The conflict with India — starting from the April 22 Pahalgam attack to the end of Operation Bunyanum Marsoos with a ceasefire between the two countries on May 10 — has been called “Marka-i-Haq” (Battle of Truth) by the state.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir were among those attending the ceremony in Islamabad, where Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Naveed Ashraf and Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Baber Sidhu were also present.

PM Shehbaz began his address by observing one minute of silence for those martyred during the period of conflict.

Recalling the conflict, PM Shehbaz said that India “using Pahalgam as an excuse, made baseless accusations against us”. And despite Pakistan offering a transparent investigation into the incident, the “enemy, in the dark of the night, attacked our mosques and children, imposing an unprovoked war on us”.

“Our brave armed forces gave a historic response to the attack that the enemy carried out in the darkness of the night,” he said, adding that “our Shaheens dominated the conflict”.

Consequently, he continued, India was compelled to request a ceasefire after four hours.

He also noted that even one year after the Pahalgam attack, India had not been able to present any evidence of Pakistan’s alleged involvement in the incident.

“There is no doubt that Operation Bunyanum Marsoos is not just a historic win but also a glowing victory of our national honour, principles and self-respect,” he added.

The premier announced that ‘Youm-i-Bunyanum Marsoos’ would be celebrated on May 10 every year from now onwards.

He paid tributes to the armed forces, particularly mentioning CDF Munir, who he said had set new examples of “bravery and courage” during Marka-i-Haq.

“Field Marshal’s wise and brave leadership will be written in golden words in history. Field Marshal Asim Munir, the entire nation and I salute you,” PM Shehbaz said.

He added that this “tale of bravery will remain incomplete without the mention of ACM Sidhu and his Shaheens … who laid bare the reality behind the claims of the adversary’s aerial power. ACM Sidhu, I also pay tribute to you and congratulate your Shaheens from the bottom of my heart.”

PM Shehbaz also lauded the country’s navy and its chief, saying that the adversaries could not “muster the courage to enter our waters” during Marka-i-Haq.

He then acknowledged the support of the people extended to the armed forces during the conflict, as well as that of the “brotherly and friendly countries” for Pakistan on the diplomatic front.

The prime minister particularly thanked US President Donald Trump, who he said played a “historic role for peace in the region and to save millions of lives”.

He said had the situation worsened and things escalated further between two nuclear-armed nations, “it is not difficult to assess how disastrous the outcome would have been”.

PM Shehbaz also specifically expressed gratitude to the leadership of Saudi Arabia, China and Turkiye.

The premier also mentioned Pakistan’s efforts for de-escalation between the US and Iran.

“Our sincere efforts continue, and Field Marshal was telling me a while ago that we have received Iran’s response.

“I cannot go into more detail. But, I commend the efforts of Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and congratulate Field Marshal Asim Munir, who has dedicated himself [to this cause],” he said.

He then lauded the armed forces for their fight against terrorism and concluded his address by promising the youth more opportunities for education and employment, and to learn skills.

‘Calibrated and shocking response’

Speaking after him, President Zardari dubbed Marka-i-Haq “one of the most important chapters” in Pakistan’s national history.

He added: “India chose unprovoked aggression on the basis of false flag Pahalgam incident, and launched an airstrike on Pakistan’s civilian and worship places without any justification. And India’s media misled the nation by presenting fabricated stories”.

To that, Pakistan gave a “calibrated and shocking response to the Indian aggression” under the “dynamic” leadership of CDF Munir, he said.

President Zardari maintained that despite its military capabilities, Pakistan chose to exercise restraint. “Our response was mature and measured, being a responsible and peace-preferring state”.

He said the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) proved during Marka-i-Haq that they were second to none.

“Our pilots faced a larger adversary, but with its extraordinary skills and confidence, it defended our skies,” President Zardari said, recalling that Pakistan downed eight Indian aircraft, “delivering a response that became a defining moment of the resolve and national pride”.

He also commended the Pakistan Navy, which he said, “through their operational preparation and combat capabilities, defended our seas”.

The president said Pakistan’s victory reflected the nation’s unity and harmony and gave a message to the world: “that we remain united, vigilant and resolute like a wall.”

The president said India’s unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty after the Pahalgam incident amounted to “hydro-terrorism”.

He also reiterated Pakistan’s diplomatic support for the people of the India-occupied Kashmir and their cause, stating that the issue “needs to be resolved in accordance with UN resolution”.

Moreover, he also called for an end to the “India-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan through Afghanistan” and the use of Afghan soil for terrorism in its neighbouring countries.

Concluding his address, the president remarked that the diplomatic efforts of CDF Munir and PM Shehbaz had earned Pakistan the reputation of a “regional stabiliser”, particularly concerning its mediatory role in the US-Iran conflict.

“I want to conclude by underlining that Pakistan’s armed forces are capable and always ready to defend our sovereignty and national interest in the face of any challenge,” he said.

The ceremony began with a march past and the recitation of the Holy Quran.

A fly past was also planned but had to be aborted due to bad weather.

Patriotic songs were also performed during the ceremony.

Rallies and events in Azad Kashmir

In Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), rallies, seminars, exhibitions and cake-cutting ceremonies were held on the occasion.

The day’s first major event was a rally organised by the Working Committee of post-1989 migrants from India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir in Muzaffarabad. Participants carried Pakistani and AJK flags and banners bearing slogans such as “We are Pakistanis and Pakistan is ours”.

“Kashmiris have pinned their hopes on a strong and stable Pakistan, and the current military leadership has made them happy by inflicting a humiliating defeat on their tormentor, India,” said rally leader Uzair Ghazali.

Separately, acting AJK president Chaudhry Latif Akbar and Chinar Division General Officer Commanding (GOC) Maj Gen Zarrar Mahmood inaugurated a Pakistan Army exhibition of defence equipment as part of the Victory Day celebrations commemorating the success in Marka-i-Haq.

The exhibition showcased modern weaponry, communication systems, combat vehicles and other military hardware, attracting large crowds, particularly young visitors.

Akbar and the GOC also hoisted the national flag and laid a floral wreath at the martyrs’ memorial at Chhatar Chowk, where a Pakistan Army contingent presented a salute. A special message from Field Marshal Munir was also read out on the occasion.

In Kotli district, a large rally and public gathering were held in Fatehpur Thakyala, attended by Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Amir Muqam as the chief guest.

“The battle of truth crushed India’s arrogance and, by the grace of Allah Almighty, elevated Pakistan to new heights of dignity, honour and prestige,” he said.

He described residents living along the Line of Control as “unpaid soldiers of Pakistan” who had always stood shoulder to shoulder with the armed forces during difficult times.

“I do not have enough words to repay your love and affection. I am indebted to your passion and devotion. Our brothers living on the LoC deserve the highest tribute,” he added.

Rallies were also held at district headquarters across AJK, while educational institutions and government offices organised special events, including cake-cutting ceremonies and prayers for Pakistan’s strength and the early freedom of Kashmiris from Indian occupation.

In Kabul, Pakistan’s ambassador Ubaidur Rehman Nizamani reaffirmed the nation’s resolve to defend itself against any aggression, stating that the “enemy attacked the nation and the armed forces of Pakistan responded valiantly on behalf of every Pakistani”. Paying glowing tribute to the armed forces, Ambassador Nizamani affirmed that the nation stands eternally indebted to their sacrifices.

A statement issued by the embassy further quoted him as saying: “Pakistan’s desire for peace must never be mistaken for weakness.”

Additional reporting by Tariq Naqash

Speaking at a ceremony held in Islamabad to commemorate Marka-i-Haq, the premier mentioned Pakistan’s efforts for de-escalation between the US and Iran, stating that Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir had informed him “a while ago” that Pakistan had received Iran’s response.

“I cannot go into more detail. But, I commend the efforts of Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and congratulate Field Marshal Asim Munir, who has dedicated himself [to this cause],” he said.

Earlier, Iranian media reported that Iran had sent its response to the US proposal via Pakistan.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran sent today through Pakistani mediators its response to the latest text proposed by the United States to end the war,” the official IRNA news agency said.

Iranian news agency ISNA reported that Tehran’s response to the latest US peace proposal focuses on “ending the war and maritime security”.

“It should be noted that the main focus of Iran’s response to the US proposal is on ‘ending the war and maritime security’ in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” the ISNA news agency said, without offering further details.

Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported that Tehran’s response to the US plan focused on ending the war “on all fronts, especially Lebanon”, as well as on “ensuring shipping security”.

Later, Reuters reported, citing a Pakistani government official involved in the negotiations, that Pakistan had received Iran’s response and sent it to the US.

Iran had been reviewing the 14-point proposal from the US for formally ending hostilities and opening a 30-day negotiating window for detailed discussions on Iran’s nuclear programme, sanctions relief and secure transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran has largely blocked non-Iranian shipping through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, which before the ​war carried one-fifth of the world’s oil supply and has emerged as one of the central pressure points in the war.

Diplomatic sources earlier confirmed that the proposal had been conveyed to Tehran through Pakistani mediators.

With US President Donald Trump due to visit China this week, there has been mounting pressure to draw a line under the war, which ​has ignited a global energy crisis and poses a growing threat to the world economy.

Trump had said on Friday that he was expecting Iran’s response to Washington’s proposal for a deal to extend a fragile truce and launch peace talks — “supposedly tonight”.

Earlier, he had also announced the suspension of ‘Project Freedom’, the US naval plan to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, citing progress in talks and requests from Pakistan and others, while maintaining the broader naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Meanwhile, Pakistan had also expressed optimism that the United States and Iran could soon move towards a peace agreement.

At the weekly media briefing on Thursday, Foreign Office spokesman Tahir Andrabi said Isla­mabad expected an agreement “soo­­ner rather than later”.

“We remain optimistic. A simple answer would be that we expect an agreement sooner rather than later,” he said. “We hope that the parties will come to a peaceful, sustainable solution and bring peace, not just to our region but internationally as well.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar also spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier this week amid indications that Washington and Tehran were edging closer to a preliminary understanding on ending hostilities.

But the optimism dimmed on Friday when a US fighter jet fired on and disabled two Iranian-flagged tankers that Washington accused of challenging its naval blockade of Iran’s ports. An Iranian military official told local media the country’s navy had responded “to American terrorism with strikes” and that “the clashes have now ceased”.

The latest incident came after a previous flare-up overnight Thursday to Friday in the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran is seeking to control to extract tolls from foreign vessels and wield economic leverage over the US and its allies.

On Sunday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened to target US sites in the Middle East and “enemy ships” if its tankers come under fire, Iranian media reported.

“Any attack on Iranian tankers and commercial vessels will result in a heavy attack on one of the American centres in the region and enemy ships,” it said, a day after US attacks against two Iranian tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

Meanwhile, Iranian state television reported that the head of the military central command, Ali Abdollahi, had met with the country’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since his appointment in March.

Khamenei issued “new directives and guidance for the continuation of operations to confront the enemy”, state TV said, without specifying when the meeting took place.

The conflict between the US and Iran began more than two months ago when the US and Israel launched strikes in Iran on February 28.

While a deal for a complete end to the war is yet to happen, the hostilities have largely ceased since the two sides agreed on a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire on April 8.

Following the truce, a first round of historic direct US-Iran talks was held in Islamabad on April 11 and 12, with Pakistan playing the role of a mediator. The talks had ended without an agreement, but also without a breakdown.

With challenges in convening a second round, Islamabad has shifted back to its role as a facilitator and go-between.

Among the main issues that remain a sticking point between the two sides are unrestricted navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and Washington’s demand for long-term commitments on Iran’s nuclear programme, including constraints on enrichment and safeguards against weaponisation.

The terrorists launched their attack on the post by ramming a vehicle laden with explosives.

According to Bannu Regional Police Officer Sajjad Khan, a total of 18 police personnel were present at the post at the time of the attack, of whom 15 were martyred and three sustained injuries.

Police said that following the explosion, terrorists opened heavy fire and attacked the post from multiple directions. Multiple blasts were heard in the area, causing fear and panic among local residents.

“During the assault, the militants used quadcopters along with heavy weaponry,” a senior administrative official in Bannu told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Sources said that communication with the Fateh Khel police post was lost briefly after the attack.

The powerful blast completely destroyed the post. An armoured vehicle stationed at the post was also destroyed in the attack.

Nearby buildings also suffered severe damage from the blast’s intensity. Following the attack, an emergency was declared in local hospitals.

The Bannu police launched an operation, led by RPO Sajjad, after the attack, and the area was cordoned off by security forces.

Police also tightened security across the city and set up additional checkpoints. Local residents also came out in support of law enforcement personnel.

Rescue 1122 teams concluded the rescue operation at the site of the incident on Sunday morning.

“The rescue operation has been completed. Fifteen bodies and three injured were recovered from the debris,” said Rescue 1122.

Later, officials from the bomb disposal squad told Dawn that a loader rickshaw was used in the attack. They said the preliminary investigation suggested that around 1,000 to 1,500 kilogrammes of explosive material was kept in the rickshaw.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said he was “deeply saddened by the tragic incident”.

“These courageous sons of the soil sacrificed their lives while protecting the people of Pakistan and defending peace. Their bravery, commitment and sacrifice will never be forgotten,” he wrote on X.

Naqvi expressed his heartfelt condolences and prayers to the bereaved families, praying for the martyrs’ elevated ranks.

“Pakistan stands united against terrorism and such cowardly acts can never weaken our resolve,” the interior minister affirmed.

PM condemns attack, reaffirms resolve against terrorism

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday telephoned KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and strongly condemned the terrorist attack.

The premier expressed deep sorrow and grief over the loss of precious lives in the attack and prayed for the elevation of ranks of the police personnel martyred. He also extended heartfelt condolences to their bereaved families and prayed for the speedy recovery of those injured in the attack.

Reaffirming the federal government’s commitment to eliminating terrorism, he said that the centre would continue working closely with provincial governments to ensure the complete eradication of terrorism from the country.

“We will provide every possible assistance to the provincial government in the fight against terrorism,” PM Shehbaz said.

Both leaders paid tribute to the armed forces, security forces, and police personnel for their sacrifices and efforts in combating terrorism.

The prime minister reiterated that the government remained fully determined to eliminate all forms of terrorism from the country.

President Asif Ali Zardari also condemned the attack, a statement carried by state broadcaster Radio Pakistan said.

He paid tribute to the police personnel martyred in a terrorist attack and prayed for their “eternal peace and elevation of the ranks”, the statement said, adding that the president also expressed sorrow over the damage caused to the homes of area residents in the incident.

President Zardari directed the provincial and federal governments to ensure all possible assistance for the injured and those affected by the attack, the statement said.

It quoted him as saying: “Nefarious designs of terrorist elements would be foiled and the nation stands shoulder to shoulder with its forces.”

He said that “at a time when Pakistan is striving for regional and global peace, terrorists backed by India are targeting Pakistan’s civilian population and law enforcement agencies from sanctuaries provided by the Taliban regime”.

The president expressed confidence that Pakistan would succeed in its efforts for global peace and defeat terrorists as well as their patrons.

“Pakistan will target not only the terrorists, but also their facilitators and sponsors,” he said.

Iranian envoy condemns Bannu attack

Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan Reza Amiri Moghadam also condemned the terrorist attack on the Fateh Khel police post.

In a statement, he expressed condolences to the government and people of Pakistan, particularly the bereaved families, and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.

Turkiye’s Embassy in Pakistan also condemned the attack in Bannu, vowing to “stand in full solidarity with Pakistan”.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation also condemned the attack and extended its “sincere condolences and sympathy to the government and people of Pakistan and to the families of the victims”.

It said in a statement it “wishes a speedy recovery to the injured, and reaffirms its solidarity with Pakistan in the face of terrorism and violence”.

The British embassy in Pakistan posted on X that the UK also “strongly condemns” the terrorist attack.

“Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims and those who have been injured. The UK stands in solidarity with Pakistan in the fight against terrorism,” the post said.

The Saudi foreign ministry also issued a condemnation of the “treacherous terrorist attack”.

Bannu district has been the scene of repeated security incidents in recent months, with both civilians and local security forces coming under attack amid a broader surge in militant violence.

Violence in Bannu has included attacks on police and jirga members, prompting targeted operations by police and security forces in various localities to disrupt militant networks.

Additional input from AFP.

India is one of the few countries in the region that has not increased the prices of petrol and diesel for domestic consumers or rationed supplies.

But it has increased prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) — a primary cooking fuel in this country — after disruptions following the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which led to Iran’s near-total blockade of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

“We have to reduce our use of petrol and diesel. In cities with metro lines, we should try to travel by metro … If we must use a car, then we should try to car pool,” he said, addressing a gathering in southern Telangana state.

He added that restrictions on use were also necessary to save foreign currency spent on fuel imports.

“We must also place a strong emphasis on saving foreign exchange, as petrol and diesel have become so expensive globally.”

Modi also urged people to resume energy-saving schemes that were in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We should prioritise work from home, online conferences, and virtual meetings again,” he said.

In a social media post on X, Governor Kundi said that PTI leaders, including former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, MNA Junaid Akber, and other parliamentarians, called on him for a “constructive exchange on the pressing issues of KP”.

“We discussed the province’s constitutional and economic rights, including Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) closures, wheat concerns, National Finance Commission (NFC) matters, and the challenges faced by the merged districts and the business community,” he stated.

The meeting comes less than a week after KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi had announced observing a province-wide pen-down strike over the federal government’s alleged “discrimination” against KP in the NFC Award, electricity and gas.

Since taking charge as the province’s chief executive in October 2025, Afridi has repeatedly accused the Centre of stalling the release of funds allocated to KP, particularly those committed to the merged districts under the NFC Award. He had also condemned the Punjab government’s tighter controls on inter-provincial movement of wheat and flour through a permit regime to curb price hikes within the province.

The KP government in March requested the federal government to revise the NFC resource distribution formula on the basis of the region’s population, which would increase the province’s share from the existing 14.62 per cent to 18.96pc. Subsequently, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb had assured his “full support” to Afridi for the “resolution of all legitimate issues” as the two met in Islamabad.

The province has been further affected by a deepening CNG crisis in April that brought economic activity to a near standstill, with hundreds of filling stations shut and millions of citizens struggling for affordable fuel.

KP Governor Kundi in today’s meeting called for the province’s case to be “presented firmly and collectively before the federal government to ensure justice and fair treatment.”

Pakistan made 386 all out in response to Bangladesh’s first innings total of 413 in Dhaka.

Bangladesh closed the day on 7-0 in their second innings to increase their lead to 34 runs, after bad light ended play with Mahmudul Hasan Joy unbeaten on two and Shadman Islam yet to score.

left-handed Azan, who resumed on 85, completed his hundred off 153 balls to become the 14th Pakistani and sixth player overall to score a century on debut against Bangladesh.

He became pace bowler Taskin Ahmed’s 50th Test wicket after captain Najmul Hossain Shanto caught the opener at slip.

“It’s a very blessed feeling for me because I know it’s my debut match and I performed really well for my country,” a visibly moved Azan said.

“When I was going in to bat, I was a little nervous, but I performed very well for my team.” Pakistan lost wickets at regular intervals but kept coming back as Abdullah Fazal, another debutant, scored 60, Salman Agha made 58 and Mohammad Rizwan chipped in with 59.

Rizwan and Agha made 119 for the sixth wicket, one of three century partnerships for the visitors, before rain wiped out a large portion of the afternoon session.

The pitch offered more assistance to the spinners when play resumed and Mehidy exploited the conditions to perfection, with Pakistan bowled out in 100.3 overs.

Mehidy, who bowled 38 overs of his off-spin, was rewarded for his patience.

“On a true wicket like this, as a spinner, my mindset is that I will not get help from the pitch in the first three days,” Miraz said.

“If I bowl in good areas and the batter makes a mistake, then I have a chance of taking wickets. My job was to make sure I did not concede runs from one end.”

“In the second innings, I will come as an attacking bowler when the ball is turning,” he said.

In a post on X, PM Shehbaz said he was “delighted to receive a telephone call from my brother […] earlier today”.

“We exchanged views on the evolving regional situation and reaffirmed our shared commitment to support all ongoing efforts aimed at promoting lasting peace, stability, and constructive dialogue across the region,” the premier added.

The prime minister said he conveyed his “sincere appreciation to my dear brother”, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, “for his wise leadership and for Qatar’s continued support for Pakistan’s sincere efforts to advance regional peace and stability through dialogue and diplomacy”.

PM Shehbaz further said he looked forward to the Qatari emir’s visit to “Pakistan very soon”.

In its statement on the phone call, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said the two leaders “reviewed the progress of ongoing peace efforts in the region”.

Emphasising the “depth of the brotherly bonds between the two countries”, the PMO said both sides “underscored the importance of constructive engagement by all parties to ensure the success of ongoing peace efforts”.

It further noted that the Qatari emir’s visit “would help both sides to further strengthen and expand the enduring Pakistan-Qatar partnership”.

According to Qatar’s foreign ministry, Sheikh Mohammed affirmed Qatar’s “full support for the Pakistani mediation efforts aimed at ending the crisis through peaceful means”.

He stressed the “need for all parties to respond to these efforts in order to create the appropriate conditions for progress in the negotiations, leading to a comprehensive agreement that achieves sustainable peace in the region”.

The conversation marks the second phone call this week between PM Shehbaz and Sheikh Mohammed. It also follows the Qatari PM’s meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy on the Middle East Steve Witkoff during his visit to the United States.

Rubio said he discussed “US support for Qatar’s defence”, while Qatar’s foreign ministry noted that “Pakistani mediation aimed at reducing escalation” also came under discussion.

Iran, while questioning the seriousness of American diplomacy, has kept the United States waiting for its response to Washington’s latest proposals to end more than two months of fighting and begin peace talks.

Pakistan initially positioned itself as a facilitator in the peace process between Tehran and Washington after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, setting off a conflict that gave rise to a global fuel crisis. Later, the White House and Iran acknowledged it as the “sole mediator” in the process.

The first round of historic direct US-Iran talks, held in Islamabad on April 11 and 12, ended without an agreement, but also without a breakdown, as a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire was then extended indefinitely by US President Donald Trump.

While Pakistan’s leadership is seeking to bring the US and Iran back to the negotiating table, an impasse remains.

Naqvi, who is on an official visit to Bangladesh, called on Islam in Dhaka, where the two held “detailed discussions on bilateral relations, the regional situation, and Pakistan’s conciliatory role”, according to an official statement released by the Ministry of Interior.

The Bangladeshi state minister appreciated Pakistan’s efforts aimed at resolving the Iran-US conflict, it said.

Pakistan has been leading the efforts for the resolution of the conflict, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, and hosted the first round of face-to-face talks between Washington and Tehran in April.

The interior ministry’s statement said that during Nqavi’s meeting with Islam, both sides agreed to increase cooperation in the fields of trade, business, and culture and “on maximum mutual exchange of delegations to promote trade and cultural relations”.

“Discussion was also held regarding the visit of Bangladesh’s foreign minister to Pakistan,” it added.

Bangladesh Foreign Ministry Secretary Mohammad Nazrul Islam, Pakistani High Commissioner Imran Haider and other officials were also present at the meeting.

The meeting comes a day after Naqvi signed an anti-narcotics memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh Interior Minister Salahuddin Ahmed and offered cooperation on the Safe City Project.

Relations between Islamabad and Dhaka have improved since the ouster of former Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina, during whose tenure ties between the two countries remained shaky.

He made the remarks at a ceremony held at General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi to mark one year since Pakistan’s victory in last year’s conflict with India.

The conflict with India — starting from the April 22 Pahalgam attack to the end of Operation Bunyanum Marsoos with a ceasefire between the two countries on May 10 — has been called “Marka-i-Haq” (Battle of Truth) by the state.

CDF Munir, as the chief guest, addressed the event. Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu and Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Naveed Ashraf were also in attendance.

Addressing the ceremony, Field Marshal Munir warned: “Our enemies should know that if any attempt is made in the future to carry out a misadventure against Pakistan, then the impact of war would not be limited, but extremely widespread, dangerous, far-reaching and painful.”

At the outset of his speech, the army chief said the day was a “source of pride” for Pakistan, its public and the armed forces.

He recalled that the “enemy made a failed attempt to test our resolve by violating the sovereignty and territory” of Pakistan from the midnight of May 6/7 till May 10. He asserted this was responded to “with full national unity and military force”.

“Marka-i-Haq was not merely a traditional war fought between two countries or militaries, but in reality, it was a decisive marka (battle) between two ideologies, in which, thanks to Allah, the truth won and falsehood was met with defeat,” he noted.

Quoting a Quranic verse on truth and falsehood, he stressed that the May 2025 conflict was “not a sudden incident, but rather a part of India’s false and widening pattern of exploitative tactics”.

“The false flag operations of 2001, 2008, 2016 and 2019 are a testament that even in the past, India has made failed attempts to impose an illegitimate war on Pakistan and […] achieve narrow-minded, long-term political and military objectives through allegations, exaggeration, warmongering and misleading imagination of limited aggression,” CDF Munir said.

“Each time, not only did Pakistan unveil the wrong assumptions of the enemy, but also served it a decisive defeat. In this war as well, India once again was a victim of its obsolete and self-delusional thinking,” he asserted.

The army chief highlighted that the objective of Operation Bunyanum Marsoos was to “unravel the enemy’s behaviour under which, to divert attention from its internal failures, it creates war hysteria by blaming Pakistan for every self-inflicted incident”.

CDF Munir said India was under the false assumption that it could “change the balance of power and prove its dominance over the region by making Pakistan a target of its military aggression and diplomatically isolating it”.

“But in reality, global and defence experts know that India’s ambitions proved to be much larger than its stature and capabilities,” COAS Munir remarked, asserting that Pakistan’s armed forces were not intimidated by the dominance of power and will never do so.

He paid tribute to the martyrs of Marka-i-Haq who “paid the price of this victory with their blood”, including women, the elderly and children killed in Indian strikes.

“All martyrs of Marka-i-Haq and their bereaved families are our crown. Your sacrifices are the guarantor of our independence and everlasting debts,” the army chief said. “We consider our martyrs an amanat, our power and responsibility, and our success a favour of God,” he added.

The army chief proceeded to express his gratitude to the president, the prime minister, the federal cabinet, the national and provincial political leadership, and all political parties for their “everlasting political wisdom, foresight and leadership” that accorded Pakistan success.

“The national leadership, all government institutions and the Pakistani nation gave a message as a single unit that any compromise on the country’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and national honour is unacceptable,” he declared.

CDF Munir stated that Pakistan also “achieved success on the diplomatic front” as its leaders and representatives conveyed Pakistan’s stance on the global stage.

“Similarly, there is no parallel found to the way the Pakistani media, the journalist community, and especially our youth, thwarted the enemy’s propaganda, cyberwarfare and psychological tactics,” he added.

The army chief highlighted that the conflict was not won on just the battlefield, but also “in every section of society” at the national level.

Emphasising that a country’s true power lies with its nation’s unity of thought and action, and patriotism, he lauded the “comprehensive national unity” displayed by the public.

“When the clouds of war loomed, we saw that every ideological and individual identity was transformed into Pakistaniyat — labourers, traders, students, the elderly and the young, and all Pakistani men and women resolved to defend their homeland,” he recalled.

“We witnessed a relation between the nation, the government, and the armed forces by virtue of which the entire nation lined up in defence of the country like an iron wall,” the army chief said.

He then recited a Quranic verse from which the phrase “Bunyanum Marsoos” for Pakistan’s retaliatory operation was derived. The verse was also recited earlier during the ceremony.

“In this battle, not only did the armed forces defeat the aggressor enemy beyond its imagination, but the professional expertise and top military strategy of our ground, naval and air forces forced the enemy to meet defeat,” the military chief said.

The CDF commended the air force personnel for “reducing the enemy’s pride to dust and setting the unique example of the modern era’s longest and decisive air battle” under the leadership of the air chief.

“Not only did they down the enemy’s several modern fighter jets, but also destroyed numerous military installations,” he said.

The field marshal also lauded the naval forces for “keeping the enemy’s naval ships thousands of miles away from Pakistani territory through constant monitoring and vigilant defence of the maritime borders”. He further commended the forces on the Working Border and the Line of Control for thwarting India’s aggression and “causing immense loss by destroying its defence positions”.

He asserted that India “suffered great human and economic losses, the price of which it will keep paying in the times to come”.

The army chief recalled that Pakistan “successfully targeted more than 26 military targets” in India during the conflict, following which New Delhi “expressed the wish for a ceasefire” to international powers.

“Defeated India expressed the desire for mediation through the American leadership, which Pakistan accepted in the interest of wider regional peace,” Field Marshal Munir said.

Future conflicts to comprise ‘multi-domain operations’

The army chief declared that Pakistan’s “defence was absolutely invincible in the face of any foreign aggression”.

“We are strictly committed to maintaining the balance of power in the region and our effective defence deterrence,” he said, asserting that the focal point of the armed forces was the protection of peace rather than aggression.

“And to maintain peace, it is mandatory to be ready for war at all times,” CDF Munir noted.

He observed that traditional wars were a thing of the past, adding that modern and future wars would “comprise multi-domain operations, in which modern technology, including cyber and electronic warfare, drones, long-range vectors, and artificial intelligence would play a crucial role”.

The military chief noted that to “further harmonise Pakistan’s armed forces with multi-domain operations”, the Defence Forces Headquarters has been established, the space programme was being expanded, and the Army Rocket Force Command has been formed.

He cited the induction of Hangor-class submarines in the Pakistan Navy, the acquisition of the “most modern fighter jets” for the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), and the Fatah missile series as “a few examples of this series”.

At the same time, COAS Munir stressed that the “journey of this defence preparedness” was not merely limited to buying new weapons, but extended to a “new thinking, training and research”.

Pakistan’s diplomatic success

CDF Munir highlighted that Marka-i-Haq had direct positive impacts on Pakistan’s foreign policy and diplomatic importance, with the world acknowledging Pakistan as an “invincible power”.

“The number of our friends in the world today is much higher compared to the past,” he said, adding that even those who criticised Pakistan were praising it now.

The army chief also mentioned the “Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement” signed with Saudi Arabia last year as a “great milestone of our diplomatic successes”.

He highlighted Pakistan’s “unbiased and responsible diplomacy” and its role as a host for “historic negotiations” between the United States and Iran.

Field Marshal Munir thanked the US and Iranian leadership, particularly US President Donald Trump, for “trusting Pakistan with this difficult task”.

‘Only one demand from Afghanistan’

In his address, the army chief said India had intensified its “state-sponsored terrorism and the strategy of supporting it”.

“It has realised that it is impossible to defeat Pakistan in the traditional battlefield. Subsequently, it has again resorted to the disgusting behaviour of terrorism,” he said, highlighting that terrorism was also being carried out from Afghanistan’s soil.

“Pakistan has only one demand from Afghanistan: to stop supporting Fitna al Khawarij and Fitna al Hindustan on the directives of India, and to completely eradicate the centres and safe havens of terrorism on its soil,” CDF Munir said.

He commended the country’s law enforcement agencies, security personnel, and public, especially those in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, for fighting terrorism for the past two decades. The army chief reaffirmed the state’s resolve to eradicate terrorism.

‘Story of Pakistan incomplete without Kashmir’

Field Marshal Munir also mentioned the people of occupied Kashmir.

“Any story of Pakistan is incomplete without Kashmir. The resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the United Nations’ resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiris is necessary to secure freedom from India’s state brutality and violence,” he asserted.

The army chief emphasised that the ground realities of India-occupied Kashmir could not be changed through any demographic or social re-engineering.

“We will continue to raise our voice for Kashmiris’ right to self-determination at every forum, and continue our political, diplomatic and moral support for the Kashmiri people,” COAS Munir affirmed.

Concluding his address, the army chief expressed the hope that the nation would face any future challenges like an iron wall and further strengthen the homeland by continuing on the path of development.

Prior to the army chief’s address, ACM Sidhu and Admiral Ashraf took turns to lay floral wreaths at the Yadgar-i-Shuhada (Martyrs’ Monument).

A salute was presented by smartly turned-out contingents of the three branches of the armed forces, which was followed by the national anthem being played.

‘Defining landmark’

In their messages issued on Saturday, Field Marshal Munir, ACM Sidhu and Admiral Ashraf congratulated the nation and officers and personnel of the armed forces on the completion of one year since the success of Marka-i-Haq.

“Observed with deep reverence, gratitude, and national fervour, the day stands as a testament to the enduring spirit of courage, professionalism, and unity,” a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) quoted them as saying.

“Marka-i-Haq has become a defining landmark in the nation’s journey, reflecting national resolve, military excellence, and strategic maturity. This success not only bolstered national confidence but also established Pakistan as a responsible regional stabiliser, possessing formidable military capabilities,” it stated.

The statement added that Pakistan’s measured and resolute response during Marka-i-Haq “exposed adversarial conspiracies, false flag narratives and disinformation campaigns, diminishing their credibility internationally”.

“Despite facing conventional and hybrid challenges, including proxy terrorism, the armed forces demonstrated superior operational competence across land, air, sea, cyber, and information domains,” it continued.

It further read that in the aftermath of Marka-i-Haq, Pakistan had “further enhanced its defensive capabilities and reinforced full-spectrum deterrence despite resource asymmetries”.

In a post on X, PTCL said: “A maintenance activity is planned on one of our submarine cables to repair a fault by the International Cable Consortium,” adding that the work will begin on May 11 and may continue until May 18.

“During this period, customers may face internet service degradation during evening hours,” PTCL said.

The state-owned telecom giant manages three undersea optical fibre cable networks that provide international internet connectivity to Pakistan.

Internet users in Pakistan often face disruptions due to persistent submarine cable faults.

According to a report by Top10VPN.com, Pakistan led the world in financial losses from outages and shutdowns of internet and social media apps in 2o23.

According to sources, several militant hideouts were destroyed during the operation, while security forces intensified actions in multiple localities of the region.

In the Dorwazanda area of Shewa tehsil, the Alam Khel Market was reportedly almost completely demolished during the operation. Local residents claimed that militants had allegedly been using the market as hideouts and movement routes.

Meanwhile, in the Anarkhel area, an alleged militant hideout and a residential compound were also destroyed with explosive material. Sources added that security forces had taken control of several important buildings and installations during the operation, including the Governor Model School, which militants were allegedly using for their activities.

Residents and local sources said door-to-door search operations were continuing in Dorwazanda and nearby areas, while additional contingents of security personnel had been deployed. Security forces also conducted raids on several suspected locations and reportedly seized weapons and other materials.

According to reports, militants suffered heavy casualties during the ongoing operation. Sources claimed that the slain militants were allegedly involved in attacks on security forces and police personnel, as well as incidents of targeted killings.

Security operations were also launched in the Sarkhani area, where intermittent firing and explosions continued to be heard, sources said.

A curfew remained imposed across the affected areas, severely disrupting daily life and causing difficulties for residents. Several families were said to have shifted to safer locations, while business activities remained completely suspended.

Security officials said the purpose of the operation was to eliminate militant elements from the area and restore peace and stability.

Historically, Shewa was considered one of the relatively peaceful areas of North Waziristan. Residents primarily depend on agriculture, livestock and small-scale businesses, and the area is known for its simplicity and strong tribal cohesion.

Even during the military operations launched after 2014, locals say Shewa remained comparatively less affected, and normal life returned sooner than in other parts of the district.

However, over the past year, the situation has deteriorated sharply. Residents attribute the worsening conditions to a rise in targeted killings, quadcopter attacks and increased activity by outlawed militant groups.

In March, after the evacuation of Dorwazanda, Alamkhel, Malokhel and Anarkhel villages in Shewa, families from nearby localities were also fleeing their homes to relatively safer districts.

In January, unknown attackers blew up a bridge over the Kurram River, which served as a vital link between several villages, compounding difficulties faced by residents.

Government planes carrying Spanish and French nationals landed in Madrid and Paris, where the passengers were transported to hospitals, according to the two countries’ governments.

One of the five French passengers showed symptoms during the repatriation flight, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on X.

Planes to Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, the UK, Ireland, and the United States were due to depart by 8:30 local time on ​Sunday, with the final flights departing on Monday.

The passengers will be tested upon arrival and then either taken to local hospitals or quarantine ​facilities or transported home for isolation.

The World Health Organisation has recommended a 42-day quarantine for all passengers from the boat from Sunday, its ⁠director of epidemic and pandemic management Maria Van Kerkhove said in a briefing.

The Spanish passengers will be kept in hospital for the full 42 days, while French passengers will ​be hospitalised for 72 hours, then allowed home to self-isolate for a further 45 days, according to the respective governments.

“Our recommendation is daily health checks, at home or in a ​specialised facility. It’s up to countries to develop their policies, but our recommendations are very clear,” Van Kerkhove said, highlighting that the incubation period for the virus was up to six weeks.

‘This is not Covid’

The virus, usually spread by rodents but also transmittable person-to-person in rare cases of close contact, was first detected by health officials in Johannesburg on May 2 while treating a British man who fell ill and ​was taken into intensive care, 21 days after another passenger had died.

The man’s health has since improved, a WHO official said on Sunday.

The WHO said the first passenger who ​died on the ship may have been infected before boarding, possibly during travel in Argentina and Chile.

Eight people no longer on the ship have fallen ill, according to a WHO tally from Friday, ‌of whom six ⁠are confirmed to have contracted the virus. Three have died — a Dutch couple and a German national.

Four remain hospitalised in South Africa, the Netherlands and Switzerland. On the remote island of Tristan da Cunha, a British overseas territory, a suspected case is being treated by a team of medical specialists parachuted in by the UK military.

Still, health officials urged calm, reminding a public scarred from the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic that this virus was far less contagious and posed little risk to the general population.

A woman in Spain who was tested for the ​virus after sharing a flight with one ​of the victims tested negative.

“This is not Covid, ⁠and we don’t want to treat it like Covid,” acting US CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya said in an interview with CNN on Sunday, adding the 17 US passengers from the ship would be given the choice of isolating at home or at a facility in ​Nebraska.

Spain’s health ministry also downplayed the risk to the broader population. It added that rodents had not been detected aboard the ship.

Crew, ship set to sail on to Netherlands

The luxury cruise ship left for Spain on Wednesday from the coast of Cape Verde after the WHO and European Union asked the country to manage the evacuation of passengers after the outbreak was detected.

Passengers were taken from the ship to shore in small boats and transported to Tenerife airport in military buses, without coming into contact with the public.

Thirty crew members will remain ⁠on board and ​sail to the Netherlands on Monday evening where the ship will be disinfected.

“Thank God we are all ​fine … I hope we’ll get through the quarantine process smoothly and be able to see family and friends again,” Turkish birdwatcher Emin Yogurtcuoglu, a passenger on the ship, wrote in a public post on Instagram.

All passengers considered high-risk contacts: EU agency

Europe’s public health agency said ‌ahead of the ship’s expected anchoring on Sunday off the Spanish island of Tenerife that all passengers on the cruise ship were considered high-risk contacts as ​a precautionary measure.

Passengers without symptoms will be repatriated for ​self-quarantine via specially arranged transport, not regular commercial ​flights, by their respective countries, the European Centre ⁠for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said on Saturday ​as part of its rapid scientific advice.

Although at disembarkation, passengers will be considered high-risk, not all will necessarily be considered high-risk upon return ​to their home ​countries, the ⁠ECDC said.

The agency urged symptomatic passengers to be prioritised for medical assessment and testing ​on arrival, adding they may isolate in ​Tenerife ⁠or be medically evacuated home, depending on their condition.

UK army in ‘daring’ parachute op to aid suspected Hantavirus patient

Earlier on Sunday, British military personnel carried out an airborne operation to deliver urgent medical support for a suspected Hantavirus patient on a South Atlantic island, ministers said.

An army specialist team parachuted onto the island of Tristan da Cunha, Britain’s most remote overseas territory, a defence ministry statement said.

One of three British nationals diagnosed with suspected hantavirus linked to the outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship is on the island.

The team of six paratroopers and two military clinicians, all from the 16 Air Assault Brigade, descended from a Royal Air Force (RAF) A400M transport aircraft “in a daring parachute drop”, the statement said.

Vital oxygen supplies and other medical aid were air-dropped almost simultaneously.

The urgent response came after confirmation by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Friday of a suspected infection in a British national on the island.

Tristan da Cunha, a group of volcanic islands with a population of around 220 has no airstrip and is accessible only by boat.

With oxygen supplies at critically low levels, officials said an airdrop was the only viable option to deliver care in time and support the island’s two-person medical team.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper paid tribute to the armed forces for an “extraordinary operation”.

The drop involved a long-range flight of nearly 6,800 kilometres from RAF Brize Norton in central England to Ascension Island, followed by a further 3,000-kilometre flight to Tristan da Cunha, the statement said.

A spokesperson for the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) said that a12-inch diameter high-pressure pipeline was hit during excavation for the bus rapid transit (BRT) project.

The spokesperson said as a result the gas supply to Saddar, Garden, Jamshed Road, PIB Colony, Lyari, Lines Area and adjacent localities was immediately suspended.

She said that the SSGC teams reached the site and cordoned off the damaged section of the supply line with safety barriers to prevent further risk.

Residents in affected areas reported complete disconnection of gas at 7pm, adversely impacting mainly households, who relied on piped gas during peak cooking hours in the evening.

The spokesperson said that repair work was being carried out on an emergency basis. “Gas supply will be restored gradually once repair work is completed,” she added.

The spokesperson that the repair work was expected to be completed early Sunday morning and supply would be phased back as repaired were completed.

The BRT construction corridor in Karachi has seen multiple utility line strikes in recent months as underground infrastructure intersects with ongoing roadworks.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2026

Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national of Palestinian origin, and Brazilian Thiago Avila were among dozens of activists aboard a flotilla intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters off the coast of Greece on April 30.

The pair were seized by Israeli forces and brought to Israel for questioning, while the others were taken to the Greek island of Crete and released.

“Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Avila, from the provocation flotilla, were deported today from Israel” following an investigation, the Israeli foreign ministry posted on X on Sunday.

Israel would “not allow any breach” of the blockade on Gaza, it added.

Spain, Brazil and the United Nations had all called for the men’s swift release.

On Wednesday, an Israeli court rejected an appeal contesting the pair’s detention.

“From their abduction in international waters to their unlawful detention in total isolation and the ill-treatment they were subjected to, the Israeli authorities’ actions were a punitive attack on a purely civilian mission,” Adalah, the rights group that represented the pair, said after their release.

“The use of detention and interrogation against activists and human rights defenders is an unacceptable attempt to suppress global solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.”

The flotilla had set sail from France, Spain and Italy with the aim of breaking Israel’s blockade of Gaza and delivering humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The Global Sumud Flotilla’s first voyage last year was also intercepted by Israeli forces off the coasts of Egypt and Gaza.

Israel controls all entry points into Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007.

Throughout Israel’s war on Gaza that started in October 2023, there have been shortages of critical supplies in the territory, with Israel at times cutting off aid entirely.

TEHRAN / WASHINGTON / BEIRUT: Iran questioned the seriousness of American diplomacy on Saturday in the wake of renewed naval clashes in the Gulf, while keeping Washington waiting for a response to its latest negotiating position.

A state of relative calm prevailed around the Strait of Hormuz, after days of sporadic flare-ups, as the United States waited for Iran’s response to its latest proposals to end more than two months of fighting and begin peace talks.

US President Donald Trump had said on Friday that he was expecting Iran’s response to Washington’s latest proposal for a deal to extend a fragile truce and launch peace talks — “supposedly tonight”.

But if Iran did send Pakistani mediators a response, there was no public sign of it, and Tehran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called into question the reliability of the US leadership in a call with his Turkish counterpart.

“The recent escalation of tensions by American forces in the Persian Gulf and their numerous actions in violating the ceasefire have added to suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the American side in the path of diplomacy,” he said, according to an Iranian account of the call published by the ISNA news agency.

In an incident on Friday, a US fighter jet fired on and disabled two Iranian-flagged tankers that Washington accused of challenging its naval blockade of Iran’s ports.

An Iranian military official told local media the country’s navy had responded “to American terrorism with strikes” and that “the clashes have now ceased”.

The latest incident came after a previous flare-up overnight Thursday to Friday in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital international sea lane that Iran is seeking to control to extract tolls from foreign vessels and wield economic leverage over the US and its allies.

CIA assessment

In a related development, a CIA assessment indicated that Iran would not suffer severe economic pressure from a US blockade of Iranian ports for about another four months, according to a US official familiar with the matter, suggesting that US leverage over Tehran remains limited as the two sides seek to end a conflict that has been unpopular with US voters.

A senior intelligence official characterised as false the “claims” about the CIA analysis, which was first reported by the Washington Post.

The official added that the blockade “is inflicting real, compounding damage — severing trade, crushing revenue, and accelerating systemic economic collapse”.

‘Pro-IRGC’ individuals held

Bahrain’s interior ministry said on Saturday that the country’s security services had dismantled an organisation accused of links to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and arrested 41 of its suspected members.

Bahrain, which houses a major US military base, was hard-hit by Iranian attacks on the Gulf, launched in response to US and Israeli strikes on Iran. “In accordance with previous investigations carried out by the prosecutor’s office in cases of espionage on behalf of foreign entities and sympathy for Iranian aggression, the security services dismantled an organisation linked to the Revolutionary Guards,” the ministry said in a statement.

UK deploys warship

Britain said on Saturday it was deploying its warship HMS Dragon to the Middle East in preparation for a potential multinational effort to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz once conditions allow.

HMS Dragon, an air defence destroyer, was sent to the Eastern Mediterranean in March, shortly after the start of the Iran war, to help defend Cyprus. “The pre-positioning of HMS Dragon is part of prudent planning that will ensure that the UK is ready, as part of a multinational coalition jointly led by the UK and France, to secure the Strait, when conditions allow,” a spokesperson for Britain’s Ministry of Defence said.

Strikes in Lebanon

The Israeli onslaught in Lebanon continued as the authorities reported eight people killed in Israeli air strikes in southern Lebanon on Saturday, with more raids targeting a highway south of Beirut outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds and far from the centre of ongoing fighting.

The fresh attacks came in spite of a three-week-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported a series of Israeli strikes across the south, including one on the town of Saksakiyeh.

The health ministry said that raid “resulted in an initial toll of seven martyrs, including a girl, and 15 wounded, including three children”.

The ministry reported that another Israeli strike on a motorbike in the city of Nabatieh hit “a Syrian national and his 12-year-old daughter”.

“After they managed to move away from the site of the first strike, the drone attacked a second time,” killing the father, the ministry said, adding the drone then targeted the girl “directly for a third time”. The girl was undergoing life-saving surgery, it added.

The Israeli military said it had struck more than 85 Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the past 24 hours.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah on Saturday warned of “a new phase, in which the resistance [Hezbollah] will not accept a return to pre-March 2”.

Hezbollah said on Saturday that it had targeted troops in northern Israel with a drone in response to the continued strikes. In addition to its drone attack in northern Israel, the group also claimed attacks on Israeli military targets inside Lebanon using rockets and drones.

On the other hand, US Central Command said that 58 commercial vessels have been redirected and four others disabled since the naval blockade of Iranian ports began on April 13.

Additionally, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard has threatened to target US sites in the region and “enemy ships” if its tankers come under fire, Iranian media reported.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2026

The Met Office stated that dust storms, thunderstorms and rain are likely in the upper parts, with occasional gaps, from May 10 to May 12.

According to the department, a fresh westerly wave is likely to approach the northwestern parts of the country today and persist in the upper regions until the night of May 12.

Under the influence of this weather system, dust storms, thunderstorms and rain are expected across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, specifically in Chitral, Dir, Swat, Kalam, Shangla, Buner, Kohistan, Malakand, Battagram, Mans­ehra, Abbottabad, Balakot, Haripur, Swabi, Mardan, Nowshera, Charsadda, Peshawar, Bajaur, Mohmand, Orakzai, Khyber, Kohat, Kurram, Hangu and Karak.

Westerly wave to bring widespread relief from today; landslide warnings issued; south remains in grip of heat

Similar weather is expected in Punjab and the capital territory, including Murree, Galiyat, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal, Jhelum, Khushab, Joharabad, Sargodha, Mianwali, Faisa­labad, Sahiwal, Jhang, Lahore, Shei­khupura, Okara, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Narowal.

Meanwhile, rain, wind and thunderstorms are expected from May 11 to May 13, with occasional gaps, in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), including Diamir, Astore, Ghizer, Skardu, Hunza, Gilgit, Ghanche and Shigar.

The system will also affect Kashmir, including Neelum Valley, Muzaffarabad, Poonch, Hattian, Bagh, Haveli, Sudhanoti, Kotli, Bhimber and Mirpur.

“Dust-thunderstorm and rain are likely to bring relief from hot weather in upper parts, while very hot weather conditions are expected to continue in southern parts,” including south Punjab, Sindh and parts of Balochistan, the PMD stated.

The department noted that windstorms and lightning may damage weak structures, such as electric poles, billboards and solar panels, during the forecast period.

“Landslides may occur in vulnerable areas of upper KP, GB and Kashmir during the forecast period,” the Met Office warned.

Farmers were asked to manage their crops in accordance with weather fluctuations. Tourists and travellers are advised to remain cautious and avoid unnecessary travel during this period. Additionally, all authorities concerned were advised to remain vigilant.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2026

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court acquitted a murder convict who had been sentenced to life imprisonment, while citing the well-recognised principle that it is better to err in acquittal than in conviction.

“This principle is also deeply rooted in Islamic jurisprudence, which more than fourteen centuries ago laid down the salutary maxim that it is better to acquit ten guilty persons than to convict one innocent individual,” observed Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, a member of a two-judge bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Hashim Kakar.

The court had taken up an appeal filed by Muhammad Iqbal, challenging the June 18, 2025 decision of the Sindh High Court (SHC), which had upheld his sentence.

In his eight-page judgement, Justice Ibrahim observed that reasonable doubt in the mind of a prudent person was sufficient to entitle an accused to the benefit of doubt as a matter of right and not grace. “This manifestation also finds mention in the principle of benefit of doubt, which is invariably extended in favour of the accused to ensure the safe and just administration of criminal justice,” it added.

Muhammad Iqbal was convicted under Section 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) by the Additional Sessions Judge-II, Karachi West, on Jan 26, 2024, for the murder of Jameel Khan.

The incident allegedly occurred on April 29, 2006. Iqbal was sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment along with compensation of Rs500,000 payable to the legal heirs of the deceased.

The conviction was upheld by the SHC on June 18, 2025. Iqbal had remained at large for around 14 years before his arrest on Oct 27, 2021.

Justice Ibrahim observed that the findings recorded by the SHC did not appear to be legally sustainable. The SHC had held that the petitioner’s conduct in remaining at large for 14 years after the murder, before being arrested on Oct 27, 2021, reflected, in the absence of any explanation, a guilty conscience.

Firstly, the judgement noted that the petitioner was originally a resident of Bara, Khyber district (erstwhile Fata), and there was nothing on record to establish that proceedings under Sections 204 (summons or warrant), 87 (proclamation against an absconder) and 88 (attachment of property of an absconder) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) were ever initiated or lawfully pursued against him during the alleged period of abscondence.

Secondly, it was an admitted position that no specific question regarding the alleged abscondence was put to the petitioner-convict in his statement recorded under Section 342 of the CrPC.

“It is by now a settled principle of law that any piece of evidence or circumstance not put to an accused in his statement under Section 342, CrPC cannot be used against him,” the judgement explained.

Thirdly, the judgement observed that an accused may abscond for a variety of reasons, rightly or wrongly, including fear of arrest or police harassment.

“Mere abscondence, therefore, is not conclusive proof of guilt. It is trite law that abscondence is, at best, a corroborative piece of evidence and cannot by itself be treated as substantive evidence to sustain a conviction,” the judgement stated.

Such corroborative evidence, it added, may only be considered in support of other reliable evidence and not in isolation. Where the ocular account furnished by the prosecution is found to be doubtful or unworthy of reliance, mere abscondence of the accused would not be sufficient to sustain a conviction.

While concluding, the SC observed that, in view of the material contradictions and inherent discrepancies in the prosecution’s evidence, it was persuaded to hold that the prosecution had miserably failed to prove its case against the petitioner beyond reasonable doubt. “The courts below also fell into patent error in recording the conviction of the petitioner by disregarding and overlooking such material infirmities in the prosecution case,” the judgement said, adding that the prosecution’s evidence was replete with doubts.

“It is by now a well-settled principle of criminal jurisprudence that even a single circumstance creating reasonable doubt in the prosecution case entitles an accused to acquittal.”

Consequently, the SC converted the petition into an appeal and set aside the conviction and sentence awarded to the appellant by the lower courts. The court also ordered the acquittal of the appellant and directed that he be released forthwith if not required in any other case.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2026

In a stock filing, Millat Tractors Ltd (MTL), responding to market reports about its entry into the electric bike segment, said one of its group companies was evaluating the feasibility of EV bike production in Pakistan. It said the matter remained at a preliminary stage.

Sharp increases in petrol prices have boosted demand for electric scooters and bikes, leading to market shortages and the emergence of “on money” on some models.

Social media reports claimed EV bike assemblers had received an overwhelming response from consumers, with some companies reportedly selling more than 15,000 units in April, while others sold around 5,000 units.

Assemblers eye expansion as shortages trigger premiums

However, bike sector expert Mohammad Sabir Sheikh disputed these figures, saying over 30,000 electric bikes and scooters were sold nationwide during March and April.

He said assemblers had opened more letters of credit in the past 15 to 20 days to import parts and accessories to meet rising demand. Short supplies had resulted in “on money” of Rs10,000 to Rs15,000 on some popular models, he added.

Mr Sheikh said the situation could change if petrol prices returned to pre-conflict levels, but added that higher fuel prices had at least increased consumer awareness about electric bikes.

Launch of hybrid, EV

Chery Master Pakistan (CMP) is considering launching two to three new models for the local market, including the Tiggo 4 HEV, QQ BEV, and Tiggo V, reflecting Chery’s focus on hybrid, electric, and multi-purpose mobility solutions.

CMP, introduced locally by Master Auto Engineering, part of the Master Group, signalled the possible introduction of new models after its participation in Auto China 2026.

CMP Chief Executive Officer Samir Malik said Pakistan remained an important growth market for Chery’s advanced mobility technologies. He said the company was evaluating products suited to local driving conditions, consumer expectations and long-term mobility trends.

At Auto China 2026, Chery showcased the QQ BEV, a compact electric vehicle offering a range of up to 410 km. The company positioned the model as an affordable urban mobility solution, particularly suitable for congested cities such as Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Chery Master Pakistan has already introduced a locally assembled plug-in hybrid SUV lineup, including the Tiggo 9 PHEV, Tiggo 8 PHEV and Tiggo 7 PHEV.

Fronx prices

Pak Suzuki Motor Company Ltd has recently announced introductory prices for its newly launched Suzuki Fronx crossover utility vehicle variants.

The Suzuki Fronx GL MT has been priced at Rs5.999 million, the GL 4AT at Rs6.099m, the GLX 6AT Hybrid (mono tone) at Rs6.299m and the GLX 6AT Hybrid (two tone) at Rs6.374m.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2026

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day conference on ‘Living on the Threshold of Global Crises’ organised by the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) at a local hotel here on Saturday.

“What is war? What is genocide?” The Governor asked aloud. “Our neighbouring country also tried playing with us a similar game as what Netanyahu is playing these days, but grace to Allah, the brave soldiers of Pakistan, under the leadership of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and the Government of Pakistan, under the leadership of Shehbaz Sharif, who taught them a great lesson,” he added.

“True, without successful international effort or a successful international treaty or bindings, we won’t be able to live on this globe. But there is also a higher power. Today, we hear things such as the Indian Prime Minister planning to block Pakistan’s water. But air and water has been promised to us by God Almighty. No one can stop it from reaching us,” he concluded.

Two-day PIIA conference on global crises opens

Earlier, PIIA’s Honorary Chairperson Dr Masuma Hasan said that as the world shifts from unipolarity to an emerging multilateral order, in which middle powers are beginning to play an important role, global politics is marked by violence. “Big and small wars are taking place across the globe, wars in Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, the Sahel, among others, leading to loss of life, displacement and immense human suffering, including the unprovoked attack by Israel and the United States on the Islamic Republic of Iran,” she said.

“Millions of people across the world have been displaced and are on the move because of these conflicts and crises. But the most outstanding, however, in brutality is the suffering inflicted by Israel on the people of Palestine. This is a civilisational war, aimed at eliminating the very identity of the Palestinian people, which has not only killed and maimed thousands in Gaza and the West Bank but has also bombed their material and spiritual assets, universities, schools, hospitals and healthcare facilities. It has perversely used starvation as a weapon of war and blocked access to humanitarian aid, food, sanitation and water. It will take many generations to remove the rubble and restore life and dignity to Gaza. We have witnessed a grave moral tragedy,” Dr Masuma added.

The first keynote address was delivered by Adviser to the Strategic Plans Division, Government of Pakistan, Ambassador Zamir Akram, who said that we are living on the precipice of an abyss because what we are confronting is a perfect storm. “We are confronting the collapse of the international system that evolved after World War II. Even though it was imperfect, it still maintained some modicum of security and stability around the world. But this order is now collapsing and it reminds me, as a student of history, of such a collapse that took place with the concept of Europe leading to World War I and of the league of nations that led to World War II. “The only difference is that this time around, unlike in the previous systems, which were based around, unlike in the previous systems, which were based on a balance of power, exercised through conventional forces and conventional means, we are today in a situation, after the use of nuclear weapons in Japan by the United States, living in a state of a balance of terror exercised by nuclear weapons. It is this balance of terror that led to a group of scientists, including Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer, belonging to the University of Chicago, to set up what is now known as the Doomsday Clock.

“The Doomsday Clock was set up in 1947 and it measures how close the world is towards Armageddon. And the closer you get to midnight, the closer the world is to catastrophe. The measurement is done on the basis of three basic issues: the potential use of nuclear weapons, the advancements of technology and the changes in climate. The farthest the world has been from Armageddon or midnight on this clock was 17 minutes, which was in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed.

“Now as of January 2026, the clock has moved to 85 seconds to midnight. We were that close to disaster. Why is this the case? First, because of wars and crises that have taken place between countries that are nuclear weapon states or are potential possessors of nuclear weapons. We have seen for the last three odd years the war in Ukraine, which is not just a war between Russia and Ukraine but a war between Russia and the Nato alliance, both of which are nuclear weapon entities. The possibility of a nuclear exchange, even by accident, is just one miscalculation away. In 2025, we witnessed a short conflict between two nuclear powers, Pakistan and India. Fortunately, the war did not last for more than four days but the potential of a miscalculation always remained. Again now, we are seeing two nuclear powers, the US and Israel attack Iran and try to destroy its nuclear facilities, which apart from the potential release of radioactivity, can also push Iran towards acquiring its own nuclear weapons. So this is the situation that we are confronting in the world today,” he said.

The second keynote was delivered by the Founder and President of the Centre for China and Globalisation, a leading Chinese non-governmental think tank, Dr Wang Huiyao, via Zoom from Beijing. He said that big powers such as the US and China need to act together and look towards constructing instead of destructing. “China and the US have to find a way to co-exist peacefully as major powers need to take on major responsibility,” he pointed out.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2026

At Golestan Palace, a defining cultural landmark in central Tehran, shattered mirrors, broken doors and debris from ornate ceilings now lie scattered across parts of the site after shockwaves from strikes on the capital following the outbreak of war on February 28.

The former royal residence, known for its sprawling gardens, pools and royal halls, has been listed as a Unesco World Heritage site since 2013.

The fragile truce in place since April 8 has allowed experts to begin gauging the scale of the damage, though the complex remains closed to the public.

“The damage has been assessed at several levels, but a more detailed specialised evaluation is still underway,” Ali Omid Ali, a restoration specialist and head of the technical engineering department at Golestan Palace, told AFP.

For now, he said, teams are focused on stabilising damaged structures and preventing further collapse before broader repair work can begin.

“We need a more stable situation to start the restoration process,” he said.

Initial estimates suggest work at the site could cost around $1.7 million, though the figure could rise following a full assessment, he added, noting that repairs could take “two or more years”.

The palace, known for blending 19th-century Persian arts and architecture with European styles and motifs, is among at least five Unesco-listed sites damaged during the conflict.

“Fifty to 60 per cent of its doors and windows are broken,” Jabbar Avaj, director of the Golestan Palace museums, told the official IRNA news agency.

The palace’s famed Mirror Hall — known for shimmering mosaics covering its ceilings and walls — and the Marble Throne, a ceremonial platform supported by statues representing mythical and royal symbols, were “seriously damaged”, he said.

‘Shadow of war lingers’

Other affected Unesco-listed sites include Chehel Sotoun Palace and the Masjed-e Jame in Isfahan, as well as the prehistoric sites of the Khorramabad Valley.

Beyond the listed sites, the war affected at least 140 culturally and historically significant locations across Iran, according to Hassan Fartousi, head of Iran’s National Commission for Unesco.

Among them are Tehran’s Marble Palace, the Teymourtash house and the sprawling Saadabad Palace complex in northern Tehran, a former royal residence set within a vast park and home to several museums.

“The shadow of war still lingers over Iran’s sky, and in this situation, we cannot plan very well for restoration,” Fartousi said.

While the ceasefire since April 8 has largely halted fighting in major urban centres housing cultural sites, sporadic clashes have occurred in coastal areas and Gulf waters, and talks have so far failed to produce a lasting settlement.

Fartousi also worries that even after repairs, damaged heritage sites may never recover their original character, noting the entire idea of cultural heritage rests on “the concept of originality”.

“Even if we do the restoration with our great artists and specialists in restoration, where will the originality be?” he said.

Funding remains a major challenge, with the Iranian government yet to announce a restoration budget as it struggles to offset the impact of the war and a US blockade that has severely disrupted exports.

“Unfortunately, Unesco and other international organisations have limited budget,” he said, adding that negotiations were ongoing to secure support.

Asked about the overall cost of restoring the damaged sites, Fartousi simply said: “All of them are priceless.”

Header image: A visitor walks through the damaged interiors of the historic Golestan Palace in Tehran on April 4, 2026. — AFP/File

Under an official notification effective from May 9, the government has imposed a petroleum levy of Rs117.41 per litre on petrol and Rs42.60 per litre on high-speed diesel sold through retail outlets.

The levy on premium fuel grades, including 97 RON and 95 RON petrol, or the high-octane blending component (HOBC), has been fixed at more than Rs305.37 per litre.

The government is also charging a petroleum levy of Rs20.36 per litre on kerosene, Rs15.84 per litre on light diesel oil, and Rs77 per litre on furnace oil, equivalent to Rs82,077 per tonne.

PPDA Vice Chairman Raja Waseem Shehzad criticised the government for increasing indirect taxes inst­ead of providing relief to the public amid rising inflation. He said the heavy levies had made petroleum products unaffordable for consumers and caused financial losses for fuel station owners due to declining sales.

He urged the government to reduce petroleum prices by cutting levies and duties on petroleum products, warning that continued increases could further damage the fuel retail sector and add to public hardship.

“At the same time, the government has not fixed petroleum dealers’ commission on a percentage basis instead of a fixed amount per litre sale, as a result, meeting the cost of doing business is going in the negative,” Mr Shehzad said.

He added that sales had declined while operational costs had increased owing to higher electricity tariffs and other charges.

In a statement, SCBA President Haroonur Rashid, Secretary Malik Zahid Aslam Awan and members of the association’s 28th executive committee expressed concern over the increase in petrol and diesel prices.

They said the latest rise in fuel prices had further aggravated hardships faced by the public and contributed to inflationary pressures.

The SCBA urged the federal government to immediately roll back the recent fuel price increase and introduce additional relief measures, including reductions in electricity tariffs and essential commodity prices.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2026

The 26-year-old had been subjected to four years of physical, emotional and financial violence at home, and now her husband was threatening to leak their private videos. What held her back was not fear of her abuser but a sentence she had heard her whole life: Sharif larkiyaan thaney nahi jaati. Good girls don’t go to police stations.

At our gate, Sana was not just dealing with her husband’s violence but also battling a deeper, more systemic violence in the shape of a belief system that decided how far she was allowed to seek justice.

This story is not an isolated one. I often hear it as a Sub-Divisional Police Officer serving with the Sindh Police. Each complainant who happens to be a woman or her family apologises to me: “We come from a respectable family. We have never stepped inside a police station.” This disclaimer signals that the act of going to the police needs to be justified.

When women say it, the police station ceases to operate as an institutional space where you can report a crime, and it morphs into a dangerous site where you imperil your social identity. There is a striking pattern to this pre-emptive stigma neutralisation. The disclaimer is the same no matter what the crime. It is given when a woman’s husband breaks her arm at home in Larkana, she is raped by her employer in Landhi, threatened by her own uncles in Mirpurkhas, and even when she loses her life savings to some scammer bro sitting in Ratodero with a 5G connection.

The subtext is always the same: If you do go to a police station, you will no longer be considered respectable. This is classic patriarchal control over a woman’s mobility and voice. A sharif aurat is constructed around notions of modesty, obedience and invisibility in public spaces. At the same time, police stations in Pakistan have been historically associated with male domination and crime. But the result is that women are left to endure injustice rather than encouraged to seek a remedy.

This barrier flies in the face of guarantees enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan that all citizens are equal under the law and deserve its protection. The message should be that a woman going to a police station is not compromising on her dignity but exercising a fundamental right.

The persistence of this stigma is dangerous given the magnitude of violence that is widespread and under-reported. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and Aurat Foundation provide some sense of what is out there, but so many cases are never reported or withdrawn because of the thana stigma.

Recently, a young woman walked into a police station with her brother, seeking help for repeated physical violence by her husband. She spoke in fragments at first, hesitant, almost apologetic, describing the abuse she had been enduring. There were signs of fear, but also urgency. Before she could explain her situation, her brother interrupted. He dismissed the severity of the situation with a practised calm. They did not want to pursue legal action and instead asked if they could do something else.

“Bas usse bula ke police wali zuban mein samjha den ke theek se rahen.” Just call the husband and tell him to straighten out in the language of the law. In that moment, the woman’s plea for safety was reframed into a demand for adjustment.

What stood out was not just the violence she had faced, but the boundary her family had already drawn around justice.

Legally, the option to proceed was clear. Under the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act and provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code, physical assault and abuse are crimes serious enough that police can arrest the person accused of them and investigate (cognisable offences). The State sees such violence as a crime, and not as a private matter, but in reality, the law often arrives second after family negotiations are held, social calculations are made, and reputational concerns weighed up.

Forty-two Women and Children Protection Cells (WCPCs) have been opened in all ranges and districts of Sindh to make reporting a crime easier (See list of officers, locations and contact numbers below). You can use the WCPC app, Zainab Alert, 1917 or IG Complaint Cell as well. But none of these diminish a physical police station as the most immediate point of access to justice.

The WCPCs have contributed to a noticeable increase in crime reporting, especially for domestic violence, harassment and child abuse, by providing a relatively more sensitive and less intimidating environment staffed by female officers. For instance, the call centre 1715 WCPC from January 1, 2025, to November 2025 received ~82,570 complaints online alone, mostly domestic violence and harassment, which were catered to accordingly. One woman was brought to a police station after making a call to 15. Her husband had thrown hot tea at her face because he claimed she had served him in old utensils. He was immediately arrested.

In that moment, the law was clear, and the institutional response was immediate, but what followed was more revealing than the crime itself. As proceedings began, the woman pleaded, “Please release my husband. He won’t do it again. Just make him understand.” The same system she had called on for help was now being asked to retreat. No wonder she was back again after a month, this time with a graver assault.

Discouraging women from going to police stations does not protect dignity. It protects the perpetrators. Cycles of violence grind on when victims or survivors are dissuaded from resorting to state institutions for support. For many women, fear of social judgement outweighs the promise of legal protection. I see women pleading for a settlement with their husbands and trying to convince them not to be violent towards them, without taking any legal action. Their only concern is to keep the family reputation intact.

They reveal that the barrier is not always access to the system; sometimes it is the conditioned belief that using it fully will cost more than enduring the violence. Families concerned about their social standing discourage the reporting of a crime even in serious abuse cases. But in doing so, they normalise a culture of silence. The media has not helped by loading with controversy a woman’s presence in a police station. This framing is being challenged, but much work remains to be done.

A notion that needs to spread to all parts of society is that a police station is not a place of dishonour. It is a public institution meant to serve citizens, and a woman who walks into a thana is not stepping outside her respectability but asserting her rights.

Meanwhile, change is being driven forward in the attitude of police officials toward female victims. Capacity-building sessions are held regularly on handling female complainants, victims of heinous crimes and other vulnerable groups. A front desk officer will pause and think before saying, ‘Aurat ne kuch to kiya hoga,’ as was the case before. (She must have done something). The rise in the number of women police officers is reshaping how women experience the system. It may not dismantle stigma overnight, but it does create an entry point, a space where hesitation softens.

I have often witnessed that shift the moment a woman steps into my office and takes a visible sigh of relief. A woman who had been defrauded by her husband at first was uncertain about proceeding, but as we walked her through the legal channels, something began to change.

With every interaction, she began to appear more assured. The last time she came to see me, her demeanour was entirely different. “Kya hum kabhi bhi aapke office aaskte hain baghair kisi rukawat ke?” she asked me. Can we come to your office without any problems? For many women, access to justice is not assumed; it is negotiated; it is uncertain and sometimes dependent on who sits on the other side of the table.

Police departments must continue to ensure professionalism, confidentiality and dignity in handling complaints. This will only be possible when the basic unit of the police station is made stronger. Women are taking up key positions and ranks. Encouraging women to report violence is not a threat to social values; it is a reinforcement of the rule of law.

Sharif aurat thaney nahi jaati is not merely outdated, it is also exclusionary. While the feminisation of policing has begun to transform the thana, the greater challenge lies in transforming the mindset that keeps women away from it.

The organisers sought permission to march peacefully for women’s rights. What they received, instead, was a document dripping with authoritarian anxiety. The message could not have been clearer: women may gather, but only if they remain politically harmless.

Rather than facilitating peaceful assembly, the administration chose to police slogans, speech and even clothing. The vague and sweeping conditions betray insecurity.

Why does a march calling attention to gender violence and economic inequality provoke such discomfort in official circles? Why are women demanding bodily autonomy and constitutional rights treated as a threat?

Secure governments do not fear placards, nor do they attempt to dictate what citizens may wear while exercising their rights.

Across Pakistan, as in the rest of the world, the overwhelming majority of perpetrators of violence against women are men. Women face harassment in streets, workplaces and homes. They are subjected to ‘honour’ killings, domestic abuse, forced marriages and institutional discrimination.

Yet instead of confronting the structures that enable such violence, the state’s instinct is to regulate women themselves. The state appears unable to tolerate women speaking in their own voice without bureaucratic approval.

There is an undertone of ‘women should be seen and not heard’ running through these directives — an outdated view masquerading as administrative procedure.

Just consider: in 2026, women in Pakistan must still seek permission to demand dignity while the state reserves the right to determine how loudly, how politically and even how appropriately dressed they may be while doing so. We have miles to go before we can claim to be a progressive society.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2026

According to filings submitted under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), Ervin Graves Strategy Group LLC registered on May 1 as an official foreign agent of Pakistan’s embassy in Washington under a two-year contract valued at $1.2m, requiring payments of $50,000 per month for its services.

FARA requires the public listing of all lobbyists or lobbying firms working for a foreign entity, including governments and private corporations.

The agreement tasks the firm with a wide-ranging mandate that includes lobbying US policymakers, government-relations work, legislative monitoring, stakeholder engagement, media messaging, think tank outreach, and policy advisory support.

More notably, the contract explicitly extends into areas of strategic economic and security interest, including trade and investment promotion, critical minerals cooperation, and defence and security engagement — sectors that have gained renewed importance in US foreign policy thinking amid global supply-chain realignments and intensifying great-power competition.

The arrangement reflects Islamabad’s effort to reposition its Washington outreach beyond traditional diplomatic messaging, placing greater emphasis on sector-specific engagement and structured access to US policy networks.

In Washington, such contracts are increasingly viewed as part of a broader ecosystem of influence-building, where governments rely on specialised advisory firms, former officials and policy intermediaries to shape perceptions across Congress, the executive branch, think tanks and the media.

When asked why Pakistan needs to hire lobbyists in Washington despite having an embassy, a Pakistan Embassy official said: “Countries have been hiring lobbyists in Washington since 1938. This is how the American system works. They expect you to work with and within the system. Registering under FARA ensures transparency.”

Pakistan’s latest engagement comes as its lobbying strategy in the US capital has evolved into a more layered and diversified structure in recent years, combining embassy-driven diplomacy with external advisory networks.

Earlier FARA filings show that Islamabad and affiliated organisations have engaged multiple US-based firms to manage legislative outreach, public messaging and policy engagement efforts, particularly around bilateral relations and economic cooperation.

The latest contract also underscores a shift in emphasis toward economic security themes — particularly critical minerals — which have become central to US strategic policy as Washington seeks to diversify supply chains away from China and secure access to inputs essential for defence manufacturing, renewable energy technologies and semiconductor production.

Defence and security cooperation, another key component of the agreement, reflects Pakistan’s longstanding objective of maintaining institutional channels with US security and policy establishments, even during periods of political strain in bilateral relations.

Pakistan’s lobbying push is taking place in a broader and increasingly competitive foreign influence environment in Washington, where multiple countries have intensified their engagement strategies.

India, in particular, has maintained an active and highly structured lobbying presence in the US, often leveraging former political advisers and communications strategists to shape congressional and media narratives on South Asia and regional security.

Following the Pahalgam attack in India-occupied Kashmir in April 2025, both India and Pakistan further expanded their use of Washington-based consultants linked to the Trump administration’s political circles, underscoring the extent to which South Asian diplomacy in the US has become closely tied to political consulting networks.

In this evolving environment, Pakistan’s latest $1.2m engagement signals an effort to consolidate and professionalise its Washington strategy — moving toward a more targeted approach that integrates defence, economic diplomacy and policy messaging under a single advisory framework.

While FARA filings provide transparency into contractual relationships, they also reflect a deeper structural reality in Washington: that foreign policy influence is increasingly mediated through private consultancies, former officials and specialised lobbying networks, rather than traditional diplomatic channels alone.

For Pakistan, the challenge remains not only access to policymakers, but sustained narrative presence in a crowded and politically polarised Washington ecosystem where multiple regional conflicts and strategic priorities compete for attention.

South Korea has one of the world’s lowest birth rates, and the government has spent billions of dollars trying to encourage citizens to have more babies and cushion the worst impacts of a shrinking population.

The Asian nation is still nowhere near reversing the trend, but a modest baby bump has come after years of consistently low statistics — even as experts disagree on the underlying causes.

Kim, 32, a freelance music industry worker, gave birth to her daughter in January last year despite earlier financial concerns during her four-year marriage.

She shook off worries over housing, schooling and work “because we believed that having (a baby) would bring us happiness”, she told AFP.

South Korea’s fertility rate hit a record low in 2023 but has picked up since then, with the number of monthly births consistently rising compared to the previous year.

Nearly 23,000 babies were born in February, the most for that month in seven years, according to the statistics ministry.

The on-year growth of 13.6 per cent was the highest for any February since records began in 1981.

Pro-natalist policies

The uptick in births has tracked a similar, though less even, rise in marriages going back to mid-2022, official figures show.

Experts said the trend may reflect more positive attitudes towards family among younger South Koreans.

But they differed on what was driving the shift and how important it was compared with factors such as pro-natalist policies.

Hong Sok-chul, an economics professor at Seoul National University (SNU), said the programmes had been “quite effective”.

“Rather than trying to force marriage or childbirth … the government focused on lowering the direct and indirect costs to make these choices more rational,” he said.

Kim Woo-jin, 33, said vouchers she received from the government had “played a significant role in alleviating the financial burden” of pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing.

She cited a payment of two million won ($1,400) when her daughter was born last year, a one-million-won voucher to cover maternity fees, and subsidies for transport and post-natal care.

“I believe that the significant improvements (in state support) … played a role in the recent rebound” in births, the office worker said.

Money isn’t everything

South Korea also pays parents a one-million-won monthly allowance during the baby’s first year, while other policies include low-interest loans for young families buying homes, expanded parental leave and subsidised fertility treatment.

Some companies also hand large bonuses to staff who have children. For some couples, though, the incentives have made little difference.

Kim Su-jin, the freelancer, said government support “in reality … provides little substantial assistance”.

“The issue is not merely a matter of a few million won,” she told AFP, citing broader social ills like exorbitant tutoring fees, widespread school bullying and the threat of job losses due to artificial intelligence.

Demographer Lee Sang-lim, also of SNU, said it was “very difficult” to conclude that the latest government policies had caused the upturn in births, noting that several initiatives only began in early 2024 — less than nine months before the increase became apparent.

He said that more than a decade of policies to help boost fertility may have played a role in improving the environment for childbirth and child-rearing.

Fertility or futility?

South Korea’s total fertility rate — the number of children each woman will have on average — increased last year from 0.75 to 0.8, still well below the threshold of 2.1 needed to maintain the population.

Other theories for the baby bump abound, with implications for how long it might last.

Park Hyun-jung, a data ministry official, said in February the rise partly reflected the demographic “echo” of a larger-than-normal cohort born in the early 1990s, now in their peak childbearing years.

Younger generations also appear to feel less traditional stigma around having children outside marriage, with the number nearly doubling between 2002 and 2024, according to official figures.

Still, births outside marriage accounted for only 5.8pc of the total in 2024.

SNU’s Lee said the recent uptick was driven mainly by marriages and births delayed during the pandemic, though he added that people born in the 1990s appeared “more family-oriented”.

He said it was “difficult to define this as a demographic turning point”, warning births could decline “rapidly” again once that group ages out of its peak period.

Hong, the economist, said “continued aggressive policy support will be necessary”, adding that “the current rebound, while positive, is still insufficient for long-term population replacement”.

Addressing a news conference alongside Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik, the finance minister said the country’s large-scale manufacturing (LSM) sector recorded 11 per cent year-on-year growth in April, while cumulative growth during the first nine months of the current fiscal year stood at 6.5pc.

He said the government expected the GDP growth rate to remain close to 4pc during the current fiscal year, compared to 3.1pc last year.

Exports have grown by 9pc month-on-month and 14pc year-on-year, driven by value-added textiles, IT and other sectors, he said, adding that the export growth was broad-based.

Highlighting overseas inflows, Aurangzeb said remittances reached $3.5 billion in April after touching $3.8bn in March during Ramazan, describing the sustained inflows as a strong vote of confidence from overseas Pakistanis.

The finance czar added that inflows under the Roshan Digital Account (RDA) also rose sharply to $320 million in April, the highest monthly volume in the scheme’s history.

“This is an investment-led discussion. Overseas Pakistanis are investing in New Pakistan Certificates, real estate and the stock market,” he remarked.

The minister further said Pakistan had re-entered international capital markets after four years and recently raised $750 million through a Eurobond issuance despite the ongoing regional conflict.

He added that Pakistan was set to access Chinese capital markets for the first time through a Panda Bond next week. “Next week you will hear good news that, for the first time, we will be accessing Chinese capital markets through a Panda Bond,” he said.

The finance minister further said the country’s foreign exchange reserves were projected to reach a level equivalent to around three months of import cover by the end of June.

He also said macroeconomic stability was intended to ensure industrial continuity, facilitate the opening of letters of credit and the repatriation of profits and dividends, and generate employment opportunities.

Commending the Petroleum Ministry for maintaining uninterrupted fuel supplies over the past two months, the finance minister said no shortages or supply chain disruptions had occurred in the country despite challenges across the region.

“There have been shortages and long queues in different countries, but nothing of that sort happened in Pakistan,” he said, appreciating the efforts of the petroleum minister and his team.

Referring to recent fuel price adjustments, Aurangzeb said the government had continued targeted subsidies for vulnerable segments, including motorcyclists, public transport users and small farmers, in consultation with provincial governments.

He said the subsidies had now been extended into the third month at the direction of the prime minister and chief ministers to provide relief to weaker sections of society.

The finance minister, however, cautioned that Pakistan’s oil import bill had increased by over $1 billion between March and April, urging the public to exercise restraint in energy consumption to protect the external account position.

“Our external account is equally important. We all need to be careful in our consumption patterns,” he said.

Aurangzeb said Pakistan remained committed to fulfilling all international financial obligations with bilateral and multilateral partners as a responsible country.

He also expressed hope that the regional conflict would end soon, warning that damage to regional energy infrastructure could take months to recover even after hostilities ceased.

“We are monitoring the possible impact on inflation, GDP growth, remittances and exports because hope alone is not a strategy,” he remarked.

In the early 2020s, the Belgian political theorist Anton Jäger coined the term “hyperpolitics”. He noticed that, in this day and age, politics seemed to be everywhere and in everything but was not catalysing any real change. At least not the way politics used to in the 20th century.

The last century was an era of mass political activity (‘mass politics’) driven by large political parties, unions and macro-ideologies. According to Jäger, until the 1980s, political life was anchored by “thick institutions” that acted as a bridge between the individual and the state. But by the 1990s, “post-politics” had set in and replaced mass politics.

In the era of post-politics, the polity became increasingly consumerist in nature and governance was left in the hands of technocrats. Conflict was suppressed and political parties became hollow after delegating important economic and social tasks to ‘experts’ serving the interests of large banks and multinational corporations. Then, from the early 2010s, a sudden return of political energy filled the vacuum left behind by the docility of post-politics. It is this energy that Jäger calls hyperpolitics.

But this energy is nothing like the one that had carried countries towards widespread change and even revolutions in the 20th century. That energy had begun to wane from the 1980s, increasingly replaced by an emphasis on the well-being of the ‘self’ through consumerism and the commodification of identities.

Once anchored by ideologies and movements, politics is now increasingly performed through aesthetics and consumption, as ‘allegiances’ are signalled through brands rather than a sustained struggle

Mass politics started suffering fatigue and the individual became the “new self.” But the new self wasn’t the rugged, reflective and morally ambiguous manifestation of individualism of previous eras. The post-political individual was a ‘sensitive’, self-centred person entirely invested in their own ‘happiness’ and ‘contentment’. In a way, they were more manageable for governments and multinationals.

They consumed politics like they did consumer brands. In fact, corporate brands began to define the identities of these individuals just like political ideologies had done before the 1980s. They ‘became’ the brand they wore, drank, ate etc. In her 1999 book No Logo, the Canadian author Naomi Klein wrote that corporations shifted from selling products to selling ‘meaning’. In 1968, the French sociologist Jean Baudrillard had predicted that objects would no longer be valued for their use but for what they say about the owner’s identity. He was right.

According to the Polish-British sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, when everything, including politics, is treated as a consumer choice, the individual becomes more manageable. Since consumerism is about instant gratification and disposability, long-term political commitment or ideological struggle becomes too time-consuming or boring for the modern individual. Consequently, the idea of individualism also transformed.

One way to demonstrate this is through studying the way lead (male) characters in films evolved. The classic 20th century idea of individualism wasn’t detached from mass politics as such. It was very much part of it. Take the example of the cynical, hard-drinking and chain-smoking character played by Humphrey Bogart in 1942’s Casablanca. He seems uninterested in the political affairs of the world, but ends up contributing to America’s war effort against the Nazis. He realises that his anger towards a lover who had left him was far smaller an issue than the war.

Clint Eastwood’s brooding and detached character in the Dollar trilogy, directed by Sergio Leone in the 1960s, is a loner and a cynic who doesn’t say much but ends up accepting the circumstances that compel him to aid the helpless against thugs.

Quite a number of films across the 1960s and 1970s romanticised this nature of individualism. Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘angry young man’ roles in 1970s’ Bollywood films were in the same mould. Nikhat Kazmi wrote in her book Ire in The Soul that Bachchan’s characters were largely shaped to channel the anger of the people during a turbulent period in India.

However, Bachchan’s Kala Pathar (1979) is an interesting case of the transition that was to come. The angry, brooding character played by Bachchan in the film suddenly embraces ‘normal life’ by plunging into a satisfying romantic partnership. This meant that he didn’t have to bother anymore about fighting his inner demons nor carry the burden of an exploited collective (in this case, a community of coal miners). And unlike his previous angry individual films, he doesn’t die in this one.

By the 1990s, Bollywood films had completely discarded the brooding loner who accepts circumstances that compel him to fight for the people. As the idea of 20th century individualism faded into the docility of the post-politics era, the new ‘aspirational’ lead characters became sensitive souls seeking gratification through lush romantic relationships and corporate brands.

Designer homes, attire and brands became necessities for ‘happiness’ and even for self-actualisation. Religious rituals in films also became extravagant and an expression of sacralised joy. Therefore, faith was also commodified as a consumer product to ‘better oneself.’

But as all this was manifesting the era of post-politics, hyperpolitics exploded on to the scene. Yet, nothing changed much. According to Jäger, since post-politics had emptied established institutions, people entered the hyperpolitical arena as self-gratifying individuals rather than as members of a collective, cohesive body.

Jäger identifies technology as the catalyst. He wrote that social media allows for “low-cost, high-decibel politicisation.” Anyone can participate. To Jäger, though, this participation focuses more on expression rather than on sustained canvassing. In the absence of traditional institutional power to influence material conditions, hyperpolitics redirects energy toward symbolic battlegrounds, where personal consumption and language serve as primary signifiers of collective identity.

The classic Peshawari chappal, for example, which the populist politician Imran Khan preferred to wear, became a brand identity (‘Khan chappal’) that replaced traditional platform-based politics. Supporters became the brand by adopting a specific aesthetic of Khan. Buying and wearing this item functioned as a political act. Not a very convincing portrayal of mass politics, though.

This is an example of consumerist politics, a leftover of the post-politics era but ubiquitous in the era of hyperpolitics as well. The recent boycott movements against certain brands also demonstrate this. For example, most individuals feel they cannot influence the actual conditions in Gaza, so they redirect their energy into ‘consumer-activism.’ They manage their political emotions by curating their social media presence to show they are the ‘right kind of consumer’ because they consume local brands. Of course, for most, an actual physical protest outside the factories of the boycotted brands is out of the question.

To Jäger, this nature of activism produces “high heat” but “low light”, resulting in a culture defined by intense moral outrage and aesthetic posturing that rarely translates into substantive policy shifts or reform.

Published in Dawn, EOS, May 10th, 2026

This was stated by Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) Chairman Noorul Haq Baloch during a meeting with members of the All Pakistan Shipping Association (APSA) in Karachi. He said the port is increasingly being viewed as a safe alternative trade gateway for the region.

He said Gwadar has the potential to become the future hub of regional trade and logistics because of its low operational costs, modern facilities, and shorter trade routes. He added that the Gabd-Rimdan border route has emerged as an effective multi-modal corridor for promoting trade with Iran and Central Asia.

Mr Baloch briefed the APSA members on the prevailing regional situation, the strategic significance of Gwadar Port, and issues related to transit and transshipment operations. He stated that Gwadar Port is steadily evolving into a major centre for regional trade and logistics, with its importance increasing day by day. He noted that the port’s approach channel, measuring approximately 4.5km, is the shortest among the country’s ports. He said that a trade route exists from Gwadar to Zahedan and onwards to Central Asia.

Recalling developments from 2015, he said the first container convoy from China successfully reached Gwadar Port through the Balochistan route, demonstrating Gwadar’s full potential to connect China with Central Asia.

Referring to tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, Mr Baloch said Gwadar could serve as a secure and alternative trade route in the event of war or sanctions. He added that access from Gwadar to eastern regions of Iran and Central Asia is several hundred kilometres shorter than routes from other Pakistani cities, significantly reducing logistics costs and transportation time.

He said investors and industrialists operating in the Gwadar Free Zone are being offered tax exemptions and special incentives, including duty-free import of machinery and equipment.

Mr Baloch said that import and export cargo at Gwadar Port is provided with up to 30 days of free storage, unlike other ports where storage charges apply. Additional free storage facilities are available at cargo sheds, container yards, and repair sheds operated under the Gwadar Port Authority to further facilitate investors.

According to him, these facilities are connected through a modern six-lane expressway linking the port and free zone to the coastal highway.

Mr Baloch urged shipping companies and traders to shift their operations towards Gwadar Port. He also revealed that a trade delegation from Iran is expected to visit Gwadar soon.

He said that Gwadar Port, owing to its low operational rates, modern infrastructure and strategic location, possesses strong potential to emerge as a major trade corridor for Pakistan’s economy.

Participants at the meeting expressed interest in the facilities available at Gwadar Port, particularly regarding transit trade with Iran.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2026