Page 13 - Pakistan

Microsoft shuts Pakistan office after 25 years amid global overhaul

Tech giant Microsoft has announced to shut down its limited operations in Pakistan as part of its global strategy to reduce workforce, which various stakeholders termed on Friday as a troubling sign for the country's economy. Microsoft, while closing its office in Pakistan on Thursday after 25 years, cited global restructuring and a shift to a cloud-based, partner-led model. The move came as the tech giant cut roughly 9,100 jobs worldwide (or about 4 per cent of its workforce) in its largest layoff round since 2023. Jawwad Rehman, former founding Country Manager of Microsoft Pakistan, urged the government and IT minister to engage with the tech giants with a bold KPI (Key Performance Indicators) driven plan. He said the exit reflected the current business climate. Even global giants like Microsoft find it unsustainable to stay, he posted on LinkedIn. Former Pakistan president Arif Alvi, in a post on X, also expressed concern over Microsoft shutting down operations. It is a troubl

Pak, Russia to expand road, rail connectivity for access to warm waters

Pakistan and Russia have agreed to collaborate on establishing a robust rail and road network to link the South Asian country with Central Asia and Russia, providing landlocked states direct access to warm waters, a media report said on Friday. Federal Minister for Communications Abdul Aleem Khan and Russian Deputy Minister of Transport Andrey Sergeyevich Nikitin, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) ministerial conference in Tianjin, China, agreed to accelerate infrastructure development across the region to facilitate trade and economic integration. The initiative aims to transform Pakistan into a strategic transit hub by enhancing trade corridors and logistical routes extending to Russia and Central Asia, Geo News reported. Highlighting Pakistan's ongoing modernisation efforts, Khan said the country was digitising its transport infrastructure, introducing barrier-free motorways, mandatory e-tagging, and comprehensive CCTV surveillance. He said the refo

Pak Air Force chief visits US; first trip by a serving officer in a decade

Pakistan's Chief of the Air Staff Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu paid an official visit to the US to further enhance bilateral defence cooperation after Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir recently undertook a similar tour. This was the first visit by a serving Pakistan Air Force (PAF) chief in over a decade, an indication of stepping up military engagements between Pakistan and the US. The Chief of the Air Staff of Pakistan Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu, paid an official visit to the US, the first visit by any serving Air Chief of the Pakistan Air Force in over a decade, which will further enhance bilateral defence cooperation and mutual interests, a PAF statement said on Wednesday. This high-level visit is a strategic milestone in the Pak-US defence partnership. The visit will play a significant role in addressing key regional and global security issues as well as building institutional ties, it said. It further said Sidhu held several important meetings with th

Operation Sindoor's message conveyed with great clarity, says Jaishankar

Operation Sindoor conveyed to the world with great clarity that India will act against terrorism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in a statement in line with the UN Security Council calling for those responsible for the Pahalgam attacks to be brought to justice. "What is important for us in the Quad statement, as also the statement that the Security Council had issued on April 25, is that the perpetrators of terrorism must be held accountable. They must be brought to justice, Jaishankar said during a press conference in Washington on Wednesday. And that's important because we then have to communicate to the world what we did. On May 7, the objective of Operation Sindoor is that if there are terrorist attacks, we will act against the perpetrators, the supporters, the financiers, and the enablers. So that message, I think, was conveyed with great clarity, he said. A joint statement issued by Quad Foreign Ministers -- Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Foreign .

Pakistan records one more poliovirus case; countrywide tally reaches 14

One more case of poliovirus has been confirmed in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, taking the total countrywide tally to 14, officials said. The new case, a 19-month-old boy, was reported in the North Waziristan district of the province, the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad said on Tuesday. With the latest case, the total number of polio cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has risen to 8. Four cases were confirmed in Sindh and one each in Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan earlier this year. Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic. Despite global efforts to eradicate the virus, challenges such as security issues, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation have slowed progress. This year, Pakistan has undertaken three nationwide polio campaigns so far in February, April, and May. Polio eradication efforts in Pakistan routinely face security issues. The cas

Militants attack govt offices in Balochistan; 2 terrorists, teen dead

Heavily-armed militants attacked government offices and a bank in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province on Tuesday, killing a boy and wounding seven civilians, officials said. The militants targeted local administration offices and the bank building in Mastung district in the restive province. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. According to Balochistan government spokesperson Shahid Rind, militants launched the armed attack and the security forces responded to it. The paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC), Counter Terrorism Department and Levies personnel cordoned off the site and surrounded the terrorists. Two terrorists were killed and three others injured in the exchange of fire between the security forces and the terrorists, Rind said on X. He also said that a 16-year-old child was killed and seven people were injured in the firing by militants. He said a full-scale operation is underway against the militants present in the area. Intelligence-based acti

Pakistan to take over UNSC presidency for July starting from today

Pakistan is set to assume on Tuesday the presidency of the United Nations Security Council for the month of July 2025, the state media said here. The presidency of the Security Council - the world body's power centre - is part of Pakistan's two-year term as a non-permanent member of the UNSC, which began in January 2025. Pakistan was elected as a non-permanent member with overwhelming support of the UN membership, securing 182 votes out of 193. The presidency rotates monthly among its 15 members, in alphabetical order. Pakistan's Presidency will be transparent, inclusive and responsive, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad told the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) correspondent at the UN, as he prepared to face the challenges ahead. Ambassador Iftikhar, who will preside over the Council meetings on key global issues in July, said he was fully aware of the complex geo-political scenario, growing instability and threats to international peace and security, marked by rising ...

State-backed terrorism must be called out publicly, says Jaishankar at UN

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said it is imperative to call out terrorism publicly when it is supported by a state against a neighbour and is fuelled by the bigotry of extremism, a strong reference to Pakistan. Jaishankar, who is on a three-day visit to the US, made the remarks while inaugurating an exhibition titled The Human Cost of Terrorism' at the UN headquarters. The exhibition, which will be on display at two locations in the UN headquarters from June 30-July 3 and July 7-July 11, opened a day before Pakistan begins its Presidency of the UN Security Council for July on Tuesday. "When terrorism is supported by a state against the neighbour, when it is fuelled by the bigotry of extremism, when it drives a whole host of illegal activities, it is imperative to call it out publicly and one way of doing so is to display the havoc that it has wreaked on global society, Jaishankar said. A large number of UN ambassadors, senior UN personnel, officials and envoys ..

EAM Jaishankar inaugurates exhibition 'human cost of terrorism' at UN

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday inaugurated an exhibition at the UN headquarters here, highlighting the human cost of terrorism and attacks perpetrated by terror groups, including by those based in Pakistan. The exhibition was inaugurated a day before Pakistan begins its Presidency of the UN Security Council for July on Tuesday. The exhibition titled The Human Cost of Terrorism' has been organised by the Permanent Mission of India to the UN and highlights the devastating toll of heinous terrorist acts around the world, and the steps taken by the international community to combat terrorism. The exhibition will be on display at two locations in the UN headquarters from June 30 to July 11. From the 2006 Mumbai terror attacks perpetrated by Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to the recent Pahalgam terror attacks, the exhibition highlights the numerous terror attacks perpetrated across the globe, names the terror outfits responsible for the attacks and ..

China, Pakistan lead bid to replace SAARC with new regional bloc: Report

The proposed bloc, discussed at a Kunming trilateral, aims to boost trade and connectivity among willing SAARC members

52 satellites for border, ocean watch: India ramps up defence surveillance

India's SBS-3 project aims to deploy 52 satellites by 2029 for sharper, real-time surveillance across borders and seas; move comes after key takeaways from Operation Sindoor

Pak national held in J-K identified as terrorist guide, probe underway

A Pakistani national arrested along the Line of Control (LoC) near Jammu and Kashmir's border districts of Poonch and Rajouri while attempting to infiltrate into India is a terrorist guide, officials said on Monday. Mohammed Arif was leading a group of four Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists into the Indian side when he was overpowered and arrested by alert Army troops on Sunday afternoon. The terrorists with him jumped from a steep cliff and returned to the Pakistani side with injuries, the officials said. Arif, a resident of Datote village in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), was arrested from the forward Hajura post in Gambhir area under the Army's Ace of Spades division, they added. Recapping the events of the day, they said vigilant troops, maintaining an aggressive surveillance posture in the rugged terrain, detected suspicious movement of a group of suspected terrorists attempting to exploit the difficult terrain and dense foliage in order to infiltrate. While Arif, in his late

2 suspected militants killed as police foils terror attack bid in Pakistan

Two suspected militants were killed when police foiled a major terror attack bid in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, an official said on Monday. The counter terrorism department (CTD) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police eliminated the terrorists during an overnight intelligence based operation in Peshawar city's Urmar Payan neighbourhood, once home to one of the largest Afghan refugee camps, the official said. The CTD said the suspects, a suicide bomber and the handler, were planning a large-scale attack on a sensitive target in the city when its team carried out the raid. A significant cache of weapons, ammunition, a suicide vest, an SMG rifle, a pistol, and several rounds of live ammunition were recovered from their possession, the official said. He said Munir Ahmed, the suicide bomber, was being traced by intelligence services since November last year. The CTD official said Ahmed was a wanted fugitive from Nangarhar in Afghanistan and had crossed into Pakistan from Khost. The

Powering change: How Pakistan is crowdfunding its energy revolution

Across Pakistan, a grassroots energy revolution is reshaping the grid, and offering a possible model that could transform similar fast-growing, energy-poor countries in Asia and Africa

Pakistan closes key border crossing with Afghanistan amid security threats

Pakistan has temporarily closed a key border crossing with Afghanistan due to security threats, until further notice, officials said on Sunday. The Ghulam Khan border has been closed after Saturday's suicide attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's North Waziristan district and skirmishes in the province, bordering Afghanistan, a senior Pakistani security official said. "Following the attack, a curfew has been imposed in North Waziristan, and the border (Ghulam Khan) has been shut down for an unspecified period, he said. At least 13 security personnel were killed and three others injured in the suicide attack. Abidullah Farooqi, spokesperson for the Interim Afghan Government's Border Forces, confirmed the closure on Sunday, stating that Pakistani authorities have not provided a clear explanation for the move. Pakistani officials have merely instructed vehicles at the crossing to use alternative routes, Farooqi said in a statement. In a separate press release, the provincial administration

China rolls over $3.4 billion of commercial loans to Pakistan: Report

Beijing rolled over $2.1 billion, which has been in Pakistan's central bank's reserves for the last three years, and refinanced another $1.3 billion commercial loan

Third earthquake in 24 hours jolts Pakistan, no casualties reported

The earthquake of magnitude 3.8 on the Richter Scale occurred at a shallow depth of 15km, making it susceptible to aftershocks

Earthquake of magnitude 5.2 jolts Pakistan, no casualties reported

Pakistan is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, being crossed by several major faults

At least 1.2 mn Afghans forced to return from Iran, Pakistan this year: UN

At least 1.2 million Afghans have been forced to return from Iran and Pakistan this year, the UN refugee agency said Saturday, warning that repatriations on a massive scale have the potential to destabilise the fragile situation in Afghanistan. Iran and Pakistan in 2023 launched separate campaigns to expel foreigners they said were living in the country illegally. They set deadlines and threatened them with deportation if they didn't leave. The two governments deny targeting Afghans, who have fled their homeland to escape war, poverty or Taliban rule. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that of the 1.2 million returning Afghans, more than half had come from Iran following a March 20 government deadline for them to leave voluntarily or face expulsion. Iran has deported more than 366,000 Afghans this year, including refugees and people in refugee-like situations, according to the agency. Iran's 12-day war war with Israel also has driven departures. The highest number of return

Parag Jain, who led Pakistan desk, appointed as new R&AW chief for 2 years

Parag Jain, a senior IPS officer with decades of R&AW experience and expertise on the Pakistan desk, has been appointed as the new chief of India's external intelligence agency for a two-year term