SWAT: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has vowed not to let the federal government impose any new tax on the province as long as he is in power. The CM made these remarks while addressing a gathering of the grand opposition alliance Tehreek-i-Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan in Mingora, Swat. In a fiery speech, the CM said the decisions of individuals are “destroying our nation and institutions, we do not accept them”. While addressing the federal government, the CM said: “You have formed the government but you don’t have the mandate, or the street power or any moral authority.” “Yet you say…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
ISLAMABAD: Ahead of the newly constituted National Economic Council (NEC) meeting on Monday, Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur has sent a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif requesting the inclusion of 91 ongoing projects in the federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2024-25. The estimated throw-forward cost for these projects is Rs1.327 trillion. Many of the dropped projects were already 70 per cent complete, including highways, roads, health facilities, small dam buildings, the Peshawar expo centre and the renovation of existing energy facilities. Mr Gandapur has also sent a letter to the Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal. The KP…
LONDON: In a historic first, Israr Kakar, a student from Balochistan, has been elected as president of the Oxford Union. He is the third Pakistani and first from Balochistan to hold this prestigious position. The Oxford Union, founded in 1823, is one of the oldest and most esteemed debating societies in the world. Mr Kakar hails from a small village in the Qila Abdullah district. Currently, he is enrolled in the DPhil programme at Oxford’s Law Department. Notably, Mr Kakar’s elder brother was also a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, making him the second in his family to attend college. Elected…
ISLAMABAD: The D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation, an alliance of developing nations of Turkiye, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Nigeria and Indonesia, on Saturday demanded full Palestinian membership of the United Nations and greater international pressure on Israel for ceasefire amid the Gaza war. Calling for an immediate ceasefire, foreign ministers from the group at an extraordinary meeting in Istanbul asked the United States to lift its veto on full Palestinian UN membership and on all countries to “exert diplomatic, political, economic and legal pressure” on Israel. Denouncing an “ongoing genocide and grave violations of international law”, the group demanded an end…
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that security forces had cleared hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims from Makkah ahead of Haj which begins next week. Crowd management is a major concern during the annual pilgrimage, which drew over 1.8m people last year, according to official figures. Those turned away in recent days from the holy city, include 153,998 foreigners who travelled from abroad on tourist visas rather than the required Haj visas, the official Saudi Press Agency said. In addition, Saudi authorities have rounded up 171,587 others who are based in Saudi Arabia but are not residents of Makkah and did…
WASHINGTON: William Anders, the former US astronaut who took the historic “Earthrise” photo from space over 55 years ago, died in a plane crash on Friday at the age of 90, his family said. Anders had been piloting a small plane which crashed off the coast of Washington state on Friday morning, his son told US media. Anders was alone in the plane. His body was later recovered by a dive team, The Seattle Times reported, quoting a Coast Guard spokesperson. A member of the Apollo 8 mission in December 1968, Anders became one of the first humans to orbit the Moon,…
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China on Saturday vowed to strengthen their strategic relations and safeguard common interests, besides promoting socio-economic development and well-being of the people of both countries. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the two sides agreed to work together to jointly uphold regional peace, stability, development and prosperity, and accelerate the building of an even closer “Pakistan-China community with a shared future in the new era”, said a joint statement issued at the conclusion of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s five-day visit to China. PM Sharif arrived in Pakistan on Saturday night. While the Chinese side reiterated that…
WASHINGTON/LONDON: Thousands of protesters held a “red line” rally near the White House on Saturday, voicing anger at US President Joe Biden’s tolerance of Israel’s brutal military campaign against Hamas. Chanting “From DC to Palestine, we are the red line”, the demonstrators held a long banner scribbled with the names of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces. In London thousands of people marched through the city centre to parliament calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The demonstration was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Marchers waved Palestinian flags and chanted: “End the genocide” and “Free, free Palestine”. While…
BEIRUT: Israeli strikes on Saturday killed two people and sparked wildfires in southern Lebanon, state media said, with Hezbollah announcing the death of one fighter. Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in the eight months since the Gaza conflict began, triggered by Hamas’ October 7 raid. The deadly clashes have intensified in recent weeks, causing multiple brush fires on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said on Saturday that “an Israeli drone carried out an air attack with two guided missiles, targeting a cafe in Aitarun and killing the cafe’s…
GAZA: Israel pressed its bombardment of Gaza as strikes rattled various neighbourhoods and appeared to be focused on central areas of the Palestinian territory. The onslaught persisted, despite scrutiny on Israel after its warplanes carried out an attack on a UN-run school that a Gaza hospital said killed at least 37 people. The Israeli military acknowledged it conducted the strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp, saying it targeted “terrorists”. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees that ran the school, condemned Israel for striking the facility housing 6,000 displaced people. In a post on X, the agency said the “school turned…
