News Updates Pk

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan on Saturday issued a notification stating that the party’s provincial organisation in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) would continue to function under the presidency of Junaid Akbar, highlighting no changes to the provincial cabinet or organisational structure until further orders. The government and opposition failed to reach an agreement, and emergency and governor’s rule were declared on October 11 after talks failed, following a PTI long march towards Islamabad that began on October 4. On the same day, police arrested 59 PTI workers in Swabi and six others in Khyber district, while reports emerged that ousted chief minister Sohail Afridi and Akbar had also been taken into custody. Since then, intraparty rifts reportedly emerged, leading to PTI leaders exchanging barbs online. According to a notification issued today and shared on X, Senator Noorul Haq Qadri, identified as the party’s senior vice-presi...

The Ministry of Information on Saturday categorically rejected the baseless and misleading allegations by former US envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad of arming former Afghans to fight the Taliban and terrorist groups. "Pakistan categorically rejects the baseless and misleading allegations by Khalilzad of arming former Afghans to fight the Taliban and their supporter terrorist groups. His sweeping baseless assertions merely recycle speculative narratives as part of his personal agenda to prop terrorism supporting Taliban regime," said the ministry in a statement issued on X. The statement came in response to a post by former US diplomat Khalilzad on X, in which he claimed that Pakistan was arming Afghans to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan and that the "Pakistani military was recruiting Afghans to fight anti-Pakistan insurgents."  The ministry further said it was misleading to conflate Pakistan's legitimate counterterrorism operations against...

Pakistan on Friday rejected what it described as “baseless and unwarranted assertions” by India’s Ministry of External Affairs regarding resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir adopted by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), while expressing grave concern over an eviction notice issued to a historic mosque in New Delhi. Speaking at the Foreign Office’s weekly press briefing, spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said the resolutions adopted at the 52nd session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Baghdad reflected the collective and longstanding position of member states on the Kashmir dispute. He said the OIC’s position was firmly grounded in relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and that the organisation had rejected India’s unilateral measures to alter the internationally recognised disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir. The OIC had also called on the international community, including the UNSC, to take effective mea...

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Friday announced plans to auction large plots in Islamabad for high-rise hotels, shopping malls and residential complexes without charging investors upfront, with the government seeking a share of the projects’ inventory instead of payment for the land. Speaking at the Saudi-Pak Real Estate Expo in Lahore, Naqvi said the auction would start at 15% of the project’s inventory, with investors free to offer a higher share. The plots would be available in sizes of one, three and six acres, with buildings required to have a minimum height of 600 feet. “The interesting thing is that it will be free of cost. We will not be asking for any money. We will go for inventory, and we will start the auction at 15% of the inventory. Then it will depend on the investor how much they offer us,” he said. Naqvi said the government would impose two main conditions on investors: projects would have to be completed within two years of approval, ...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said Pakistan was ready to partner with international consulting firms to strengthen economic growth, stressing the need for "impact and accountability" as the government pursued structural reforms and privatisation, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). “Pakistan is ready to have a productive and meaningful partnership with international consulting firms to strengthen economic growth, while ensuring impact and accountability at their end,” PM Shehbaz said during a meeting with Peter Briggs, managing director of the North American operations of international consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), in Islamabad. The prime minister welcomed Briggs and reiterated Pakistan’s willingness to open its economy to promising international markets and consult globally recognised economic experts, according to the PMO. Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif met with Mr. Pet...

The federal government has directed all ministries and divisions to submit consolidated details of civil servants’ declarations regarding foreign nationality, travel documents and dependants’ nationality status, according to an official notification issued by the Establishment Division dated October 21. The notification referred to the Civil Servants (Disclosure and Regulation of Foreign Nationality) Rules, 2026, under which all civil servants were required to submit declarations regarding their own and their dependants’ nationality status within 90 days of the rules’ publication in the official gazette. Under Rule 3(3), civil servants must declare whether they hold the nationality of any foreign country, possess foreign travel documents or are married to a foreign national. They must also disclose the relevant nationality and travel-document status of their dependants. The Establishment Division said failure to submit the required declaration or providin...