US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has accepted the Boeing 747 that the Gulf emirate of Qatar offered to President Donald Trump for use as Air Force One, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Qatar’s offer of the jet – which is valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars – has raised huge constitutional and ethical questions, […]
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Wednesday that more Arab nations could forge ties with Israel this year, as Washington presses hard for relations to normalize with Saudi Arabia. President Donald Trump near the end of his first term led the so-called Abraham Accords in which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco became […]
While the performance of constitutional benches at the Supreme Court remains underwhelming, the top court under Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi has achieved unprecedented acceleration in disposing of criminal cases, particularly those involving death sentences. According to the SC statement, 238 death sentence appeals have been decided during CJP Afridi’s tenure. When he […]
As India stumbled to control the global narrative, the world witnessed a spectacle not of strategy, but of survival. In the aftermath of the Pahalgam crisis, India’s foreign policy apparatus did not project strength or coherence — it unraveled. The absence of Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during a critical juncture, paired with the sudden deployment […]
‘Deterrence’ in military parlance is, simply put, to ‘deter’ a potential adversary of the outsized consequences and disproportionate response to any (military) adventurism. Deterrence is established when two sides possess the means to inflict losses on each other in case of hostilities and hence decide not to initiate hostilities. Deterrence can be ‘conventional’— through capabilities […]
The Chinese foreign minister has praised the ‘ironclad’ friendship between China and Pakistan and reiterated his country’s firm support for Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty, combating terrorism, and pursuing a development path suited to its national conditions. “China will continue to support Pakistan in playing a greater role in international and regional affairs,” said Wang Yi, […]
Gold prices in Pakistan rose on Wednesday, following gains in the international market. Locally, gold per tola increased by Rs6,600 to close at Rs349,400, while 10-gram gold was sold at Rs299,554, up by Rs5,659, according to the All-Pakistan Gems and Jewellers Sarafa Association (APGJSA). On Tuesday, gold per tola had reached Rs342,800 after gaining Rs300. […]
Pakistan’s confirmed polio cases for 2025 have reached 10, following the National Institute of Health’s Regional Reference Laboratory confirmation of two new wild poliovirus cases in Lakki Marwat and Bannu districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). Of these, five cases are from K-P, four from Sindh, and one from Punjab. Despite ongoing high-quality polio vaccination campaigns nationwide, […]
The federal government has decided to increase fines in the upcoming budget in order to curb tax evasion among shopkeepers and businesses, Express News reported. During a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Wednesday, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) officials briefed members that fines for shopkeepers who use to evade taxes, will […]
Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Jiang Zaidong delivered a speech at the Silk Road Culture Center in Islamabad on Wednesday to mark the 74th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan. He expressed his gratitude to all those who have supported the development of the longstanding China-Pakistan friendship. He recalled that diplomatic […]