. The Balochistan Assembly. PHOTO: EXPRESS QUETTA: The Balochistan Assembly on Saturday ordered an immediate halt to appointments in the provincial Forest Department and constituted a special committee, headed by the Opposition Leader, to investigate allegations that government posts were being sold for millions of rupees. The decision came after Provincial Minister Noor Muhammad Dummar…

200 suspected cases reported as authorities launch spraying, treatment and awareness campaign Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral fever. PHOTO: AFP PESHAWAR/NOWSHERA: A suspected outbreak of chikungunya has triggered a major health response in the Ziarat Kaka Sahib area of Nowshera district, where more than 200 patients have been reported during the past several days, prompting…

. KARACHI: Employees of the CNS and Anti-Terrorism Courts staged a protest at the Karachi Central Jail’s anti-terrorism complex on Saturday, accusing Steel Town SHO Javed Abro of unlawfully detaining and assaulting an anti-narcotics court staffer. The protesting employees chanted slogans against the police officer and alleged that court employee Shafqat Channa was taken into…

. ISTANBUL: Turkey’s navy has located the wreckage of a cargo ship that sank off Istanbul after colliding with an oil tanker, leaving 10 crew members missing, officials said Saturday. In a pre-dawn collision earlier this week, the ALSU, an empty oil tanker, struck the Tugberk Imamoglu, a cargo vessel carrying rolled steel, in the…

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif. PHOTO: APP/ File ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that the devolution of power is “inevitable” and questioned PPP’s ‘contradictory position’ on the creation of new provinces and administrative units, saying the concentration of power had rendered the existing system obsolete. Asif argued that the principle of devolution had already…

LAHORE: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday welcomed the provision of export insurance coverage by the Export Development Fund (EDF) and the Export-Import Bank of Pakistan (EXIM Bank), particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), saying the initiative would help increase the country’s exports. Chairing a meeting on the Export Development Fund, he said the…

MUZAFFARABAD: On Defence Day, Pakistan remembers the soldiers who gave their lives defending the country’s frontiers. High in the mountains of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), nearly 9,000 feet above sea level, the remote Pandu sector offers a particularly poignant reminder of that sacrifice, where the Martyrs of Pandu Cemetery quietly preserves the memory of…

Experts believe interior minister may be referring to a referendum as a means of ascertaining public opinion ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s remarks that the creation of new provinces or administrative units could ultimately be decided through public opinion have triggered a debate over whether a referendum can constitutionally be used to create new provinces….