ISLAMABAD: A United States report has called for strengthening parliamentary oversight of Pakistan’s public finances, arguing that legislators and the public need earlier, fuller access to fiscal information. The report says timely access to the proposed budget is important so that spending and revenue priorities can be publicly scrutinised before formal approval — rather than after the fact, when the...

ISLAMABAD: Petroleum dealers have issued a 72-hour ultimatum to the government over its failure to fulfil promises made to the sector. Dealers said they will be unable to continue their businesses if the government does not accept their demands within that window. The ultimatum comes as the goods transport sector enters a fifth day of strike action over the same...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the United States have renewed their higher education partnership through a new five-year agreement between the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan (USEFP), signed by USEFP Executive Director Dr Peter Moran and HEC Executive Director Professor Dr Ziaul Haq at USEFP headquarters in Islamabad on Tuesday. The agreement runs from financial...

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has directed doctors across the country to renew their registration certificates within six months. The directive follows a recent PMDC alert aimed at practitioners holding inactive licences — a category the council has been working to clean up as part of a wider effort to make the national register of practising doctors...

ISLAMABAD: PTI workers and leaders staged a protest outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday over former prime minister Imran Khan’s health and the party’s pending cases before the court. The demonstration was called off after the court registrar assured protesters that the cases would be taken up early. The party had approached the registrar seeking both early hearings of the...

ISLAMABAD: Three judges drawn from diverse legal backgrounds have taken oath as additional judges of the Islamabad High Court, raising the court’s working strength to 10. Chief Justice Sardar Mohammad Sarfraz Dogar administered the oath on Tuesday to Justice Ayyaz Shaukat, Justice Umair Majeed Malik and Justice Shahrukh Arjumand. Islamabad Advocate General Naveed Hayat Malik, Additional Attorney General Rashid Hafeez,...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday condemned a Houthi attack on a commercial vessel in the southern Red Sea that killed three Pakistani nationals and injured a fourth, as Gulf and Red Sea shipping came under a widening pattern of assault. The vessel was identified as the Tihamah, an Egyptian-owned, Tanzania-flagged small cargo ship, struck on Tuesday near Perim Island in the...