Raising serious reservations over the 2024 election results, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Emir Maulana Fazlur Rehman has announced that his party would not participate in forthcoming elections for the top political slots — president, prime minister, and the National Assembly (NA) speaker. The cleric, speaking to journalists in Islamabad on Thursday, said his politico-religious party would […] Read more
Newly elected members of the 16th National Assembly were sworn in on Thursday in a session marred by mainly pro-Imran Khan sloganeering. Outgoing NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf administered the oath to the MNAs-elect. The session was originally scheduled to begin at 10am but was delayed by more than an hour. Notable politicians who were […] Read more
ISLAMABAD: An as-yet ‘incomplete’ National Assembly — short of reserved seats claimed by the PTI-Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) alliance — will hold its inaugural sitting today (Thursday) after President Arif Alvi relented from his earlier stance and assented to a summary seeking the summoning of the maiden sitting of the lower house. Earlier, the NA […] Read more
LAHORE: The newly-elected first female Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz will face huge challenges as her predecessors left a very high level of service delivery and presence in public. During the last 13-month tenure, Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi has appeared as the fastest chief minister in terms of working. He broke the records of […] Read more
Rethinking Tobacco Taxation in Pakistan: A Call for Immediate Reforms Introduction The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control[i] (FCTC) aims to mitigate the adverse impacts of tobacco consumption. Tobacco taxation, a key FCTC measure, remains underutilized in several low and middle-income countries including Pakistan. The lack of a proper policy has resulted in a weak tobacco […] Read more
Newly-elected Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz took the oath of office Monday shortly after being elected as the first woman chief executive of the province. Over 1,000 guests including diplomats, celebrities, political leaders, journalists, and Sharif family members Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif among others attended the swearing-in ceremony that took place at Punjab Governor House. […] Read more
Media Matters for Democracy (MMfD), a leading media development organisation in Pakistan focusing on Media and Information Literacy, digital rights, and media sustainability, has launched ‘Facter,’ a collaborative fact-checking tool for newsrooms, in Islamabad on 2nd February 2024. Designed to counter misinformation, Facter leverages technology to aggregate verified content from various news sources and […] Read more
Yet another horrifying act of violence against Ahmadis took place in Daska on 24th January 2024 at 10 am, where the police desecrated the tombstones of Ahmadi graves. The graveyard was allotted to the Ahmadiyya Community by the Government of Punjab. The graveyard had 101 total graves out of which 75 had a tombstone. The […] Read more
LAHORE: NWJDR released its 6-Point Agenda on Media Freedom And Journalist Safety For Political Parties’ Electoral Manifestos. Journalists from all over Pakistan have signed this agenda showing their assent. As Pakistan navigates its path towards democratic progression, it’s imperative for political parties to embed a comprehensive digital rights agenda for journalists and media personnel in […] Read more
‘Marg Bar Sarmachar’: Pakistan conducts ‘precision military strikes’ against terrorist hideouts in Iran State news agency IRNA confirms seven people “who did not have Iranian nationality” killed in strike Video grab shared by Iranian state media showing smoke billowing following several explosions in Iran’s southeastern province of Siestan-o-Baluchistan province on January 18, 2024. […] Read more