WASHINGTON: In a significant display of bipartisan support, the US House of Representatives has passed a resolution expressing robust support for democracy in Pakistan by an overwhelming 368-7 vote. Lawmakers supporting resolution HR 901, titled ‘Expressing support for democracy and human rights in Pakistan’, claimed that the approval highlighted the United States’ commitment to promoting democratic values globally. The resolution — …

SYDNEY: Julian Assange was on his way home to Australia as a free man on Wednesday after a plea deal ended years of legal drama for the WikiLeaks founder, who had long been wanted for revealing US state secrets. Assange, who from 2010 published hundreds of thousands of confidential US documents on the whistleblowing website, was released this week from a high-security British prison. The 52-year-old …

ISLAMABAD: As a Sup­reme Court judgement — that resulted in the PTI losing its election symbol over a failure to conduct intra-party polls — continued to come under fire during a full court hearing on the matter of reserved seats, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa took exception to what he termed “snide remarks” against the verdict, saying that whatever happened was PTI’s own …

LAHORE: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Tuesday explicitly laid down the government’s expectations from the judiciary with regards to ‘Vision Azm-i-Istehkam’ — which has been dubbed a “reinvigorated and re-energised national counter-terrorism campaign” by the government — saying that the courts should not provide any relief to those arrested as part of this action. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, …

ISLAMABAD: Taking part in the budget debate in the National Assembly, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Tuesday called for efforts to create a political consensus to abolish the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), as lawmakers from the opposition parties, while decrying their alleged political victimisation, questioned huge budgetary allocations for various institutions, including the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the …

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed on Tuesday that the federal budget for next year was prepared in collaboration with the Inter­national Monetary Fund (IMF). His remarks came as Finance Minister Muha­mmad Aurangzeb ann­ounced significant ame­ndments to the proposed finance bill for 2024-25. “We had to prepare the budget jointly with the IMF” because of the prevailing circumstances and ground realities, the prime minister …

ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday advocated for the normalisation of relations with India, expressing Pakistan’s openness to dialogue, while also outlining conditions aimed at easing tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, who have long been embroiled in disputes. Speaking at the 51st founding anniversary of the government-run think tank Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI), Mr Dar, …

Various roadside concerts have been held in Guiyang, the capital city of southwest China’s Guizhou Province, attracting a lot of tourists and local residents to the performances and to sing together on the bustling streets. The roadside concerts, without tickets or fences, have received great affection since they were first held in 2023. A total of 102 roadside concerts were …

Researchers carried out a “physical examination” of various types of traditional Chinese medicinal herbs at the analytical test center of the research institute under Sichuan Neo-Green Pharmaceutical Technology Development Co., Ltd. located in Pengzhou city, southwest China’s Sichuan Province. “The test center provides pretreatment preparation for various experiments on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), covering areas such as heavy metal detection, …

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said in the National Assembly (NA) on Tuesday that next year’s fiscal budget will aim to reduce fiscal deficit by focusing on measures that enhance the government’s revenues and reduce unnecessary expenditures. Aurangzeb presented the budget on June 12 in the National Assembly, after which the lower house of parliament mulled over the financial plan …