ISLAMABAD: Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry declared on Monday that the conditions set by Afghanistan hold no significance, emphasizing that for Pakistan, only the eradication of terrorism matters. In a closed-door briefing to senior journalists in Peshawar, the military’s spokesperson said that Pakistan’s armed forces remain the ultimate guarantors of national security, and not Afghanistan. We never celebrated the arrival of the Taliban, he asserted, underscoring that Islamabad’s focus is on neutralizing threats emanating from across the border rather than engaging in rhetoric. The statement came days after Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to an immediate…
Author: Imran Ali Khan
RAWALPINDI: After outsourcing thousands of public schools across the province, the Punjab government has now initiated the process to privatize public colleges, sparking strong protests from professors and lecturers associations who have termed the decision anti-education and anti-labour. According to official sources, 12,500 public schools have already been handed over to private operators under the provincial government’s education outsourcing programme. The latest move extends the policy to higher education institutions, with an initial plan to outsource 100 government colleges in the first phase including both commerce colleges in Rawalpindi. Punjab currently has around 750 government colleges. The new plan aims…
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Iran are moving closer to formalizing their long-awaited Free Trade Agreement (FTA), as the final text of the accord has been completed and is now undergoing internal review by Pakistani authorities for formal approval. The development was revealed during a meeting between Federal Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal Khan and Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Reza Amiri-Moghaddam, held in Islamabad to discuss ways of strengthening bilateral trade and economic cooperation, according to an official statement. During the talks, the two sides reviewed ongoing trade initiatives, existing agreements, and new opportunities to further deepen economic integration between the neighboring…
ISLAMABAD: A high-level US delegation led by Robert Louis Strayer II, president of the Critical Minerals Forum (CMF), held extensive talks with Pakistani officials in Islamabad on Friday, exploring ways to develop secure and transparent mineral supply chains for American industries amid Washington’s growing concern over China’s dominance in global rare earth resources. The US delegation met with a Pakistani team headed by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, discussing cooperation in mining, sustainable investment, and supply-chain security, according to an official statement. The visit coincided with the announcement of a new 10-year US-India defense framework, underscoring Washington’s intensified strategic engagement in…
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday expressed optimism for a positive outcome in the upcoming round of talks with the Afghan Taliban, scheduled to begin on November 6, as both sides continue efforts to sustain a fragile ceasefire along their shared border. Speaking at the weekly media briefing, Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi said Islamabad will continue to remain engaged in the mediation process and hopes that the next round of dialogue will help consolidate peace efforts between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The renewed talks come following five tense days of negotiations in Istanbul mediated by Türkiye and Qatar which concluded…
KARACHI: Bulls dominated the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday as the benchmark KSE-100 index skyrocketed by more than 4,800 points, snapping a week-long losing streak. Analysts credited the surge to the extension of the ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan, renewed institutional interest, and improved market sentiment following recent corrections. The KSE-100 index soared 4,898.86 points, or 3.13 per cent, closing at 161,631.73 points, marking one of the strongest single-day recoveries in recent weeks. According to Yousuf M. Farooq, Director of Research at Chase Securities, the rebound was driven by reports of Pakistan–Afghanistan ceasefire talks, the end of rollover week,…
NEW YORK: Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has said that the latest breach of the Gaza ceasefire was triggered by a violation from the Palestinian side, referring to an attack that killed an Israeli soldier in Rafah, southern Gaza, on Tuesday. Speaking during a session at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York, the Qatari premier told interviewer Ayman Mohyeldin that the incident undermined ongoing mediation efforts aimed at stabilizing the fragile truce. The attack on the Israeli soldiers was basically a violation by the Palestinian party, Sheikh Mohammed said, adding that…
In a dramatic and unprecedented move, US President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the immediate resumption of nuclear weapons testing, ending a 33-year moratorium on explosive trials. The announcement came just minutes before his scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, for high-level trade talks. Trump made the declaration via Truth Social while aboard Marine One, stating that the US must test its nuclear arsenal on an equal basis with rival powers such as Russia and China. Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our nuclear weapons…
ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Information on Tuesday categorically rejected what it described as a completely fabricated report alleging that Pakistan’s leadership had held secret meetings with the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Israel’s Mossad to discuss sending Pakistani troops to Gaza as part of a peacekeeping force. The rebuttal followed a report by India’s First Post, citing CNN-News18, which claimed that Pakistan was preparing to deploy up to 20,000 troops to Gaza following purported meetings between Field Marshal Asim Munir and senior officials from Mossad and the CIA. The report also alleged that the deployment would involve neutralizing…
When I tell people that I live with severe depression, anxiety, hypertension, and epilepsy, they rarely believe me. Some laugh it off; others offer the kind of sympathy that feels more like dismissal than concern. You’re fine, they say. Just pray, and everything will be okay. But everything is not okay. When I tell them that there are days I feel like ending my life, the same response echoes back .Read the Qur’an, pray five times a day, strengthen your faith. As if faith alone could cure the storms inside my mind. In Pakistan, mental illness is not seen as…