Dr Mahrang Baloch makes it to TIME’s 100 most influential people list

Dr Mahrang Baloch, a human rights activist and leader of Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), has been featured among Time magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People 2024’ list for “advocating peacefully for Baloch rights”. The list, which includes leaders, innovators, advocates and artists, recognise many of today’s most influential leaders “who are not waiting long in life to make an impact,” the magazine said on Wednesday. Mahrang was selected for “advocating peacefully” for Baloch rights and leading the December 2023 march to Islamabad, where hundreds of women sought “justice for their husbands, sons, and…

PPP ‘agrees so far’ on constitutional court formation amid calls for judicial package

QUETTA: Amid concerns of the opposition over the ‘controversial’ constitutional package, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said that his party has assented to the ruling PML-N’s proposal for establishing a federal constitutional court as yet. “We have no issue if anyone of the top two judges sits in the constitutional court,” he said while speaking at a Balochistan High Court (BHC) Bar’s session in Quetta on Tuesday. Bilawal, the former foreign minister, elucidated that his struggle was for the constitutional amendment and not for the incumbent chief justice, Qazi Faez…

Nepal rain death toll hits 170, triggers nationwide school closures

KATHMANDU: Nepal has shut schools for three days after landslides and floods triggered by two days of heavy rain across the Himalayan nation killed 170 people, officials said on Sunday. The floods brought traffic and normal activity to a standstill in the Kathmandu valley, where 37 deaths were recorded in a region home to four million people and the capital. Authorities said students and their parents faced difficulties as university and school buildings damaged by the rains needed repair. “We have urged the concerned authorities to close schools in the…

‘Global threat’: Quad nations urge Afghan Taliban govt to dismantle terror groups

NEW YORK: A ministerial meeting of the Quadrilateral Group — Pakistan, China, Iran and Russia — expressed deep concern over security challenges related to terrorism in Afghanistan, urging the Afghan interim government to dismantle all terror groups “equally and non- discriminatory”. Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks since the Taliban government returned to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021, mostly in the northwestern border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but also in southwestern Balochistan, which abuts Afghanistan and Iran. According to data from the Pak Institute for Peace Studies…

Verdict on Punjab election tribunals’ case to be announced on Monday

ISLAMABAD: A five-member larger bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa will announce its reserved verdict on the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) appeal in Punjab election tribunals case on September 30 (Monday). The bench had reserved the verdict on the Punjab election tribunals’ case earlier this week. Alongside CJP Isa, the bench includes Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi. The top court had also ordered the top electoral authority to make the tribunals functional for hearing…

World leaders condemn assassination of Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah

Renowned global leaders on late Saturday expressed their deepest condolences and condemned the assassination of Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah by the Israeli forces. Israel’s foes vowed revenge after Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah announced its leader Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air strike on a suburb of Beirut. Several world powers also warned of the killing’s potential repercussions, as the spectre of all-out war looms over the Middle East.  Iran First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref warned Israel that Nasrallah’s death would “bring about their destruction”, Iran’s ISNA news…