ISLAMABAD: The UN’s World Food Programme will provide technical expertise in nutrition and logistics to the Benazir Nashonuma Programme (BNP). The WFP and the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) have signed a two-year agreement at WFP headquarters in Rome. The programme is the largest government-funded programme in the WFP’s history, showcasing an unparalleled commitment to prevent stunting in Pakistan, according to officials of BNP. BISP Secretary Amer Ali Ahmed and WFP Assistant Executive Director for Partnerships and Innovation Rania Dagash-Kamara signed the agreement in Rome on Wednesday. Implemented through over 550 facilitation centres across the country, the programme provides a critical combination…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
NEW DELHI: India’s renowned public intellectual Abdul Ghafoor Noorani died in Mumbai on Thursday after a long battle with complications from a fall. He was 94. The renowned lawyer, constitutional expert, and prolific author made indelible contributions to legal scholarship and political discourse in India for over six decades. Widely respected for his deep analysis of constitutional and human rights issues, Mr Noorani would be particularly missed by the people of Jammu and Kashmir for whom he spoke relentlessly in books and highly quoted articles. But his mercurial temperament found friends and admirers mostly tip-toeing around his easily ruffled moods. He famously…
ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Wednesday notified a 15.6 per cent increase in the minimum wages of its employees and barred payment of pensions in foreign exchange to post-1959 pensioners residing abroad. In a notification, the Ministry of Finance said the minimum wage and gross salaries of civil employees of the federal government and the civilians paid from defence estimates had been increased from Rs32,000 to Rs37,000 per month with effect from July 1, 2024. This increase would also be applicable to contingent paid staff and contract employees against civil posts in Basic Pay Scales on standard terms and conditions of…
Twelve members of a family were killed in their sleep early Friday morning when the roof of their mud house collapsed due to heavy rainfall in Maidan tehsil, Upper Dir, a rescue official said. Women and children were among the dead, rescue 1122 spokesperson Bilal Ahmad Faizi confirmed to Dawn.com. He added that the bodies had been pulled out and shifted to Maidan hospital after the search operation was completed under the supervision of the district emergency officer. District Police Officer (DPO) Waqar Ahmed also confirmed the incident. He identified the deceased as Noshad Khan, Khan Bacha, Wali Rehman, their respective…
LAHORE: The Punjab government has identified ‘top 40’ hardened criminals of the Katcha area and announced head money according to their crime profile. The profile and identity of the gangsters was prepared by the Punjab police on the basis of intelligence reports obtained from various law enforcement agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Special Branch of the Punjab police and other sources. The Punjab police has already launched a major operation in Rahim Yar Khan soon after the armed men ambushed 12 personnel in a rocket attack on Aug 22. The Punjab police high-ups had proposed to the government to come up…
ISLAMABAD: “Religious outfits” manipulate Islamic laws to suit their likes and dislikes, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) chairman said on Thursday. “No law carries the death penalty for desecration of Holy Quran, but religious elements resort to mob justice to kill suspects,” Dr Raghib Hussain Naimi said. “This is not only un-Islamic but also contrary to the law of the land.” Talking to media here at the CII office, Dr Naimi said blasphemy laws had four different punishments. The punishment for desecration of the Holy Quran is life imprisonment while the punishment for insulting members of the Holy Prophet’s…
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Thursday released videos of two of three men, including a senior army officer, kidnapped from D.I. Khan the previous day. The officer and his two brothers were kidnapped from a mosque in their native area, Mohalla Khadr Khel of Kalachi tehsil, when they were receiving people who had come to condole with them over their father’s demise. The suspected militants forcefully took away the three brothers, one of whom worked for the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board and the other for Nadra. In separate videos, two of the abducted men said they were “far away”…
ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on Thursday approved exemptions from procurement rules for the execution of a framework agreement with China for the realignment of the $2billion Karakoram Highway (KKH) and the Chakdara-Timergara Highway with South Korea, due to their tied credit. The committee, however, decided to bar foreign-funded projects that lack self-sufficient revenue generation for debt servicing. The ECC meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, also approved an attractive incentives package for banks and foreign exchange companies to enhance home remittances through official channels. Sources said the meeting expressed concern over the financial viability of both…
With a deep depression situated approximately 200 kilometres from Karachi on Friday, Pakistan’s coastal areas are bracing for a potential cyclonic storm expected over the northeast Arabian Sea along Sindh’s coast. According to an alert from the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) issued at 10am today, a deep depression (a very strong low-pressure area) over India’s Rann of Kutch has slowly moved west-southwestward during the last 12 hours and now lies around 200 kilometres east/southeast of Karachi. Stating that the system was “likely to keep moving further west/southwestwards in the northeast Arabian Sea along the Sindh coast”, the PMD predicted it was likely…
Five terrorists have been killed while three others were injured in intelligence-based operations (IBOs) carried out by security forces in multiple Balochistan districts, the military’s media affairs wing said on Friday. In the latest flare-up of violence, dozens of militants affiliated with the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) — a separatist outfit — launched numerous attacks on Sunday midnight across Balochistan, targeting security personnel as well as civilians. At least 50 people, including 14 security men, lost their lives as militants went on a rampage across the province, storming police stations, blowing up railway tracks, and setting fire to almost three dozen vehicles.…
