Pakistan News

The Pakistan Cricket Board’s national selection committee has named an 18-member squad for the two-Test match series against South Africa, part of the ICC World Test Championship 2025-27, commencing on October 12, an official statement confirmed on Tuesday. Shan Masood will continue to lead the side, while three uncapped players — Asif Afridi, Faisal Akram and Rohail Nazir — have also been included. The squad will be further trimmed before the start of the first Test match. South Africa, who were the champions of the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25, will take on Pakistan in the first Test at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore from 12 to 16 October, while the second Test will be staged at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi from 20 to 24 October. The two-Test match series will be followed by three T20 Internationals (T20Is) and as many One Day Internationals (ODIs) to be played from October 28 to November 8. The squad for the white-ball series will be announced in due cours...

Pakistan’s improved macroeconomic conditions have contributed to an uptick in growth in fiscal year 2025, underpinned by increased investment driven by continued policy reforms and economic stability, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report today. According to the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) September 2025 , the ADB’s annual flagship economic publication, Pakistan’s growth is projected to continue in the medium-term, with real gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast at three per cent in fiscal year 2026 as macroeconomic stability deepens through sustained reforms addressing structural vulnerabilities. It said that economic reform had progressed considerably under the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Extended Fund Facility (EFF) that began in October 2024. “Policy consistency and climate resilience remain vital to maintaining the growth momentum. Downside risks to the outlook remain high,” the ADB report said. Meanwhile, ADB Country Director for Pakistan Emma ...

The United States is deporting around 100 Iranians back to Iran, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing two senior Iranian officials involved in the negotiations and a US official with knowledge of the plans. A US-chartered flight took off from Louisiana on Monday and was scheduled to arrive in Iran by way of Qatar sometime on Tuesday, according to the report. The deportation, an uncommon instance of cooperation between the two countries, came after months of talks, the newspaper said. The White House and the US State Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. US President Donald Trump plans to deport a record number of people living in the US without legal status, arguing that it is necessary after what he describes as high illegal border crossings under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. However, his administration has struggled to increase deportation levels, even as it has created new avenues to send migrants to countries other than t...

A steep hike in US visa fees for immigrant workers may affect remittance inflows from America, but with its share at roughly 10 per cent of Pakistan’s total remittances, the overall impact is likely to be limited. The strain will fall harder on families and firms dependent on US earnings, while higher costs may also push Pakistani youth seeking study and work opportunities abroad to explore alternative destinations. President Donald Trump’s executive order last week imposed a steep $100,000 fee on new H-1B skilled worker visas, up from the earlier range of $1,500 to $5,000, depending on company size. The move has alarmed Pakistani professionals and businesses that rely heavily on US opportunities. The steep visa fee hike is intended to curb system abuse and safeguard American workers. It is expected to discourage US companies from hiring foreign talent at the current levels, adding fuel to wider debate on remittances and labour market. Confusion initially surrounded the scope of...

The government’s Rs1.225 trillion syndicated financing deal with 18 banks — the largest in Pakistan’s history — is being trumpeted as a landmark move to ease the power sector’s crippling circular debt. Tied to an existing surcharge on electricity bills, the cashflow-backed plan is touted as a step towards fiscal stability and energy sector reform. Yet critics and supporters warn that, without deeper structural changes, it could end up as just another costly rerun of past bailouts. Under the deal, the government will use Rs565 billion in fresh financing to settle its unpaid dues to power producers while restructuring older loans worth Rs660bn, previously contracted at Kibor plus 2.5–4 per cent and parked with Power Holding Limited, a shell subsidiary of the power ministry. The six-year repayment will be made through the existing Rs3.23 per unit debt servicing surcharge on electricity bills. The government has already amended the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority Act through...

In a game that had turned into a virtual semi-final, a transformation was nearing its completion. It had taken time but the necessary trust had been gained — a tottering Pakistan were pinning hopes on Shaheen Shah Afridi to dig them out of a hole and, for a change, with the bat. Bangladesh had reduced Salman Ali Agha’s men to 58-5 in their 2025 Asia Cup Super Four clash and Pakistan were searching for some inspiration when the transformed Shaheen hoicked Tanzim Hasan Saqib to the top tier of the Dubai International Cricket Stadium for the first six of the match. Taskin Ahmed, Bangladesh’s most successful bowler of the night, was then clubbed for another in the next over to pave way for Pakistan to post a respectable 135-8; the defence of which he would later spearhead with the ball. There is a viral video from the 2024 T20 World Cup in which Shaheen jokingly complains to the ICC crew for putting ‘bowler’ next to his name instead of ‘all-rounder’. Only days later, his unbeaten 16-bal...

“I have the means to make myself deadly, but that by itself… is absolutely nothing in the way of protection. What is effective is the belief… people have in my will to use the means. That’s their impression. It is absolute. Therefore, I am deadly.” — The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad PRELUDE The four-day “non-contact” war between India and Pakistan — May 7-10 — has already produced sizeable literature within and outside the region. Predictably, writings in India and Pakistan have sought to select their own facts to suit the notion of victory, while extra-regional commentary has oscillated between initial scepticism about Pakistan’s performance and begrudging acceptance of it after facts could no longer be ignored. That said, the Indians think that India won the war, while Pakistanis think they did. How can two sides win a war? Simple: when (a) they walk away from a conflict drawing different lessons; (b) neither can deliver a knockout punch; (c) when messaging to domestic constituen...

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday directed the Ministry of Defence to ensure that a senior Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officer — either the Deputy Director General or the relevant Sector Commander — appears for an in-camera briefing in the case of missing citizen Omar Abdullah. The direction came after the federal government transferred Rs5 million into the account of Abdullah’s family. During the hearing, Additional Attorney General and officials of the defence ministry presented the receipt of the online transfer before the court. Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, while addressing the victim’s father, remarked that the family would receive the money by tomorrow, but added that compensation could not heal the trauma caused by enforced disappearances. “This money cannot cure the family’s suffering,” the judge observed. He further warned that the matter could lead to criminal proceedings at any stage, criticising parliament for its silence on the issue. “This is ...

A major fire at South Korea’s national data centre has crippled some government online services and internal networks, prompting a race on Saturday to bring the systems back online and a probe of what sparked a lithium-ion battery to start the blaze. The fire is suspected to have started with an explosion on Friday night of the battery produced by South Korea’s LG Energy Solution during maintenance, damaging some servers and forcing the shutdown of hundreds of others, officials said. The fire led to a “thermal runaway”, producing extreme heat in the server room at the National Information Resources Services in the city of Daejeon, preventing firefighters from taking aggressive actions to contain the blaze, fire and government officials said in press briefings. The national data service acts as a cloud server for many government services and databases for the heavily wired Asian country. It operates data centres in other locations. The fire, which began around 8:20pm (4:20pm PKT), w...

NEW DELHI: South Asia’s annual monsoon rains sustain more than a billion people, but climate change is making them increasingly erratic and deadly, with poor infrastructure only exacerbating the impact. Farming, water supplies and hydropower across much of South Asia rely on the seasonal rains, but research shows climate change is causing longer dry spells punctuated by bursts of extreme rain. Derived from the Arabic word “mausim”, or season, the monsoon is a reversal of winds driven by differences in land and sea heating. These patterns are observed in several places on Earth. In South Asia, the southwest monsoon brings rains that start in southern India in late May and sweep north until September. By October, the northeast monsoon begins. As the land cools, winds blow seaward, picking up moisture from the Bay of Bengal before raining over southern India and Sri Lanka. “Climate change is beginning to reshape the behaviour of the Indian monsoon,” the Indian government said this y...

FOR all the talk about their apparent mediocrity after their twin thrashings against India in the Asia Cup, Pakistan have at least upheld the status of being the second best team in the continent. The status was sealed on Thursday, when Pakistan edged Bangladesh by 11 runs in a tense, low-scoring Super Four encounter. The win meant Pakistan have beaten all their opponents in the campaign apart from India, and that the archrivals will meet for the third time in three weeks in the Asia Cup final — the first between the two side’s in the tournament’s 17-edition history. To make it to the title clash, Pakistan needed to get past defending champions Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and the national side did that in the space of three days. Both Bangladesh and Pakistan had come into Thursday’s encounter on the back of their respective wins against Sri Lanka. The contest, therefore, was finely poised before Pakistan flexed their muscle, however, in bits and pieces in what was a show of poor ba...

India skipper Suryakumar Yadav is facing controversy after the International Cricket Council (ICC) acknowledged remarks he made following India’s Asia Cup group-stage victory over Pakistan on September 14, saying that it is reviewing a complaint lodged by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and may proceed with a formal hearing, Hindustan Times reported on Thursday. The move comes after the Pakistan Cricket Board lodged an official complaint with the ICC against Yadav for dedicating its September 14 win over Pakistan to “the families of the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack.” At least 24 people had been killed in the April attack , which led to a brief military escalation between India and Pakistan, as New Delhi blamed Islamabad for the attack without evidence. The ICC confirmed that it is reviewing a complaint filed by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), and a formal hearing may be initiated, as per Hindustan Times. More to follow. from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/GbMoKCy

ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday signed loan facilities worth approximately Rs1.225 trillion with 18 banks to settle the outstanding dues of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) parked in circular debt. These dues will be serviced through a Rs3.23 per unit surcharge on consumers for a period of six years. The signing ceremony was held at the PM Office, witnessed virtually by the prime minister from New York. No official announcement was made, although ministers confirmed the signing of the agreement. Under the agreement, the government will have 30 days to request disbursements from banks for prompt utilisation to avoid penalties. Any withdrawal request not fully used within the period will lapse. After the request is made, the government will have three months to draw down the approved funds. The servicing of the Rs1.225tr debt would be serviced through a Debt Service Surcharge (DSS) at the rate of Rs3.23 per unit. Of this, Rs659bn would be used for loans payable by Power Ho...

Close but not quite for Gabriel Diallo. The Canadian lost for the third time in as many matches against American Taylor Fritz this year on Thursday, falling 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3) in the opening round of the Japan Open. The second-seeded Fritz, ranked fifth in the world, beat Diallo in five sets at Wimbledon and then in straight sets at the National Bank Open in Toronto. In a battle of big servers, Fritz got a mini-break on the opening point of the tiebreak and never trailed the rest of the way. It was Diallo’s first match since he bowed out in the second round of the U.S. Open on Aug. 28. He is the world No. 35. Diallo had 40 winners, but just couldn’t find a way to get out of trouble in the tiebreak. Fritz, the Japan Open champ in 2022, had a quick turnaround after playing in the Laver Cup team event in San Francisco last weekend. Fritz will face Nuno Borges of Portugal in the second round. from Sportsnet.ca https://ift.tt/Lx1tkTS

A portion of a busy road in Thailand’s capital caved in early on Wednesday, leaving a hole dozens of metres deep in front of a main hospital and forcing people nearby to evacuate. Just outside a local police station and Vajira Hospital in a residential district of Bangkok, a roughly 50-metre (160-foot) hole pulled down power lines and exposed a burst pipe gushing water, AFP journalists saw. Dozens of police and city officials cordoned off the site, while a pickup truck teetered precariously on the edge of the hole. Suriyachai Rawiwan, director of Bangkok’s disaster prevention department, told AFP at the scene that the collapse was likely linked to recent heavy rain and a leaky pipe. “There was a leak in the water pipe — water from the pipe eroded (earth) under the road so this incident happened,” he said, adding that there were no known casualties. “The water that eroded brought some soil that dropped down to an under-construction subway station, causing the collapse,” Suriyacha...

Google on Wednesday announced the rollout of its ‘Google AI Plus plan’ in 40 more countries, including Pakistan. The plan was first launched in Indonesia earlier this month with “positive” reception. According to Google, the new plan opens up “more access to powerful AI tools to help people level up their productivity and creativity at an accessible price”. “Pakistan’s digital landscape is vibrant and growing, and we’ve been inspired by the creativity Pakistanis have shown in adopting AI tools,” said the Country Director of Google Pakistan, Farhan Qureshi, in a statement. “With the launch of Google AI Plus, we are making these tools even more accessible to more people across the country. This is a core part of our commitment to fuel Pakistan’s digital transformation, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to enhance their productivity, creativity, and learning with AI,” Qureshi was quoted as saying. The plan includes the following features: Higher limits for image generatio...

Typhoon Ragasa, the world’s most powerful tropical cyclone this year, barreled towards tens of millions of people in southern China on Wednesday after killing 14 people in Taiwan, leaving scores missing and lashing Hong Kong with ferocious winds and heavy rains. Some 129 people are missing in Taiwan’s eastern Hualien county, after a barrier lake overflowed and sent a wall of water into a town, the Taiwan fire department said on Wednesday, with Ragasa’s outer rim having drenched the island since Monday. Many residents in the tourist town of Guangfu complained there was insufficient warning from Taiwan authorities, who are used to moving people out of potential danger zones swiftly on the island, which is frequently hit by typhoons. As rains inundated Taiwan, Hong Kong grappled with huge waves that crashed over areas of the Asian financial hub’s eastern and southern shoreline, breaking into white-water streams as they rushed along pavements and submerged some roads alongside resi...