ASHDOD: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday he has still not seen a plan for Israel’s planned offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah that would protect civilians, repeating that Washington could not support such an assault. Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Jerusalem for two-and-a-half hours, after which Israel repeated that the Rafah operation would go ahead despite the US position and a stark UN warning that it would lead to “tragedy”. “We cannot, will not support a major military operation in Rafah absent an effective plan to make sure that civilians…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that “xenophobia” from China to Japan and India was hobbling their growth, as he argued that migration has been good for the US economy. “One of the reasons why our economy’s growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” Biden said at a Washington fundraising event for his 2024 re-election campaign and marking the start of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. “Why is China stalling so badly economically, why is Japan having trouble, why is Russia, why is India, because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants.…
ISLAMABAD: The FDE-run schools have been facing shortage of ninth class books, though the session has begun on April 22. The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), however, said books would be provided to students on Thursday (today). But teachers fear any further delay in provision of books would affect the students results as the negligence of the authorities concerned has already wasted their time. “We contact FDE on daily basis to get update about books, but we are told that since the syllabus has been revised, publication of books is taking time,” said a teacher. FDE claims remaining books to…
RAWALPINDI: A doctor of a private hospital, who treated one of the ‘suspected extremists’ involved in the shootout with the police on Tuesday, has been taken into custody after the case was transferred to the Counter-Terrorism Department CTD for further investigation. According to sources, no ‘identification detail’ of the two suspects arrested by the police was found in the official record. The police had recovered a weapon’s licence, some photographs and other documents from the vehicle in which the suspects were travelling in. Later, a doctor at a private hospital on Peshawar Road who had treated the leg of one of the…
PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur on Wednesday said he was part of the committee nominated by detained PTI founder Imran Khan to hold dialogue with the security establishment. “We won’t keep anything [regarding negotiations with the establishment] secret,” Mr Gandapur told reporters after attending a Labour Day function at a hotel here. The chief minister said former prime minister Imran Khan had given the go-ahead to the party for holding talks with the establishment, and he was part of the dialogue panel. He said he was happy to see JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman tell the truth about election…
ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), a body that plays a key role in appointing judges, is set to review proposed amendments to its 2010 rules that would change the traditional approach to selecting judges for the Supreme Court and high courts. The proposed changes, scheduled for discussion at a JCP meeting tomorrow (Friday), aim to end the automatic elevation of high court chief justices to the Supreme Court and the appointment of the most senior judge as the chief justice of high courts. Instead, a more structured selection process involving multiple candidates for each vacancy is suggested, likely…
QUETTA: Highways in Balochistan remained blocked for the 10th consecutive day as transporters went on with their strike against a government decision to set up more check posts on major roads to provide safety to passengers in the wake of the Noshki killings. The transporter union has been protesting for over a week against the new SOPs for the transporters issued by the provincial government to establish security pickets at the Quetta-Taftan and Coastal highways. The decision was prompted by an attack in Noshki in which gunmen killed nine people after abduction, based on their ethnic identity. Against this decision, the…
KARACHI: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ambitious plan to privatise loss-making public enterprises faced a first setback on Wednesday when his key ally in the Centre, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), opposed the idea and suggested that the federal government go for public-private partnerships to restore institutions like PIA and Steel Mills instead of selling them to private businesses. The PPP also vowed that it would take up the matter with Islamabad and try to convince the federal government to abandon the idea of privatising public institutions. The party also believes that such decisions should not be made without the input…
PESHAWAR: A full court meeting of Peshawar High Court has proposed enactment of laws by federal government for stipulating the respective mandate of intelligence agencies so as to protect judges of superior courts from harassment and intimidation. Like rest of the high courts, PHC has submitted a five-page report to Supreme Court of Pakistan in the ongoing suo moto case about meddling by intelligence agencies in judicial affairs. The report, including opinions and proposals, was prepared after the matter was discussed in the full-court meeting chaired by chief justice on April 22. A six-member Supreme Court bench heard the case on April 30 and will conduct…
ISLAMABAD: Following a brief lull in March, militant attacks in the country surged once again in April, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, particularly its southern districts, bearing the brunt. These findings were released by an Islamabad-based think-tank, Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), in its monthly security assessment report. According to statistics, the country experienced at least 77 verifiable militant attacks during April, resulting in 70 fatalities, including 35 civilians and 31 members of security forces. Four militants were killed. The number of injured individuals was 67 — 32 civilians and 35 security personnel. Casualties include 35 civilians, 31 security personnel;…
