ASTANA: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has invited Tajikistan to “avail the facilities of Pakistani seaports” for transit trade, a joint statement issued by the two countries said on Wednesday, as the premier concluded his two-day official visit to the Central Asian country. The PM’s official visit commenced at the invitation of the Tajik president, Emomali Rahmon. During the visit, the …
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is looking to clinch a staff-level agreement (SLA) on an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout of more than $6 billion this month after addressing all of the lender’s requirements in its annual budget, state minister for finance told Reuters. The country has set challenging revenue targets in its annual budget to help it win approval from the IMF for a loan to stave …
ISLAMABAD: As the issue of reserved seats meant for the Sunni Ittehad Council continued to polarise the full court, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa on Tuesday equated the ‘doctrine of necessity’ with the ‘justice principle’, saying successive military takeovers had been legalised in the past using the same principle, as embodied in the maxim ‘Salus Populi Supreme Lex Esto’ (the welfare of …
UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has called for urgent intervention to stop the genocide in Gaza, as a UN agency warned on Tuesday that new Israeli military orders for evacuation from Khan Younis would affect an estimated 250,000 people. “There is no more apt situation calling for urgent intervention to stop the genocide than in Gaza where the international community has failed to …
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday dispelled the impression of any forward bloc in the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and asserted that a decision regarding the PTI deserters was yet to be taken. After the trial proceeding in £190 million corruption reference in which the court granted post-arrest bail to his wife, Bushra Bibi, Mr Khan said there was “no major differences” among …
DUSHANBE: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday landed in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe on a two-day official visit at the invitation of President Emomali Rahmon. “The visit is a part of regular high-level exchanges between Pakistan and Tajikistan,” a statement shared by the government on its official X account said. “The two sides will engage in wide-ranging discussions on areas of mutual interest …
ISLAMABAD: Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar on Tuesday rebuffed the recommendations of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regarding PTI founder Imran Khan’s release and said the former premier’s detention was an “internal matter”. In an opinion made public a day ago, the working group held that Imran’s prosecution and detention in the cipher and one of the two …
DOHA: Leaders of the Afghanistan interim government held a meeting with Pakistani officials in Doha on Monday in what was seen as an effort to ease tension following the announcement of a fresh operation against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which security officials insist operate from Afghan soil. Relations between the two neighbouring countries have lately become strained, largely because of the TTP …
KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — allies of PM Shehbaz Sharif-led coalition government and political opponents in Sindh — accused each other of “igniting the politics of hatred” on Monday, with the former blaming the PPP for hiring officials on ethnic grounds and the latter advising the MQM-P to refrain from fanning ‘urban-rural divide’ …
ISLAMABAD: Amid intense questioning, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa came to the rescue of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday by reminding that the commission was not a subordinate institution to the Supreme Court or the government but an independent authority conferred with a constitutional role to conduct elections. The Supreme Court can only exercise …