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ISLAMABAD: PTI’s Islamabad wing held a protest in the federal capital on Friday despite Section 144 being in place, which restricts public gatherings. It is worth mentioning that Tehreek Tahaffuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP) and PTI had given a call to hold countrywide protests against former prime minister Imran Khan’s imprisonment, rising inflation and other issues on Friday. The protest, held on Lehtrar Road near Taramri Chowk, was organised under the direction of PTI Islamabad President Aamir Mughal and led by General Secretary Malik Aamir Ali. PTI Islamabad Senior Vice President Raja Sajjad Dhanyal, Women’s Wing President Maimoona Kamal, Youth Wing President Murad Bukhari, Insaf Students Federation representatives and other leaders and activists participated in the protest. The protesters also demanded the release and proper medical treatment of the PTI founder and highlighted concerns over soaring inflation, deteriorating law and order, and the recent increase in petroleum produc...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday confirmed the release of humanitarian worker Saad Edhi, following Israel’s announcement that it has deported all foreign activists detained during its interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters earlier this week. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said Mr Saad — grandson of late philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi — had arrived safely in Istanbul along with other activists following what he described as “concerted efforts” by the authorities. Dar also thanked the Turkish government for facilitating Saad’s return and ensuring his safe passage to Istanbul. He described Israel’s treatment of humanitarian workers as “deeply condemnable and totally unacceptable” and reiterated Pakistan’s “unequivocal support” for the Palestinian people. Israeli forces intercepted around 50 vessels carrying nearly 430 participants on Monday as part of a flotilla attempting to challenge the naval blockade on Gaza. However, the release of a video by Israeli mini...

WASHINGTON: Professor Rayaz Malik, a British-Pakistani scientist based in Qatar, says a simple AI-powered eye scan lasting just two to three minutes may soon help doctors detect dementia and diabetic nerve damage years before symptoms appear. Professor Malik, a leading researcher in diabetic neuropathy and neurodegenerative diseases at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, told Dawn that the technology could transform early diagnosis and treatment, particularly in countries with soaring diabetes rates such as Pakistan. Speaking to Dawn, he explained how researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine are using this technology, known as corneal confocal microscopy (CCM), to identify nerve damage years before patients begin showing symptoms. “The cornea has the richest sensory innervation in the body,” he said, explaining why the eye offers a unique window into diseases affecting the nervous system. “We evolved to protect vision, so the cornea contains a dense network of nerves that can reveal damage...

• Framework places both plug-in hybrids and combustion engines in 1pc sales tax category with e-vehicles • Stakeholders say move will distort industry, discourage sale of e-vehicles, localisation efforts THE New Energy Vehicle (NEV) policy , designed to accelerate the transition towards cleaner electric mobility and reduce oil dependence, is facing criticism over a fundamental policy contradiction: the decision to place plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in the same preferential incentive category as battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The controversy centres on the draft policy’s proposal to extend major fiscal concessions, including a proposed one per cent sales tax and lower import duties, to both fully electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, even though the PHEVs mostly rely on internal combustion engines. The move risks undermining the core objectives of the policy, i.e. reducing emissions and oil imports, promoting transport electrification, ...

ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khan on Wednesday claimed that shots were fired at sit-in participants on Tuesday night, injuring several people. On Tuesday, a caravan led by CM Afridi, which was on its way to Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail to meet Imran, was stopped from entering Islamabad, prompting the participants to stage a sit-in at the intersection of Srinagar Highway and G.T. Road — loca­lly referred to as Chungi No. 26. Addressing a press conference, Afridi claimed that shots were fired on Tuesday to disperse them. He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was supplying gas to the entire country, but in return, bullets were being fired at parliamentarians and wheat supplies to the province had been blocked. During the press conference, they also showed a video in which shots were allegedly fired at different participants in the sit-in. They also asked whether the state has any example in which the sisters of former prime ministers...

WASHINGTON: Pakistan is among the countries that could benefit from a new United States temporary licence allowing selected energy-importing nations to access Russian oil, diplomatic sources told Dawn . The US has introduced a 30-day general licence issued by the US Department of the Treasury to ease immediate supply pressures in global crude markets and provide relief to energy-vulnerable countries. Diplomatic sources said the arrangement may also apply to Pakistan, though they cautioned that Islamabad might not be able to fully take advantage of the concession due to limited technical capacity. US offers 30-day relief to energy-vulnerable countries They noted that Pakistan has not previously imported Russian crude at scale and may lack the refining infrastructure required to process such shipments. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on a social media post released on Monday that his department is issuing a temporary 30-day general licence to “provide the most vulnerable n...

Nigeria’s military on Tuesday said that joint airstrikes with the United States had killed 175 Islamic State (IS) fighters in the country’s northeast, including the militant group’s global second-in-command. The remote region has been gripped by an extremist insurgency since 2009, first by Boko Haram, then its offshoot and rival, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). According to the United Nations, more than 40,000 people have been killed and two million others displaced. US and Nigerian forces killed Abu Bilal al-Minuki , an IS leader described as the “most active terrorist” in the world, at a remote village in the northeast last weekend. The Nigerian military said on Tuesday that 175 IS militants had so far been “eliminated from the battlefield”. “The joint strikes have resulted in the destruction of ISIS checkpoints, weapons caches, logistical hubs, military equipment and financial networks used to sustain terrorist operations,” it added. As director of global opera...

KARACHI: Amid growing speculation over the possibility of the 28th Amendment, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman placed President Asif Ali Zardari in a difficult position on Monday, urging him to protect the 18th Amendment with the same determination he had shown in helping bring it into existence in 2010 while holding the same office. Responding to a question about his thoughts on the proposed 28th Amendment while answering journalists’ queries after addressing a Meet the Press organised by the Karachi Press Club, the JUI-F chief said that the government had not come up with any position and everything remained blurred on the subject. However, he sounded very clear about the 18th Amendment, calling it “an achievement of the political parties” after so much effort under the PPP-led coalition government in 2010, restoring the “supremacy of the Constitution” after it had suffered too many “blows” under different military rules. He accused the current government of planning new legis...

ISLAMABAD: Opposition lawmakers on Monday staged a protest on the National Assembly floor, demanding proper medical care for incarcerated PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan. During today’s session, PTI members did not point out a lack of quorum as the session commenced, which was chaired by Deputy Speaker Ghulam Mustafa Shah. As soon as the session progressed, the leader of the opposition in the lower house, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, stood at his seat and said that the deadline had expired and the government was not providing the required medical care to the former prime minister. “We had given the government time until Monday to mend its ways in this regard and had announced that we would not be part of the proceedings,” he said, adding that the opposition would also boycott the budget session. However, as he spoke, his voice was cut off and his speech was not broadcast on any official channel. PTI lawmakers also gathered around the Speaker’s seat and raised slogans in...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is not wrong to say that Pakistan’s power sector subsidy regime needs reform. Any serious policy practitioner knows that the present tariff structure is fiscally expensive, administratively weak, and vulnerable to misuse. But the IMF is wrong in how it has framed the problem, sequenced the solution, and identified the culprit. Under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, the government has committed to replacing the budgeted electricity tariff differential subsidy and cross-subsidy system with a targeted subsidy framework for low-income consumers, to be disbursed through the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) by the end of January 2027. On paper, this sounds neat. In practice, it risks becoming another exercise where the poor are asked to pay for the sins of the power sector’s political economy. Firstly, the IMF’s core assumption is analytically weak. It argues that better-targeted subsidies will reduce incentives for higher-income cons...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has termed Pakistan’s emergence as a key mediator between the US and Iran as a “shining moment in our history”, crediting the “political-military partnership” for the change in the country’s image internationally. The premier made these remarks during an interview with The Sunday Times, as Islamabad remained engaged in efforts for de-escalation between the US and Iran. “It’s one of the shining moments in our history. Pakistan is acknowledged worldwide as an honest mediator and as a country in which international leadership has full trust and faith. It’s our shining hour, and I feel a very proud Pakistani — as do 240 million Pakistanis,” he was quoted as saying in the interview published on Saturday night. The PM’s expressed optimism even as military pressure and fears of renewed confrontation continue to shape the conflict that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February. While a deal for a complete end to the war is yet to happen, hostili...

ISLAMABAD: Just days after the first anniversary of Marka-i-Haq, calls for dialogue with Pakistan have grown in India, with several leaders in India-held Kashmir among the latest to support efforts to end hostilities between the neighbouring nuclear powers. Former chief ministers of India-held Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, have backed the recent demand by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Secretary General Dattatreya Hosabale for the Indian government to hold peace talks with Pakistan, alongside promoting people-to-people contact between the two countries. According to India’s NDTV report, both Abdullah and Mufti have faced criticism in the past for advocating talks with Pakistan amid deepening hostilities between the two countries. However, the situation appears to be different this time. “It is a very significant move that the RSS leader called for talks with Pakistan, and a former army chief [retired Gen Manoj Naravane] has backed his statement. I am glad that s...

WASHINGTON: The United States is entering a period of structurally higher industrial natural gas demand, with consumption expected to remain at record levels through at least 2027, even as the Iran war intensifies disruptions across global oil markets and tightens energy supplies worldwide. According to the latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), industrial natural gas consumption in the United States averaged a record 23.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 2025, exceeding the previous high of 23.4bcfd recorded in 2023. The projections suggest that rising industrial demand is no longer merely cyclical, but increasingly tied to deeper structural shifts in manufacturing, energy trade flows and global supply-chain realignment. The EIA expects industrial gas consumption to rise by another 1.2 per cent, or 0.3bcfd, in 2026, followed by an additional 1.7pc increase, or 0.4bcfd, in 2027. At the centre of the trend is sustained expan...

• Decision comes in response to traders’ protests, appeals by shopping malls association and general public • Lahore Chamber of Commerce welcomes move, describes it as ‘important business-friendly’ step • Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor, CM resolve to ease restrictions in their province as well LAHORE: Responding to traders’ protests and appeals by the shopping malls association and general public to revise 8pm business closure timings, the Punjab government has granted partial relief and lifted the restriction on market timings until June 1. The Punjab Services and General Administration Depa­r­tment’s (S&GAD) Impleme­ntation and Coordination Wing on Friday notified that “all the shops, markets, shopping malls, hotels, restaurants and food outlets are exempted from the prescribed closure timings till June 1, 2026”. On April 6, the federal government announced that all markets across the country, barring Sindh, would close by 8pm throughout the week as part of energy conservation m...

The federal government on Friday reduced petrol and diesel prices by Rs5, according to a notification issued by the Petroleum Division. According to the notification, the revised prices will take effect from May 16. Following the decrease, the price of petrol stands at Rs409.78 per litre and that of HSD at Rs409.58. Petrol is mostly used in private transport, small vehicles, rickshaws and two-wheelers and has a direct bearing on the budget of the middle and lower-middle class. High-speed diesel is mainly used in the heavy transport sector and for large generators. The government has been revising petroleum prices every week on Friday night following the now-paused US-Israeli war on Iran , which began on February 28. The war also led to a global fuel crunch caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s supply of oil and gas used to pass in peacetime. Last week, the government approved a hike of Rs14.92 per litre i...

PAKISTAN’S latest GDP figures offer a picture of modest recovery. A projected growth rate of 3.7pc for the current fiscal falls short of the government’s original 4pc target. This is slightly less than even the lower bound of the State Bank’s projected range of 3.75-4.75pc . But it is still an improvement over the previous year’s 3.18pc expansion. Thankfully, the SBP anticipates growth, albeit tepid, during much of next year in case energy prices stay elevated and the Gulf crisis lingers. That said, the numbers show that the economy continues its struggle to break out of the low-growth trap. Structural issues are constraining long-term, faster growth prospects without overheating the economy. In this context, even modest growth is welcome after four years of economic instability, external financing crises and inflationary shocks, and despite oil price hikes triggered by the Gulf conflict. The economy’s size has increased to over $452bn while per capita...

ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday said that IMF-mandated asset declarations of civil servants would be made publicly accessible in a redacted form to ensure both transparency and personal privacy. The declaration of government officials’ assets is required under IMF governance and corruption-related benchmarks. Establishment Division Secretary Nabeel Awan testified before the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, which ordered full investigations into two major scams involving the disappearance of over 400 kilogrammes of silver and a major portion of 2,000 bags of skimmed milk from the custody of Pakistan Customs. The meeting of the senate panel, chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, took up the status of asset declarations by government servants, and Awan reported that the government had revised the Civil Servants Conduct Rules and was in the process of digitising the asset declaration system through the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) platform. He said, “Declarat...

(LEFT to right) President Asif Ali Zardari confers the Sitara-i-Shuja’at upon the mother of Liaqat Ali, a former railway employee who thwarted a suicide attack in Attock; the Hilal-i-Imtiaz upon playwright Asghar Nadeem Syed, and cricketer Shahid Afridi at an investiture ceremony held at Aiwan-i-Sadr.—X/@PresOfPakistan ISLAMABAD: Muhammad Liaqat, a railway employee who thwarted a suicide attack in Attock, was among several Pakistani nationals and foreigners who were conferred civil awards by President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday in recognition of their outstanding services in various fields. President Zardari posthumously awarded the Sitara-i-Shujaat to Liaquat for his extraordinary bravery and sacrifice, following the recommendations from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Governor Sardar Saleem Haider. The civil gallantry award was received by the deceased’s mother. Liaqat embraced martyrdom after courageously intercepting a suicide attacker nea...

A major-ranked officer was among five soldiers martyred during an area sanitisation operation in Balochistan’s Barkham district, said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Wednesday. At least seven terrorists were also killed during the operation. According to a statement by the military’s media wing, the operation, carried out by the Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps Balochistan, took place in Barkham district’s Nosham area and targeted members of Fitna al Hindustan — a term used by the state to designate terrorist organisations in Balo­chistan. “During the operation, a group of terrorists was located and engaged by troops. During [the] fire exchange, seven terrorists of Indian-backed Fitna al Hindustan were sent to hell,” ISPR said, adding that weapons, ammunition and explosives were also recovered from the killed terrorists. “However, during intense fire exchange, five brave sons of soil, including a field officer, met the ultimate sacrifice and embraced shahadat (mart...

GLOBAL suffering continues as uncertainty over the fate of the war in the Middle East refuses to dissipate. Market analysts and decision-makers have repeatedly warned that the economic damage already wrought — and worsening daily as vital shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz remain closed — could take months, in some cases years, to reverse. Every day that passes without clarity on how and when the war will end introduces fresh intensity to the uncertainty roiling global markets and adds to the economic turmoil the world must bear because of it. Iran may have been pummelled militarily but refuses to accept defeat. The consensus in foreign intelligence circles is that it may be able to endure for a lot longer before economic pressure forces it to reconsider its position. The US, for its part, seems to be losing the endgame, with its leadership’s obduracy drawing it deeper into a quagmire which is not easy to exit. ...

THE attack was audacious and well-coordinated. On the night of May 9, terrorists struck a police outpost in KP’s Bannu district , martyring 15 officers and injuring three, according to official reports. An explosive-laden truck rammed into the post, followed by what seems to have been a coordinated assault from multiple directions involving heavy weaponry and drones. This suggests sophistication in terrorist tactics, and it seems the sole purpose of the attack was to cause maximum casualties. It is yet another grim reminder of how fraught the security situation remains in the province, where terrorists have repeatedly attempted to challenge the state’s writ. The human cost, borne once again by police families, cannot be measured. Unfortunately, without a successful counterterrorism plan, chances of similar attacks by terrorists remain very high. The state must ensure that the perpetrators are brought swiftly to justice. The civilian leadership was qui...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark this week on a multi-nation tour to the United Arab Emirates and four European countries, officials said on Monday. Modi will start his whirlwind tour from the UAE — where a 4.5 million-strong Indian community lives — on Friday, India’s foreign ministry said in a statement . Modi will meet with the UAE’s leader, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, with energy cooperation high on the agenda amid global supply disruptions caused by the Middle East war . “The visit will serve to promote the significant trade and investment linkages between the two countries,” the statement said. The premier will then travel to the Netherlands between May 15 and 17 on his second visit there since 2017, with defence, semiconductors and “a strategic partnership on water” between the two countries on the agenda. Modi’s visit “early in the tenure of the new government will provide an opportunity to further deepen and expand” India’s partnership with the Dutc...

Pakistan’s official tax discourse is mostly structured around a single question: how to collect more revenue. This narrow obsession with short-term revenue targets has produced a deeply distorted tax system that undermines growth, penalises documentation and increasingly shifts the burden onto those who are already visible, compliant and easy to tax. Instead of broadening the tax base through structural reform, successive governments have relied on incremental, often distortionary measures, such as higher rates, additional levies, withholding taxes, and temporary surcharges, to squeeze immediate revenue from the formal economy. Inevitably, the result is a regressive tax structure where compliant firms, salaried individuals and documented businesses shoulder a disproportionate burden while politically protected and informal sectors, including agriculture, retail, real estate and large parts of the services sector, remain lightly taxed despite their substantial contribution to GDP. Th...