Author: Nazta Rahija

On Friday morning (September 15), the Islamabad high court is scheduled to hear the petition Ali Wazir vs. the State, which seeks protective bail for several detained activists in Pakistan arrested no less than three times within days, and the ‘candid disclosure’ of charges against them. They are among the many who have been arrested, released, and re-arrested several times over the past weeks. Their struggle is part of a long battle for human rights and justice in a security paradigm under which enforced disappearances, encounter killings, media censorship, and police brutality have become the norm. Many of those who earlier…

Satish Kumar sits in front of his submerged rice paddy in India’s Haryana state, looking despairingly at his ruined crops. “I’ve suffered a tremendous loss,” said the third generation farmer, who relies solely on growing the grain to feed his young family. “I will not be able to grow anything until November.” The newly planted saplings have been underwater since July after torrential rain battered northern India, with landslides and flash floods sweeping through the region. Kumar said he has not seen floods of this scale in years and has been forced to take loans to replant his fields all…

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has passed an initial audit by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), bringing the carrier one step closer to resuming flights to the UK. The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is now scheduled to conduct a physical audit of the Pakistani flag carrier in September. Large parts of PIA’s international route network were suspended in June 2020, on the back of Pakistan’s fake pilot license scandal, which saw 262 of the country’s pilots suspended, including 141 from PIA. If the airline passes the CAA’s audit in September, the final barrier to PIA operating flights to the UK will…

Nepal has become the first country in traditionally conservative South Asia to legally recognise same-sex marriages in a stunning victory for LGBTQ+ rights. Nepals’ Supreme Court took the historic step of ruling that all same-sex marriages must be legally registered on 28 June. In an interim ruling, Supreme Court judge Til Prasad Shrestha ordered the Nepalese government to immediately begin the registration of same-sex marriages and non-traditional heterosexual unions, while legislation is prepared to amend the law. Until a new legal framework is introduced to uphold same-sex unions permanently, the Supreme Court ruled that a separate register of marriages for…

QUETTA: Balochistan Minister for Finance Engineer Zmarak Khan Achakzai unveiled the province’s budget for the fiscal year 2023-24, with a total size of Rs750 billion. The Balochistan Assembly session was chaired by Balochistan Assembly Speaker Jan Muhammad Jamali, while Chief Minister Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, ministers and members of the provincial assembly were also present. The finance minister said in his budget speech that over Rs229.301 billion have been earmarked for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), and the volume of non-development expenditure has been kept at Rs437 billion. Achakzai said that the budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 was…

National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf has said that the resignations of lawmakers belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have been approved and cannot be withdrawn. Speaking to a private TV channel on Saturday, Ashraf said that resigning and then trying to withdraw the resignation later is not a joke and PTI members should have thought twice before taking such a drastic step. “PTI members should think about what they really want. The resignations cannot be withdrawn now after the speaker’s approval as there is no way to do so [in the Constitution],” he added. He stated that the assemblies of…

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has rubbished the rumours claiming that the government has discontinued the commemorative currency note of Rs75. In a video message shared on Twitter, the central bank’s spokesperson Abid Qamar categorically stated: “Rs.75 commemorative banknote is a legal tender & can be used as medium of exchange in all transactions”. The banknote was issued last year by the SBO to mark the 75th Independence Day of Pakistan. However, there were rumours on a section of social media claiming that the currency note had been demonetized. https://twitter.com/StateBank_Pak/status/1651958881449541632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1651958881449541632%7Ctwgr%5E9891348360af1c76d1d9d0d75e07f1e2948a19a3%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.dailypakistan.com.pk%2F29-Apr-2023%2Fsbp-rejects-rumours-of-discontinuation-of-rs75-banknote “The Rs75 commemorative banknote has no expiration date and…

Fakhar Zaman smashed a third consecutive century to guide Pakistan to a seven-wicket victory over New Zealand in the second one-day international on Saturday. The 33-year-old left-handed opener hit an undefeated 180 off 144 balls for his tenth ODI hundred. It followed his 117 in the first match and 101 against the same opponents in January as Pakistan chased a stiff 337-run target in 48.2 overs. The win gives Pakistan a 2-0 lead in the five-match series with the last three matches in Karachi on May 3, 5 and 7. Along with Zaman, skipper Babar Azam hit a brisk 66-ball 65 and…

The PGA Tour and LIV Golf have been unable to agree on much since LIV filed a complaint for a violation of antitrust laws against the PGA Tour on Aug. 3, 2022. The most recent dustup is about the time and place of a deposition for Thierry Pascal, Senior Vice President of International Media for PGA Tour International, according to court documents obtained by Sports Illustrated. LIV Golf maintained in a joint statement filed on March 22 in U.S. District Court, Northern District Court of California, that the PGA Tour is obstructing their opportunity to depose Pascal on the agreed-upon date of March…

Nepal and India have agreed to increase power trade and build more cross-border transmission lines while upgrading the existing ones in a bid to scale up bilateral trade of electricity. During the 10th joint secretary-level Joint Working Group and the secretary-level Joint Steering Committee held in Jaipur, India on February 17-18, the two sides also fixed a deadline for the completion of building and upgrade works on cross-border power lines, indicating the two sides’ commitments. Nepal officials described the agreements reached between the two sides as a ‘milestone’ to ensure a foreign market for Nepal’s electricity. According to a statement…