ISLAMABAD, June 01(ABC): Advocate Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir Wednesday denied allegations levelled against her of encouraging soldiers of the Pakistani Army to launch a mutiny against the force’s senior leadership. Mazari — the daughter of former human rights minister Shireen Mazari — made the statement in a written response to the Islamabad High Court (IHC), which has granted the advocate a pre-arrest …

PESHAWAR, June 01(ABC): PTI Chairman Imran Khan Wednesday said the party would announce its next march after the Supreme Court’s ruling on the plea seeking clarity on whether the party can hold public gatherings. Addressing social media workers in Peshawar, the former prime minister said that the party wants protection from the court and its case is pending. “I ask …

Centre for Law and Security held a conference on ‘Lawfare and Pakistan’s Response’ at the Marriott Hotel, Islamabad. The conference was attended by eminent lawyers and jurists that included Justice (retired) Ali Nawaz Chowhan, Barrister Ali Zafar, Mr. Ahmer Bilal Soofi, Maj General Irfan Arshad, Mr. Mohsin Kamall, Dr. Salma Shaheen, Barrister Muhammad Ahmad Pansota, Mr. Taimur Malik and Mr. …

ANKARA, June 01(ABC): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday invited Turkish investors to explore Pakistan’s diverse sectors, particularly the energy sector, which offers immense opportunities and scope for development. The prime minister addressed the Pakistan-Turkey Business Council under the DEIK – Foreign Economic Relations Board, where he said Pakistan’s energy sector, with its vast potential in hydel, thermal, coal, wind, …

ISLAMABAD, June 01(ABC): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking permission for a second long march to Islamabad. The petition, filed by PTI Secretary-General Asad Umar, named the interior ministry, Islamabad inspector-general and others as respondents. PTI Chairman Imran Khan had abruptly announced the end of his ‘Azadi March’ on March 26 and had given …

ISLAMABAD, June 01(ABC): Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah observed on Wednesday that no amendment in the Election Act, 2017 restricts overseas Pakistanis from using their right to vote. “Expats have not been deprived of their right to vote either in the former or existing laws,” Justice Minallah remarked during the hearing of a plea against the National …

  ISLAMABAD, June 01(ABC): Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Mufti Abdul Shakoor on Tuesday said the government had approved a Rs150,000 subsidy for Hajj pilgrims traveling to Saudi Arabia under the government scheme. Pakistan has been allotted a quota of 81,132 pilgrims for this year’s Hajj, where over 32,000 would go under the government scheme and above …

ANKARA, June 01(ABC): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to take Pakistan and Turkey’s bilateral trade to $5 billion in the next three years, and urged Turk investors to come to Pakistan while assuring his full support to them. PM Shehbaz Sharif is currently in Turkey on a maiden three-day official visit. During his visit, PM will have a tete-a-tete with President …

PESHAWAR, June 01(ABC): In view of the increased number of child abuse cases reported across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the provincial assembly passed a “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare (Amendment) Act, 2022”. The bill — introduced by provincial Law Minister Fazle Shakoor in the House — says that the child abusers will now get life imprisonment or death sentence. On the …

PESHAWAR, June 01(ABC): PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to take suo moto notice of the Sharif family’s money laundering case and appoint a “monitoring judge to oversee all mega cases of politicians”. Taking to Twitter, the former premier alleged that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was “trying to interfere in his and his family’s money laundering …

ISLAMABAD, June 01(ABC): The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Tuesday issued the preliminary delimitation of constituencies in which it revised the National Assembly seats from 342 to 336. According to the ECP’s preliminary report, the number of general seats in the NA will decrease from 272 to 266. Balochistan will have 16 general seats in the NA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will have …

QUETTA, May 29(ABC): One person was killed and 16 were injured in firing and fighting in different parts of the province during Balochistan local body polls, while three rockets were fired in Dera Bugti and two officials were also injured in a grenade attack on a polling station in Kalat, reported on Sunday. According to Levies sources, unidentified persons hurled …

ISLAMABAD, May 29(ABC): Vice Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday rejected leaked audiotape between property tycoon Malik Riaz and former president Asif Ali Zardari. Talking to media persons, former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that it is out of question that former prime minister Imran Khan would ask someone to patch things up for him. …

CHARSADDA, May 29(ABC): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insasf (PTI) Chairman and former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday said that the real war of independence is jihad, as long as he is alive the struggle against thieves will continue ongoing and now no one will be able to stop this time. Addressing the workers convention in Charsadda, Imran Khan said, “we will never …

MANSEHRA, May 29(ABC): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Saturday the burden of foreign debts on Pakistan is such that it could not be paid off by generations to come. “[Ex-premier] Imran Khan’s government took such hefty amount of loans that our generations might not be able to pay them,” the prime minister told a public gathering in Manshera. The prime …

DAVOS, May 29(ABC): Israel President Isaac Herzog has said that he had had an “amazing experience” while meeting a delegation of Pakistani expatriates living in the United States. The Israeli president was speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) — held in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday — about the Abraham Accords, a US-backed deal that led to the normalisation of Israel’s …

ISLAMABAD, May 29 (ABC): Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif Sunday said that the recently surfaced purported audio tape exposed Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan’s hypocrisy and double standards. The prime minister, on his twitter handle, said that in the surfaced audio tape, the PTI chief allegedly sought NRO for himself and his previous government. Imran Khan manufactured fake foreign conspiracy …

LAHORE, May 29(ABC): Amid sizzling hot weather, Power outages have severely hit Pakistan as Pakistanis have been suffering up to 12 hours of power load-shedding. All urban centers, such as Karachi, Hyderabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad, and Sialkot have been severely hit with load-shedding and situation in rural areas of the country is even worse. Sources have said that power shortfall …

ISLAMABAD, May 28 (ABC): Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Mufti Abdul Shakoor has urged the Iranian government to finalize the draft of ‘Ziarat Policy’ to promote the religious tourism. There were a number of people who pay homage at the mausoleums of sacred religious figures located in Iran every year. In this regard, the government of Pakistan had …

ISLAMABAD, May 29(ABC): Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan on Sunday condemned the police action against his party protestors. Former prime minister, in a tweet, said that ‘imported govt’ while flouting constitution and Supreme Court of Pakistan, unleashed police brutality on our peaceful Azadi March protestors. Imran Khan further claimed that night before PTI long march, Punjab and Sindh police …

QUETTA, May 29(ABC): Polling is underway for local body elections in 32 districts of Balochistan. The polling started at 8am and will continue until 5pm without any break. As per the ECP, candidates in 1,584 wards have been elected unopposed while 14,611 candidates are contesting elections in 4,456 wards today. A total of 5,226 polling stations have been set up …

PESHAWAR, May 28(ABC): PTI Chairman Imran Khan announced Saturday his party would move the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday seeking clarity on holding public rallies after the government crackdown and clashes across the country. “I just want the clarity from the Supreme Court […] I just want its protection, then you will see that we will take out a …

ISLAMABAD, May 28(ABC): Finance Minister Miftah Ismail assured Saturday the government would reach the staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by next month — June. Hopes of the IMF programme’s revival rose Thursday after the federal government decided to raise the price of petroleum products by Rs30 as the Fund did not resume the programme due to the …

ISLAMABAD, May 28 (ABC): Federal Finance Minister Miftah Ismail announced Saturday the process for the deserving families to avail the subsidies on petrol and diesel under the relief program announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in his address to the nation Friday. Addressing a press conference here, the finance minister said families who are part of the Benazir Income Support …

ISLAMABAD, May 28(ABC): Government and its coalition partners have agreed on name of Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar as new Chairman of National Accountability Bureau (NAB). According to sources privy with the development, the name of former Supreme Court judge came under discussion during meeting of Prime Minister Imran Khan and former president Asif Ali Zardari. Sources further said that Government …

LAHORE, May 28(ABC): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s counsel Saturday argued that the Rs16 billion money laundering case was “politically motivated” and “based on mala fide intentions” because the PTI government wanted to imprison his client. The arguments came during the hearing of the money laundering case at the special court (Central-I) where the prime minister and his son Punjab Chief …

LAHORE, May 28(ABC): Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial on Friday has said that for the success of the conciliation system the relevant laws need to be improved and the federal government needs to be made aware of the flaws in the laws. Addressing the conciliation conference, the CJP said that there was a need to conduct an awareness …

ISLAMABAD, May 28(ABC): Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday approved pre-arrest bail of Imaan Mazari, daughter of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former Federal Minister Shireen Mazari in a case pertaining to diatribe against state institutions. Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the plea of lawyer and human rights activist Iman Mazari for pre-arrest bail regarding “derogatory” …

LAHORE, May 28(ABC): Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz Friday commended the police and administration for the best arrangements during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) long march. He also lauded the performance of his political companions along with the police and administration and said that the police, administration and elected representatives delivered in exceptional circumstances. During a meeting, he said that the …

ISLAMABAD, May 28(ABC): Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Miftah Ismail on Friday said that government will not impose any new taxes on petroleum products. He said we will provide targeted subsidy in order to facilitate the poor people and it will be continued till next year. He said a special number would be announced shortly so that poor persons …

ISLAMABAD, May 28(ABC): Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal on Friday said that despite the worst economic crisis in the country, the government would not reduce budget of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in the upcoming fiscal year. Chairing a meeting here to review the HEC matters, the minister said the government was allocating more funds than what the …

SARGODHA, May 28(ABC): At least 40 persons sustained injuries due to roof and wall collapse incidents in different area of Sargodha as rain and windstorm hit the city on Friday night, reported. The roof and wall collapse incidents were reported in Chak 79 Shumali, Chak 47, Chak 91, Factory Area, Block No 17, Block No 24, Sarwar Colony, Eidgah, Jameel …

ISLAMABAD, May 28(ABC): Youm-e-Takbeer is being observed today (Saturday) with national zeal and fervour to commemorate historic nuclear tests at Chagai on May 28, 1998. Pakistan joined the prestigious club of nuclear powers by conducting nuclear tests on May 28, 1998. The government has announced the 10-day celebrations in this regard whereas this year, the theme of the day would …

LAHORE, May28(ABC): Pakistan has reported no death in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has risen to 1,530,233. The nationwide tally of fatalities stands at 30,379 on Saturday. According to the latest figures by the National Institute of Health (NIH), at least 90 persons were tested positive for COVID-19 across the country in …

ISLAMABAD, May28(ABC): Following the decision to increase the prices of petroleum products by Rs30 a day ago in a bid to revive the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) programme for Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said that the government will include a Rs28 billion package in the upcoming budget to provide relief to the masses. Addressing the nation, the …

ISLAMABAD 27 May (ABC): Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Shareef and Opposition leader Raja Riaz held meeting on Firday to made consultation on new Nab chairman at PM house. Fawad Hassan Fawad, Qamar Zaman, Bashir Mamon and Irfan Qadir Sheikh were the names present for NAB chairman. According to source both leaders agreed to consult with their allied parties to finalize …

ISLAMABAD, May 27(ABC): The Interior Ministry on Friday has decided to impose a permanent ban on the entry of rallies in the federal capital Islamabad, reported. Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah chaired a PTI Long March law and order review meeting in which details of the loss of life and property across the country, attacks on police and other law …

ISLAMABAD, May 27(ABC): Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb on Friday criticised former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan and said that by revealing that he and his party were not prepared for the so-called “Azadi March”, he has accepted his defeat. Speaking during a press conference in Islamabad, Aurangzeb said that Imran Khan and his supporters were not prepared for …

PESHAWAR, May 27(ABC): PTI Chairman Imran Khan Friday rebutted rumours of his party striking a deal with the establishment and said that he ended the “Azadi March” to avoid bloodshed. In a surprise move on Thursday morning, Khan gave a six-day ultimatum to the government to announce the election date, warning to return with three million people after chaos gripped …

ISLAMABAD, May 27 (ABC): The Senate on Friday passed Election Act amendment bill 2022 and National Accountability Ordinance Amendment Bill 2022 with a majority vote to reverse the use of EVM, voting rights of overseas Pakistanis and curtail powers of NAB amid protest from opposition lawmakers. Law Minister Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar presented the bills in the House for voting …