Pakistan

Karachi, Jun 19 (PTI) Pakistan in a goodwill gesture on Sunday released 20 Indian fishermen who have been languishing in a jail here for the last five years for allegedly fishing illegally in the country's waters.

The twenty fishermen were lodged at Malir district jail in the Landhi area of Karachi. They were sent to Lahore on their way to the Wagah border where they will be handed over to the Indian authorities.

14 June 2022; MEMO: Pakistan has rescued and repatriated 169 of its citizens who were stranded in Syria, after they travelled to the country as Shia pilgrims.

According to a statement by Pakistan International Airlines' (PIA) spokesperson, Abdullah Hafeez Khan yesterday, one of its aircraft was sent to the northern Syrian city of Aleppo to pick up the 169 Pakistani citizens.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban announced a deal Tuesday allowing an Emirati company to manage three airports in Afghanistan after the fall of the country’s U.S.-backed government. However, the United Arab Emirates did not immediately acknowledge the deal.

Under the deal, the Abu Dhabi-based firm GAAC Solutions would manage the airports in Herat, Kabul and Kandahar, the Taliban said. They held a news conference in Kabul in which they signed the deal with an individual they identified as a managing director for GAAC.

Islamabad, May 23 (PTI) Pakistan on Monday launched a nationwide anti-polio drive to vaccinate more than 43 million children after the third case of the crippling virus surfaced in the country last week.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif inaugurated the second polio campaign of the year 2022 at the Prime Minister's house and assured that the government would take all measures to eradicate the crippling disease, according to a statement.

KARACHI, Pakistan, May 22 (Reuters) - Pakistan’s opposition leader and former prime minister Imran Khan on Sunday announced the date of a march to Islamabad to demand dissolution of assemblies and a date for elections, as the South Asian nation continues to slide into political and economic crisis.

Former premier Imran Khan, who was ousted in a confidence vote last month was blamed for mishandling the economy.

“I will meet you in Islamabad’s at Srinagar Highway on 25th,” opposition leader Khan told a media conference on Sunday.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Sunday began enforcing an order requiring all female TV news anchors in the country to cover their faces while on-air. The move is part of a hard-line shift drawing condemnation from rights activists.

After the order was announced Thursday, only a handful of news outlets complied. But on Sunday, most female anchors were seen with their faces covered after the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue Ministry began enforcing the decree.

Beijing, May 22 (PTI) Pakistan's new Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi will hold talks on Sunday in the Chinese city of Guangzhou to firm-up the all-weather ties between the two countries.

This is Bilawal's maiden visit to China after he took over as Foreign Minister following the fall of Imran Khan government.

Their meeting was being held in Guangzhou as Beijing is currently under semi-lockdown to contain the fast-spreading Omicron variant of the COVID-19.

ISLAMABAD, May 19 (APP): National hockey team manager Olympian Khawaja Muhammad Junaid has said that qualifying for the next year’s World Cup would be the key objective for his side at the Asia Cup.

“The top three teams will secure berths in the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup in India in 2023. Hence, we are focused only at a podium finish at the event,” Junaid told APP on phone before flying to Indonesia along with the Pakistan team on Wednesday night.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Faced with rising violence, Pakistan is taking a tougher line to pressure Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to crack down on militants hiding on their soil, but so far the Taliban remain reluctant to take action — trying instead to broker a peace.

Last month came a sharp deterioration in relations between the two neighbors when Pakistan carried out airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan. Witnesses said the strikes hit a refugee camp and another location, killing at least 40 civilians. UNICEF said 20 children were believed to be among the dead.

ISLAMABAD, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday kicked off a fresh nationwide anti-polio campaign after three new cases of the crippling disease were reported in the country.

"We have launched a new anti-polio campaign with a renewed zeal and focus ... A polio-free Pakistan is our national goal," the prime minister said on Twitter.

Millions of children up to the age of five would be given polio drops by health workers across the country as part of the door-to-door vaccination campaign.