ISLAMABAD: Pakistan rejected what it said was the “political use of export controls” after the United States imposed sanctions on four entities for their alleged involvement in supplying “missile-applicable items” to Pakistan’s ballistic missile programme, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Saturday. The US State Department claimed on Friday evening that the entities — three Chinese and one from Belarus — were …

ISLAMABAD: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday said opposition members were afraid of his sister Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari and father President Asif Ali Zardari. Talking to reporters in the parliament house, he said the opposition resorted to shouting when Aseefa was taking the oath as MNA and Mr Zardari was addressing the joint sitting of the parliament on Thursday. “This shows …

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court administration has sought suggestions from the judges of IHC and subordinate judiciary by April 25 to counter the alleged meddling of intelligence agencies in judicial affairs. Sources in the judicial bureaucracy told Dawn that in compliance with the Supreme Court order passed in the suo motu proceedings initiated on a letter of six IHC judges, the administration …

LAHORE: The Supreme Court has been requested to regulate the discretionary powers of all provincial high courts’ chief justices to curb the alleged misuse of authority in the judiciary. “The outgoing chief justices often misuse their discretionary powers like royalty,” says a petition filed by a lawyer in the wake of alleged dozens of decisions made by Justice Muhammad Ameer …

NAROWAL: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz visited Kartarpur on Thursday via helicopter and she was not travelling with a motorcade at the time of an accident, which claimed the life of a youth in Narowal, the provincial government said on Friday. In a statement, a spokesperson said the CM had taken notice of the youth’s death and ordered immediate action, issuing directions …

ISLAMABAD: Sindh and Punjab police will launch yet another joint operation against notorious dacoits of Kacha area in Sindh. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Na­­ti­o­nal Action Plan Imple­m­e­ntation Review Com­mit­tee held at the National Counter Terror­ism Auth­ority (Nacta) headquarters on Friday. Presided over by Fed­eral Minister for Interior Mohsin Raza Naqvi, the meeting was attended, among …

QUETTA: A long-awaited 14- member three-party Balochis­tan cabinet was sworn in at a ceremony held at the Governor’s House on Friday. Balochistan Governor Malik Abdul Wali Kakar administered the oath to the new ministers, including include a female minister, Raheela Hameed Khan Durrani, who had also served as the Balochistan Assembly speaker. The ministers who took oath of their offices …

PESHAWAR: The Pesh­awar High Court (PHC) has directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and cabinet to convene the assembly session within a fortnight to ensure that those elected on reserved seats for women and non-Muslims take oath. A PHC bench comprising Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah and Justice Shakeel Ahmad, in its 24-page detailed judgement on three identical petitions filed …

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Malik Shehzad Ahmed Khan on Friday summoned a full court meeting for April 22 to discuss how best to protect judicial independence and establish a mechanism to attach liability to those undermining such freedom. The development comes in the wake of allegations made by six Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges against interference in judicial …

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly (NA) Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Friday suspended the memberships of two lawmakers from the PTI-Sunni Ittehad Council alliance, Jamshed Ahmad Khan Dasti and Muhammad Iqbal Khan, for the current NA session due to their use of “abusive language” during the president’s parliamentary address. Presi­dent Asif Ali Zardari had attempted to make a case for political reconciliation …