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More wreckage of crashed cargo plane found, search for crew ongoing: PAA

The Pakistan Aviation Authority (PAA) said on Friday that the search for the crew of a cargo plane that crashed into the Arabian Sea was ongoing, adding that additional wreckage had been located. In a statement, the authority said the search and rescue missions by the Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency in the deep sea were still in progress. “The search for the crew members is continuing with full vigour through the coordinated employment of aerial and sea-borne assets,” it said. “Additional parts and debris of the ill-fated aircraft have been located and retrieved for subsequent analysis by the investigation team,” it said, adding that updates would be shared as the search and rescue operations continued. On Tuesday night, a K2 Airways Boeing 737-400 cargo aircraft en route from Sharjah to Karachi had disappeared from radar over the Arabian Sea, about 300 kilometres west of Karachi, while approaching Pakistani airsp...
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World Bank approves $375.9m to strengthen Pakistan's power transmission network

The World Bank’s (WB) Board of Executive Directors has approved $375.9 million in financing for Pakistan’s Grid Stability Enhancement Project to strengthen the country’s national power transmission network. According to a press release issued by the WB, the project is being implemented under the Boosting Energy Security through Transmission in Pakistan (BEST-PAK) Multiphase Programmatic Approach (MPA). It said the project is the first phase of a 10-year programme aimed at helping Pakistan modernise its “electricity transmission network, reduce power outages and bring more clean energy to homes, businesses and industries”. “Pakistan’s energy challenges are deeply interconnected with its broader economic stability,” WB Country Director Bolormaa Amgaabazar was quoted as saying. “By investing in advanced technologies for more resilient transmission infrastructure, this project will contribute to reducing electricity costs, bring more renewable energy on...

Man awarded death sentence for 2019 killing of anchorperson Mureed Abbas in Karachi

KARACHI: A sessions court on Thursday sentenced a man to death on two counts in a case pertaining to the 2019 murder of TV anchor Mureed Abbas and his friend. Prime suspect Atif Zaman and his brother, Adil Zaman, were arrested and booked by the police for killing Abbas and Khizer Hayat, who were their business partners, in Karachi’s Khayaban-i-Bukhari area on the night of July 9, 2019, exactly seven years ago. Daniyal Muhammad Hussain, who was part of the legal team that represented Abbas’s wife, said that Adil had been declared an absconder in the case after escaping following the cancellation of his bail by the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry. Abbas was a Bol News anchorperson. In the incident — which at the time was said to be a “personal dispute” — he was gunned down while Hayat also received two bullet wounds. Hayat was shifted to a private hospital but he succumbed to his wounds, according to the police. In October 2019, the case was transferred from an anti-terrorism cou...

WHAT NEXT FOR THE GULF?

An illustration showing (top, left to right) the President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Sultan and Prime Minister of Oman Haitham bin Tariq Al-Said, Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, (and bottom) the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian over a map of the Gulf with pre-war ship locator markings showing ships travelling via the Strait of Hormuz FOREWORD The United States-Zionist war of aggression on Iran has been partially halted by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Given the rising cost-exchange ratio because of Iran’s response, US President Donald Trump was looking for a deal. He admitted to the media at the G-7 summit that he “did not want to be the late, great Herbert Hoover”, the president historically blamed for the onset of the Great Depression. Trump ...

Oil rises as US strikes on Iran raise fears over shaky truce

Oil prices gained more than 2 per cent on Wednesday after the US military launched airstrikes against Iran and reimposed crude sales sanctions, raising fears their fragile truce was unravelling and Middle East supplies could be disrupted again. Brent crude futures gained $1.92, or 2.6pc, at $76.08 a barrel at 0400 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude climbed $1.82, or 2.6pc, to $72.26 a barrel. Both benchmarks rose about 3pc on Tuesday after the US revoked the general licence authorising the sale of Iranian crude following the Iranian attacks. “While the revocation doesn’t fundamentally change oil market dynamics, it’s important from a sentiment perspective. It heightens the risk of a breakdown in the temporary deal between the US and Iran,” ING commodity strategists said on Wednesday. The US airstrikes were in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz, US Central Command said on Tuesday. “The current conflagration is a re...

Hamas’s move

THE decision taken by Hamas to relinquish governance of Gaza appears to be designed to put the onus on the US and Israel to take the peace process forward. Having ruled the Strip for about two decades, the Palestinian group announced on Monday that it was ready to hand over governance duties to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the technocratic body set up under Donald Trump’s Board of Peace . As per a Hamas spokesman, the move is supposed to “remove any pretexts for the [Israeli] occupation” which, he rightly said, “continues its … war of extermination”. Since the ceasefire took effect in October 2025, Gaza has hardly turned into a cradle of peace. Over 1,000 people have been murdered by Israel, including children, during what is supposed to be a truce. Since the Zionist state commenced its genocidal attacks on the Strip after the Oct 7, 2023, Hamas operation, over 73,000 people have been butchered, with nearly 2m displaced and denied adequate shelter, food and h...

PM Shehbaz calls for comprehensive strategy to boost SMEs’ access to financing

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday directed that a comprehensive strategy be formulated to improve small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) access to financing. He made these remarks while chairing a review meeting of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) in Islamabad. According to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the premier directed the authority to formulate a comprehensive strategy, in coordination with the State Bank of Pakistan and commercial banks, to improve SMEs’ access to financing. He stressed that greater facilitation should be provided for extending loans to SMEs to boost the country’s exports. He also directed that they be supported in enhancing their productive capacity, particularly by providing awareness and access to financing for farmers processing agricultural produce. The prime minister further directed that commercial banks be encouraged to develop dedicated financia...