The Supreme Court has set its three-month summer vacation for 2026 under the new Supreme Court Rules 2025, even as a debate continues within the top court over the scope and regulation of judges’ leave. The annual vacation will run from June 15 to September 14, 2026, under Rule 4 of Order II of the new rules, which replaced the 1980 framework. A full court meeting on Monday, presided over by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi and attended by 19 of the 24 sitting judges, approved the rules. The judges agreed that the new rules, described as a…
Author: Raja Zahid Khanzada
The Lyari and Malir rivers are Karachi’s primary stormwater channels, directing rainwater through a network of drains into the Arabian Sea. Originally natural seasonal streams, they have been severely narrowed by urban expansion, illegal structures, and solid waste, which has turned many into open sewers. This obstruction limits their capacity to handle stormwater, leading to frequent urban flooding during heavy monsoon rains. The mayor announced on X (formerly Twitter), “So far, 318 people have been rescued [and] moved to safe [places] from around the [areas] close to the Lyari River (drain), and teams are still on the ground.” He added,…
The Walls Have Ears and the Echoing Whispers of Shadows By Raja Zahid Akhtar Khanzada Across every corner of the world, there are voices that cannot be heard, yet can be deeply felt. These are the voices that hide in the trill of a phone ring, linger between our messages, and travel invisibly through the Wi-Fi signals that connect our lives. They are the silent reminders that we are not truly free, that we are part of a vast, unseen system where every step, every word, and every breath is observed, recorded, and archived. On September 9, Pakistan’s leading English…
The Mirror of the Land of Dreams — Trump’s Promises and the Harsh Reality By Raja Zahid Akhtar Khanzada In the annals of history, even the dreams of the world’s most powerful nations are held accountable before the court of time. The United States, often hailed as the sole superpower, stands today at a crossroads where promises meet reality. Donald Trump, one of America’s most popular leaders, painted a vision of glory and prosperity for the people, but no leader, no matter how powerful, can escape the stark reflection of truth. Today, in Trump’s current term in office, that story…
OpenAI has released a new research paper exploring why large language models (LLMs), including GPT-5 and chatbots like ChatGPT, continue to produce hallucinations—false but plausible statements—and whether this issue can be reduced. Understanding Hallucinations According to TechCrunch, in a blog post summarizing its findings, OpenAI defines hallucinations as “plausible but false statements generated by language models.” It acknowledges that, despite recent improvements, they “remain a fundamental challenge for all large language models”—a challenge that is unlikely to be fully resolved. To illustrate the problem, the researchers tested a popular chatbot by asking for the title of Adam Tauman…
The Pakistani government is intensifying its preparations for the long-awaited 5G spectrum auction. The Spectrum Auction Advisory Committee, led by Finance Minister Aurangzeb, recently met with telecom operators and a delegation from the GSM Association (GSMA) in Islamabad to discuss the framework of the upcoming 5G auction. Industry Concerns and Economic Stakes Telecom operators submitted proposals that highlighted the high cost of spectrum and heavy taxation as major barriers to a successful 5G network rollout. They warned that if these pricing issues aren’t resolved, Pakistan risks a slower adoption of 5G technology, which would hinder its digital transformation goals. Julian…
OpenAI CEO and X enthusiast Sam Altman has commented that social media increasingly feels “fake” as the voices of bots and human users begin to sound indistinguishable from one another. The comment came on Monday after Altman shared posts from the r/Claudecode subreddit, which had been flooded with praise for OpenAI’s Codex—the company’s programming service launched in May as a competitor to Anthropic’s Claude Code. Altman noted that the subreddit was so saturated with user testimonies about switching to Codex that one Redditor even joked: “Is it possible to switch to Codex without posting a topic on Reddit?” Reflecting on…
Pakistan and China have agreed to enhance their collaboration in space sciences, focusing on astronaut training and the establishment of a Pakistan Space Center as part of a new five-year action plan. This agreement falls under the “Action Plan (2025–2029)” for a closer China-Pakistan partnership in the new era. The two nations will continue to implement the “2021–2030 Space Cooperation Outline Program,” which was signed between the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO). Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to joint work on lunar and deep space exploration, including multilevel assessments of the…
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) stated on Tuesday that its audits found no breaches in the licensed telecom sector, following media reports of alleged online availability of subscriber data. In a statement, a PTA spokesperson clarified that the authority does not hold or manage subscriber data, which remains solely with licensed operators. This clarification came amid public concern and media reports over the possible exposure of sensitive personal data of mobile subscribers nationwide. “PTA has taken notice of media reports on alleged availability of subscriber data online,” the spokesperson added. An initial review shows that the reported datasets, which include…
France’s parliament voted on Monday to bring down the government over its plans to tackle the ballooning national debt, deepening a political crisis and forcing President Emmanuel Macron to find his fifth prime minister in less than two years. François Bayrou, 74, who had been in office for only nine months, will now tender his resignation. This leaves Macron with a narrowing set of options, while financial markets signal growing concern over France’s political and fiscal crisis. Bayrou had unexpectedly called for a no-confidence vote to win parliamentary support for his strategy to lower the country’s deficit, which is nearly…
