RAWALPINDI: After being spotted by his mother begging at Tahli Mohri Chowk on Tuesday, a mentally challenged former policeman—who had gone missing from his home in 2016—was reunited with his mother amid emotional scenes. After the missing man was traced by her mother, the police rounded up four members of the beggars’ gang, including three […]

• Latif Khosa, Liaquat Baloch, Sadiq Sanjrani among prominent politicians to submit papers• Ishaq Dar urges electoral watchdog to extend deadline for two days LAHORE: Several candidates, both backed by political parties and the independent ones, submitted their nomination papers on Thursday for the coming general elections, scheduled for Feb 8. The process to receive […]

KARACHI: Trading on the national bourse began with the benchmark of major shares extending losses from the previous sessions. But a bullish trend overpowered the bears soon enough to help the index close on the higher side, said Topline Securities Ltd. The KSE-100 index traded within a range of 1,099 points, with positive contributions originating […]

KHOST: Zubaida travelled from the rural outskirts of Khost in eastern Afghanistan to give birth at a maternity hospital specialising in complicated cases, fearing a fate all too common among pregnant Afghan women — her death or her child’s. She lay dazed, surrounded by the unfamiliar bustle of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF)-run hospital, exhausted […]

LAHORE: As the process for the upcoming elections gets underway, the PTI’s complaints about mishandling of its candidates and use of state machinery to push them out of contention — even at the stage of filing nomination papers — seem to have escalated. After several such cases, the PTI on Thursday reported another incident from […]

KARACHI: High gas prices appeared to have made textile exports uncompetitive on the world market resulting in an eight per cent month-on-month and 7pc year-on-year decline to $1.3 billion in November. In rupee terms, the country’s textile exports clocked in at Rs376bn, down by 7pc month-on-month but rose 19pc year-on-year owing to rupee depreciation against […]

GENEVA: There are no longer any functional hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said Thursday, describing “unbea­rable” scenes of largely abandoned patients begging for food and water. The UN health agency said it had led missions to two badly damaged hospitals, Al Shifa and Al Ahli, in the […]

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) foreign exchange reserves fell below $7 billion for the first time in the current fiscal year, posing challenges for the government to stabilise the exchange rate and meet debt servicing obligations. The SBP on Thursday reported a $136 million decline in reserves to $6.904bn due to debt repayments. […]

ISLAMABAD: While launching the Exim Bank of Pakistan (EBP), Caretaker Finance Minister Dr Sha­mshad Akhtar on Thursday ann­o­un­ced the export fin­ance schemes (EFSs) would stand transferred to the new institution after being pha­sed out from the State Bank of Pak­istan (SBP) because of legal compulsions. The minister said EFSs were being phased out from the […]

LONDON: Just weeks after the Conservative government announced new immigration rules, including a new salary threshold of £38,700 for UK residents to sponsor a foreign spouse, the government has backtracked on its measure. Late on Thursday evening, media reports suggested the government had watered down by cutting the newly proposed fee by almost £10,000. The […]