PESHAWAR: A powerful bomb, detonated by a timing mechanism, ripped through a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people and causing injuries to 25. The blast that took place near Peshawar’s Sunehri Masjid targeted a Civil Secretariat bus which was carrying government employees from Mardan to the provincial capital. Fear and panic spread among residents ...

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Raheel Sharif on Tuesday confirmed death sentences, awarded by military courts, of another 13 ‘hardcore terrorists,’ said the military’s media wing in statement to the press. The convicts were involved in “committing heinous offences relating to terrorism, including killing of foreign tourists at Nanga Parbat, attack on Saidu Sharif Airport, destruction of schools, ...

LAHORE: An all-parties conference convened by Jamaat-i-Islami and attended by powerful religious groups asked the government on Tuesday to retract an “un-Islamic” law that gives unprecedented protection to female victims of violence. The Women’s Protection Act, passed by Punjab Assembly last month, gives legal protection to women from domestic, psychological and sexual violence. It also calls for the creation of ...

ISLAMABAD: The Indian government barred five Pakistani diplomats and two of their family members from travelling to Kolkata to watch the upcoming World T20 match between the two neighbouring countries. “Yes, I can confirm that two counsellors, one first secretary, two protocol officers and two family members have been denied permission to travel to Kolkata,” said a senior Pakistani diplomat ...

     ISLAMABAD: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari presents a souvenir to BJP leader Vijay Jolly.—PPI ISLAMABAD: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has called for increasing people-to-people contacts between India and Pakistan to improve ties. The call was made by the PPP leader during a meeting with a three-member delegation of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which met him ...

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday reviewed progress on developing a methodology to assess poverty rate and firm up data, which will help the government design its policies and interventions accordingly. A comparative analysis of the Food Energy Intake (FEI) and Cost of Basic Needs (CBN) methods was presented before the meeting which was informed that no data had ...

             Workers of National Students Federation protest outside the National Press Club.—Online ISLAMABAD: Scores of students belonging to the National Student Federation on Thursday staged a protest demonstration against what they said hate material in the Sociology of Pakistan book being taught at the college level. They said the book was propagating hatred against the ...

   PPP chairman expressed his delight on Shahbaz’s safe recovery.—Photo: Twitter LAHORE: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari reached here from Karachi on Thursday to meet Shahbaz Taseer who was rescued over four years after his abduction in 2011. Bilawal who is also a close friend of Shahbaz reached here by a helicopter at Lahore’s old airport and went to the ...

QUETTA: The son of slain former Punjab governor Salman Taseer, Shahbaz Taseer, was recovered by security and intelligence forces from Balochistan’s Kuchlak area on Tuesday, nearly five years after his abduction in 2011. “Intelligence agencies have recovered Shahbaz Taseer from an area near Kuchlak, Balochistan,” said a statement released by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). The military shared photos of ...

PESHAWAR: At least eight people were killed in an explosion in the premises of a local court in Charsadda’s Shabqadar area on Monday, police said. The Jamatul Ahrar, a splinter group of the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack in an email sent to journalists, saying the attack was carried out to avenge the hanging of Mumtaz ...