Pakistan News

In Pakistan, ‘honour’ killings continued to claim the lives of women throughout 2024, perpetuated by deeply ingrained societal beliefs about family dignity and shame. As the year draws to a close, the pattern persists, with women across the country falling victim to violence. These cases are not mere statistics — they represent the harsh reality faced by countless women, where personal autonomy and dignity are violently stripped away under the guise of preserving family ‘honour’. In October this year, a man murdered four women in his family, including his mother, in a fit of rage over their TikTok videos. He told the police the videos spread “immodesty and shamelessness, tarnishing the family’s reputation”. Another year of continued brutality In December , Amina Bibi, a mother of three, was shot dead by her brother, Zafar Hussain, in the Qasimpur area of Pakpattan. Hussain told the police he thought his sister had a “questionable character”. In November , a mother of five wa...

QUETTA: The twice postponed seven-day polio vaccination campaign will begin in Balochistan on Monday to administer polio drops to over 2.6 million children under the age of five. Inamul Haq, the Balochistan Emergency Operations Centre coordinator, stated on Sunday that the vaccination campaign would be held in 36 districts of the province. The campaign was part of a nationwide drive scheduled to be held in all four province, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir from December 16 to 22. Vaccination campaign was delayed due to protest by medical workers The drive in Balochistan was, however, postponed twice by the health department due to strike of the Grand Health Alliance. The protesting medical workers also refused to take part in the polio vaccination drive until their demands were accepted. Two days ago, a two-member bench of the Balochistan High Court directed the secretary and director general of the health department to issue show-cause notices to the protesting medi...

LAHORE: The Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa government has done nothing for the people except corruption and it has ignored the plight of the KP masses as public money is being misused to promote PTI propaganda. This was stated by Federal Infor­mation Minister Attaullah Tarar while sharing a ‘White Paper’ on the performance of the PTI government in KP at a press conference here on Sunday. Mr Tarar said that the masses had given mandate to different parties in different provinces keeping in view the promises made by these parties in their manifestos. The PTI has been in power in the KP for almost 11 years and during this entire period, the people have witnessed only bad governance and corruption. The federal minister claimed that financial irregularities in the KP government are estimated to be around Rs152 billion. Minister shares White Paper on Rs152bn financial irregularities in province There were fraudulent payments worth Rs130 million; Rs84 billion have been estimated as misclassified...

Activists and leaders of the mainstream religiopolitical party, Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM), continued sit-ins across Karachi on Sunday, blocking major roads to protest the Parachinar killings, demanding measures including reopening a road in Parachinar, closed for 90 days, to ensure access to essential food and medicines, according to traffic police and organisers. The demonstrators are protesting the ongoing violence in Parachinar as well as an incident where two people were killed and later decapitated after being waylaid on their way towards Parachinar in the Bagan area of Kurram. Today, the continued blockade of main arteries like Sharea Faisal, University Road, and Sharea Pakistan, among others, triggered traffic jams, causing inconveniences to the commuters who used alternative roads, mostly plying vehicles on one track. MWM spokesperson Syed Ali Ahmer Zaidi told Dawn.com that his party has “ended the sit-in on one track of the main Sharea Faisal near Star gate for the...

PESHAWAR: A former judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and Peshawar High Court retired Justice Ijazul Hassan passed away after brief illness in Islamabad on Saturday. His funeral prayers will be held today (Sunday) at 11am at H-11 Graveyard, Islamabad. The deceased was father of chartered accountant Jawad Hassan and director ministry of commerce Fawad Hassan, and father-in-law of Barrister Adnan Saboor Rohaila. The deceased had served as a judge of the PHC from 2000 till 2007, and that of the Supreme Court form 2007 till 2009. Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2024 from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/fnPFu0L

BEIJING: Iran’s foreign minister warned on Friday against “destructive interference” in Syria’s future and said decisions should lie solely with the country’s people, writing in Chinese state media as he visited Beijing. Abbas Araghchi touch­ed down in the Chinese capital on Friday afternoon, Iranian state media reported, to begin his first official visit to the country since being appointed foreign minister. China and Iran were both supporters of ousted Syrian president Bashar Al Assad. Iran “considers the decision-making about the future of Syria to be the sole responsibility of the people … without destructive interference or foreign imposition”, Araghchi wrote in a Chinese-language article in People’s Daily on Friday. He also emphasised Iran’s respect for Syria’s “unity, national sovereignty and territorial integrity”. Iran’s supreme leader — a key backer of Assad’s administration — predicted on Sunday “the emergence of a strong, honourable group” that would stand against “ins...

Osamu Suzuki, an ingenious pennypincher who led Japan’s Suzuki Motor for more than four decades and played a key role in turning India into a flourishing auto market, has died aged 94. He died on Christmas Day of lymphoma, said the company, which he steered ambitiously, during his time as either chief executive or chairman, out of its primary market of mini vehicles. The inexpensive, boxy, 660cc cars specific to Japan benefited from generous tax breaks, but demanded a stringent reining-in of costs that proved to be a key part of the automaker’s DNA. Even so, Suzuki’s thriftiness was legendary: he would order factory ceilings lowered to save on air-conditioning and fly economy class on airplanes even at an advanced age. “Forever,” or “until the day I die,” were signature humorous responses with which he parried queries about how long he would stay at the company, on which he retained a tight grip into his 70s and 80s. Born Osamu Matsuda, Suzuki took his wife’s family name through a...

At least 69 people died, including 25 Malian nationals, after a boat headed from West Africa to Spain capsized off Morocco on December 19, Malian authorities said. The makeshift boat was carrying around 80 people when it capsized. Only 11 survived, the ministry of Malians abroad said in a statement on Thursday, after collecting information to reconstruct the incident. A crisis unit has been set up to monitor the situation and will report any further updates, it added. The Atlantic migration route from the coast of West Africa to the Canary Islands, typically used by African migrants trying to reach Spain, has seen a surge this year. Years of conflict in the Sahel region that includes Mali, unemployment and the impact of climate change on farming communities are among the reasons why people attempt the crossing. The route, which traces the Atlantic coasts of Mauritania and Morocco up to Spain, is one of the world’s deadliest. An unprecedented nearly 5,000 migrants died at...

The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday confirmed that Pakistan had carried out an intelligence-based operation in Afghanistan based on “threats to Pakistani citizens’ security”. Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been strained due to frequent border skirmishes and Islamabad repeatedly demanding Kabul to take action against the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for using Afghan soil to launch attacks in Pakistan. Kabul denies the allegations. The FO spokesperson’s statement — the first formal word by the government on the matter — comes after Pakistan carried out air strikes in the neighbouring country on Tuesday, which security officials said targeted several suspec­ted terrorists. Pakistan’s security officials on late Tuesday night had said that fighter jets bombed four locations, said to be TTP camps, in Afghanistan’s eastern Pak­tika province, targeting and neutralising several suspected terrorists. Subsequently, the Afghan Taliban regime lodged a strong prote...

ISLAMABAD: In a major decision, the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has introduced a new cash award policy for talented medal-winning athletes, fixing lucrative prize money from Olympic Games to national events. The official notification in this regard issued on Tuesday stated that PSB’s 31st Board meeting held on Dec 4, approved a new cash award policy, under which Rs10 million will be given to an athlete for winning an Olympic gold medal, Rs7.5 million for silver and Rs5 million for bronze. Similarly, Rs7.5 million will be given to a player for a gold medal-winning feat at the Asian Games, Rs5 million for silver and Rs3 million for seizing a bronze at the continental extravaganza. Moreover, Rs5 million will be given as prize money for winning gold medal in the Commonwealth Games and the Islamic Solidarity Games, Rs3 million and Rs2 million for clinching silver and bronze medals, respectively, in these games. For the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games Rs2 million will be handed to an...

Senior PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah announced late Tuesday that the government was willing to accommodate PTI’s demand for a time frame in ongoing talks, following PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan’s conveyance of former premier Imran Khan’s demand for a defined timeline. Since Imran’s incarceration last year in several cases, PTI’s relations with the government and the establishment have deteriorated sharply, marked by protests that frequently escalated into violence amid state repression . Tensions further intensified after PTI’s ‘Final Call’ rally last month, with renewed calls to ban the party and task forces formed against alleged “malicious campaigns.” PTI claimed a dozen deaths of its supporters during this period, a claim the government denies. Following the turmoil, Imran established a five-member committee to hold talks with “anyone,” signalling a shift in PTI lawmakers’ stance in parliament. In response, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, on the recommendation of NA...

GUJRAT: The special judge, Central-I, Gujranwala, on Tuesday sentenced two human traffickers to 33-year imprisonment each, besides imposing a fine of Rs1.8 million on each of them. The court issued the verdict in case No 505/23, registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Dec 5, 2023, under sections 17(1)& 22(b) EO 1979 & 3,6 PSMA 2018. According to the prosecution, Muhammad Sarwar and Muhmmad Rauf received Rs700,000 from the complainant on the pretext of sending his brother to Italy. But, when the emigrant reached Libya, the convicts took him hostage, tortured him and extorted Rs2.55 million more from his family in Pakistan. Despite extortion of extra amount, the traffickers neither sent the emigrant to Italy from Libya, nor back to Pakistan and he had been missing since then. The case was prosecuted by FIA Assistant Director (Legal) Asfahan Akram Kang and Inspector Shafique was the investigation officer. In yet another case (No 139/21), the court handed down...

An Embraer passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday with 67 passengers and five crew on board, Kazakh authorities announced, saying 25 people had survived. Unverified video of the crash showed the plane, which was operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, bursting into flames as it hit the ground and thick black smoke then rising. The Central Asian country’s emergencies ministry said in a statement that fire services had put out the blaze and that survivors were being treated at a nearby hospital. Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 aircraft, with flight number J2-8243, had been flying from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechnya, but had been forced to make an emergency landing approximately 3 kilometres from the Kazakh city of Aktau. Russian news agencies said the plane had been rerouted due to fog in Grozny. Authorities in Kazakhstan said they had begun looking into different possible versions of what h...

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Christian areas of Damascus on early Tuesday to protest the burning of a Christmas tree near Hama in central Syria, AFP journalists witnessed. “We demand the rights of Christians,” protesters chanted as they marched through the Syrian capital towards the headquarters of the Orthodox Patriarchate in the Bab Sharqi neighbourhood. The protests come a little more than two weeks after an armed coalition led by Islamists toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad, who had cast himself as a protector of minorities in the Sunni-majority country. A demonstrator who gave his name as Georges told AFP he was protesting “injustice against Christians”. “If we’re not allowed to live our Christian faith in our country, as we used to, then we don’t belong here anymore,” he said. The protests erupted after a video spread on social media showing hooded fighters setting fire to a Christmas tree in the Christian-majority town of Suqaylabiyah, nea...

KARACHI: Eight officials of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) were arrested on Monday after their interim bail applications were dismissed from the anti-terrorism court (ATC) in a kidnapping for ransom case . The accused — Younus Baloch, Rizwan, Ali Hassan, Shakeel, Abdul Jabar, Khalid, Zeeshan and Asif — had appeared before the ATC-1 in Clifton for the confirmation of their interim bail. But the court recalled its earlier interim order and dismissed their pre-arrest bail and directed police to take them into custody. According to the prosecution, the CTD men, including an inspector, Shoaib Qureshi, were booked under sections 365-A (kidnapping for extorting property, valuable security, etc), 384 (punishment for extortion), 385 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with relevant section of the Anti-Terrorism Act, at the Bilal Colony police station on the complaint of Saad Shafiq. According to th...

VANCOUVER — Of all the Canucky things that have happened to the Vancouver Canucks this season, one of the Canuckiest is that Elias Pettersson was injured Monday after ending a six-game offensive famine by scoring twice in a 4-3 win over the San Jose Sharks. Typical. Pettersson’s pair of goals equalled his output from the previous 16 games and came after a week in which the noise around the National Hockey League team became deafening enough to burst through the soundproofing of the Canuck dressing room. After scoring goals 44 seconds apart late in the second period when the Canucks took command, Pettersson was unable to finish the game. Superstar captain Quinn Hughes , who sustained a knock in Saturday’s overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators and was a questionable starter, managed not only to play but contributed another two assists in 25:11 of ice time. Of course he did. But after all the drama and challenges — real and imagined — surrounding the Canucks through 34 games, all the...

New York City police arrested a man suspected of setting fire to a woman on the subway in Brooklyn who died from the incident, authorities said, calling it “one of the most depraved crimes” a person could commit. The man “calmly walked up to the victim” on the F train in Brooklyn and set her ablaze on Sunday morning, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told a press conference. “The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds,” she said, adding that police rushed to the scene and the fire was put out with an extinguisher. “Unfortunately it was too late and the victim was pronounced dead on the scene.” Reviewing footage from body cameras, the police got a clear image of the suspect as he “had stayed on the scene, and was seated on a bench on the platform just outside the train car,” Tisch said. After disseminating his image to the public, the police received a tip-off from three high sch...

The Afghan foreign ministry on Monday welcomed Saudi Arabia’s decision to resume its diplomatic operations in Kabul, more than three years after Riyadh withdrew its staff during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. “We are optimistic about the possibility of strengthening relations and cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan through the resumption of these activities,” said Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Zia Ahmad in a statement. “We will also be able to respond to the problems of Afghans residing in Saudi Arabia.” Riyadh had posted its decision to resume diplomatic operations in Kabul on social media platform X. “Based on the desire of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide all services to the brotherly Afghan people, it has been decided to resume the activities of the mission of the Kingdom in Kabul starting on December 22,” it said. The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the level of S...

The first meeting between committees representing the government and the opposition PTI has begun today (Monday), kicking off long-anticipated talks between the rival parties to defuse prevailing political tensions. Earlier this month, former premier and PTI founder Imran Khan announced his party’s committee for talks with “anyone”. Subsequently, following the recommendation of NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif yesterday formed a committee comprising ruling coalition members. Today’s meeting is being chaired by the NA speaker. Of the nine members of the government committee, seven attending the talks include all three PML-N leaders — Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, PM’s political aide Rana Sanaullah, and Senator Irfan Siddiqui. Others present are PPP’s Raja Parvez Ashraf and Naveed Qamar, MQM-P leader Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, and Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) leader and Privatisation Minister Aleem Khan. PML-Q leader and Religious Af...