two countries’ militaries have become.
Pakistan condemns Houthi missile strikes on Saudi Arabia, reaffirms support for Kingdom security
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday condemned a barrage of ballistic missiles that Yemen’s Houthi movement fired at Saudi Arabia, invoking a year-old mutual defense pact between the two countries and warning that the attack threatened to further destabilize an already volatile Middle East.
Rangers personnel killed in Rawalakot clash as unrest deepens in Azad Kashmir
RAWALAKOT: A paramilitary Ranger was shot and killed early on Tuesday and a second was wounded in a burst of gunfire that police blame on armed supporters of a banned protest movement — the latest and, by several accounts, far from the only fatality in a night of clashes that has left the territory bracing for its most contentious election in years.
Mastermind of deadly Rangers Karachi camp assault arrested, officials say
KARACHI: The man accused of orchestrating a deadly assault on a paramilitary Rangers facility in Karachi last month was arrested in the days after the attack, senior police officials said on Tuesday, laying out what they described as a plot conceived, financed and directed from across the border in Afghanistan.