Pakistan News

In Quetta’s Kali Ismail area, near the Balochistan Board office on Samungli Road, 12-year-old Salman, a seminary student, rummaged through a garbage dumping site to pick up a baseball. He needed it for his next fastball to Akram, who stood poised to bat — right in the middle of the trash. “We’re used to playing here,” Salman shrugged. “We wash our hands with regular water.” Like many children in the area, he had no idea how hazardous the dumping ground could be to his health. “It’s been five months, and there’s been no action from the authorities,“ lamented Jameel Langove, who runs a flour mill nearby. “The dumping ground has become a haven for drug addicts and immoral activities. It’s affecting our neighbourhood and our children.” He recounted how a recent storm had blown heaps of garbage into nearby homes. Living so close to the site, residents, particularly the elderly, now struggle with asthma and other breathing problems caused by dust and waste polluting the air. Quetta, once f...

Floodwaters gushing through mountain villages, cities rendered swamps, mourners gathered at fresh graves — as Pakistan’s monsoon season once again delivers scenes of calamity, it also lays bare woeful preparedness. Without better regulation of construction and sewer maintenance, the annual downpours that have left hundreds dead in recent months will continue to kill, experts say. Even Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appeared to agree as he toured flood-stricken Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province last week, where landslides killed more than 450 people. “Natural disasters are acts of God, but we cannot ignore the human blunders,” he said. “If we keep letting influence-peddling and corruption control building permits, neither the people nor the governments will be forgiven.” Pakistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, with limited resources for adaptation. In the devastated mountain villages the prime minister visited, and beyond, residential areas are erected near r...

LAHORE: The Punjab government and opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) have been wrangling over “exorbitant spendings, chartered jet and private persons in the delegation” of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s Japan’s five-day tour. Ms Nawaz concluded her Japan visit on Monday and reached Thailand. Questions are also being raised on social media regarding CM Maryam’s ‘official visit’ to Japan, in which ‘private individuals’, including her family members, as also a part. It is being argued that even if such participants claim to bear their own expenses, the practice undermines the sanctity of official delegations and blurs the line between state affairs and personal interests. Questions are also being raised on social media platforms over the inclusion of private persons as part of her visit, causing a huge sum of money to the exchequer. Entourage comes under scrutiny; PTI’s Waqas claims bank borrowing spent on excursion; Azma says PTI will consume in its own frustration Punjab ...

• KCF convener stresses need for strong political will to fix most basic problems • City can’t handle even 10mm of rains with choked drains, says urban planner KARACHI: Expressing serious concerns over the way the metropolis has been governed for the past several decades, civil society representatives said on Monday that the death, devastation and public chaos Karachi experiences with every monsoon have more to do with bad governance — corruption, inefficiency and absence of political will — rather than climate change. The civil society held a press conference under the platform of the Karachi Citizens’ Forum (KCF) at the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) House, where one of the speakers emphasised the need for what he called a supra provincial body to run Karachi. Describing the situation as “depressing”, the speakers said that cost-efficient solutions to urban flooding were available and that there was no dearth of skilled and talented manpower in the city to implement them to h...

India fears a planned Chinese mega-dam in Tibet will reduce water flows on a major river by up to 85 per cent during the dry season, according to four sources familiar with the matter and a government analysis seen by Reuters , prompting Delhi to fast-track plans for its own dam to mitigate the effects. The Indian government has been considering projects since the early 2000s to control the flow of water from Tibet’s Angsi Glacier, which sustains more than 100 million people downstream in China, India and Bangladesh. But the plans have been hindered by fierce and occasionally violent resistance from residents of the border state of Arunachal Pradesh, who fear their villages will be submerged and way of life destroyed by any dam. Then in December, China announced that it would build the world’s largest hydropower dam in a border county just before the Yarlung Zangbo river crosses into India. That triggered fears in New Delhi that its longtime strategic rival — which has some territ...

As Pakistan navigates its challenges and emerges from diplomatic isolation, the Shehbaz Sharif government now seeks to convert economic stabilisation into inclusive growth to rebuild its political base. Achieving this requires substantial investment in job-creating sectors like agriculture and industry, hence the plan to launch Phase II of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) later this month in Beijing. Official sources also said the prime minister will travel to Beijing at the end of this month to attend the Shanghai Coope­ration Organisation (SCO) summit. Furthermore, he is expected to attend the Pak-China B2B Investment Conference. According to media reports, preparations for the visit were discussed during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s trip to Pakistan last week for the 6th Strategic Dialogue, where both sides reaffirmed their commitment to the high-quality development of the upgraded China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Without a clear roadmap, strong inter-departm...

Veteran batsman Cheteshwar Pujara dropped curtains on his illustrious India career on Sunday after playing 103 Tests but failing to win back his place in the last two years. The 37-year-old, who made his Test debut in 2010, last played for India in the 2023 World Test Championship final but has been active in domestic cricket as well as county cricket in England. “Wearing the Indian jersey, singing the anthem, and trying my best each time I stepped on the field — it’s impossible to put into words what it truly meant,” Pujara wrote on his social media pages. “But as they say, all good things must come to an end, and with immense gratitude I have decided to retire from all forms of Indian cricket. “Thank you for all the love and support!” He joins former India captains Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and spinner Ravichandran Ashwin from the same generation to quit Test cricket within the past year. Pujara scored 7,195 runs, including 19 hundreds, from 103 Tests, averaging 43.6...

RAWALPINDI: For the first time since 2011, the number of dengue patients in Murree has surpassed Rawalpindi, as confirmed cases in the hilly district rose to 62. Meanwhile, 59 dengue patients have been reported in Rawalpindi district so far this year. This year, dengue cases in Murree have been reported from Ghel and Paghwari union councils and the numbers are still rising. In the Rawalpindi division, 62 cases have been confirmed in Murree, 59 in Rawalpindi, one in Jhelum, four in Chakwal and five in Attock. Majority of the cases in Murree have been reported from Ghel and Paghwari union councils A senior official of the district administration told Dawn that dengue surveillance in Murree had not been conducted earlier due to a shortage of staff. Surveillance began only after the virus started spreading. He said the Rawalpindi District Health Authority was managing health affairs in Murree despite it being declared a separate district. He added that once dengue cases were de...

India is working with a French company to develop and manufacture fighter jet engines in the country, New Delhi’s defence minister said. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in May approved the prototype of a fifth generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), calling it a “significant push towards enhancing India’s indigenous defence capabilities”. Singh, in a speech at a conference in New Delhi on Friday, gave more details about developing fighter jet aircraft engines in the country. “We are moving forward to manufacture aircraft engines in India itself,” Singh said, in comments broadcast by Indian media. “We are collaborating with a French company to start engine production in India.” Singh did not name the company, but Indian media widely reported the company to be Safran, which has been working in India for decades in the aviation and defence sectors. There was no immediate confirmation. India, one of the world’s largest arms importers, has made the modernisation of its forc...

It was almost deja vu. We’d walked through this foul water before. Felt our way through barely recognisable streets from memory. When you live in a city like Karachi, it almost begins to feel normal. And yet, nothing can get you used to the fact that you — the privileged you, who has made a living out of writing on the city’s myriad governance issues — will be among the thousands stranded in water-clogged streets as you experience it in real time. Time and again. In 2020, when Karachi witnessed one of its worst floods in decades — it can’t definitively be the worst because we like beating our own records — my dad and I walked back home, to Garden West, from I.I. Chundrigar Road in waist-high floodwaters. At 55, my father was surprisingly surefooted with the stride of a mountain goat. He dragged me through the deluge, all the while making sure to keep an eye open for potholes, ragged stones and bare electric wires. He even cracked a joke here and there to ensure that the neurotransmi...

Two more people were confirmed to have died on Friday in a fire that broke out in a warehouse in Karachi the previous day, bringing the total death toll to four, according to rescue officials. A massive explosion took place inside a warehouse in a densely populated area near Karachi’s Taj Medical Complex on MA Jinnah Road yesterday afternoon, in which 33 people were injured and two were confirmed to have lost their lives. Rescue 1122 said today that the number of deaths from the incident had risen to four. Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed said that one of the victims had died from suffocation, while two others had also suffered “multiple crush injuries”. She added that the fourth victim’s autopsy had not yet been done. Rescue 1122 spokesperson Hassaanul Haseeb Khan told Dawn.com that the facility was situated in the basement of a three-storey commercial and residential building in Saddar. “Raw material used for the preparation of firecrackers was stored [in this facility],” Khan ...

LAHORE: The Lahore police arrested on Thursday another nephew of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Imran Khan in a ‘May 9 case.’ A senior officer of investigation police said Shahrez Khan, son of Aleema Khan, was wanted in the 2023 violence which erupted following the arrest of Imran Khan. Rejecting police claim, PTI Secretary-General Salman Akram Raja said Shahrez had nothing to do with politics. Shahrez’ father Suhail Khan said his son was doing business and now he was preparing to go abroad to participate in a world triathlon championship. Earlier, Salman Raja said plainclothes men attacked the residence of Aleema Khan and abducted her son Shahrez. “Aleema Bibi’s home in Lahore has been attacked by men in plainclothes and her son Shahrez abducted,” tweeted Mr Raja. He also alleged that the intruders harassed Aleema Khan’s family members and even thrashed staff. PTI lawyer Rana Mudassar told Dawn.com that Shahrez was “kidnapped” from his home in Lahore. “People dressed in ...

“During my shift, there is nowhere to breastfeed and no extra time during breaks,“ said a lactating mother employed in the retail sector. “By the time I get home, my baby is crying with hunger. I have no choice but to leave her with a milk bottle, which breaks my heart.” Her words echo in factories, offices, and classrooms across Pakistan, where mothers are often forced to choose between their newborn’s nutrition — crucial in the early months — and maintaining a livelihood. The reality is stark: only 48 per cent of infants under six months in the country are exclusively breastfed , far below the global target of at least 70pc. According to Unicef, this shortfall is directly linked to high rates of stunting (low height for their age, resulting from chronic poor nutrition, repeated infections, and inadequate care, particularly during the first 1,000 days of life), 37pc, and wasting (a severe form of malnutrition where a child is dangerously thin for their height, indicating recent and ...

Meta Platforms has paused hiring in its artificial intelligence division after bringing on more than 50 researchers and engineers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The move comes amid growing global concerns that investment in AI is moving too fast . In July, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg had pledged hundreds of billions for AI data centres in a “superintelligence push”. The social media giant is among the large tech companies that have struck high-profile deals and doled out multi-million-dollar pay packages in recent months to fast-track work on machines that could outthink humans on many tasks. “The hiring freeze, which went into effect last week and coincides with a broader restructuring of the group, also prohibits current employees from moving across teams inside the division,” according to the WSJ report. “The duration of the freeze wasn’t communicated internally.” “All that’s happening here is some basic organisational planning: creating a solid structure for ou...

HYDERABAD: A provisional report of the second post-mortem of deceased DawnNews reporter Khawar Hussain Bajwa has described head injury by a ‘contact shot’ of a firearm as cause of his death on Aug 16 in Sanghar. The report was signed by all three experts, Dr Waseem Khan, police surgeon of Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) as chairman; Prof Dr Waheed Ali Nahiyoon of Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences (LUMHS) and Dr Mohammad Adeel Rajput, additional police surgeon LUH, as members of the committee probing the death. “Firearm head injury causing displaced chip fractures of right and left parieto temporal and occipital bones with damage to brain matter is sufficient to cause death in ordinary course of nature. The distance of fire: contact shot,” an opinion part of the report said. Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2025 from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/61fbg2d