LAHORE/KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), apparently taking a step back quietly, has allowed former captain Mohammad Rizwan and opener Imamul Haq to represent their respective teams in the seventh round of the President’s Trophy Grade-I first-class tournament starting on Monday.

Both Rizwan and Imam — who represent the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) respectively, in domestic cricket — had been under investigation by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) for alleged betting and gambling activities following Pakistan’s defeat in the second Test in England earlier this year.

The pair, whose mobile phones were confiscated by the NCCIA, and five other players of the squad in England were withdrawn before the third and final Test which the tourists lost 3-0.

According to some reports, both Rizwan and Imam are facing allegations under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca).

Amid the probe, Rizwan was denied permission to feature in the eight-team President’s Trophy, which started last month. At the time, it was explained away as the player’s failure to appear in a pre-season fitness test. But it later emerged that he had been denied the go-ahead to play because of the NCCIA probe.

Though the PCB itself did not issue any official statement on the participation of any of the above-mentioned players, SNGPL coach and former Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez has said on electronic media that if available Rizwan would lead SNGPL in the next President’s Trophy match.

Hafeez’s statement indicates that there is no bar on Rizwan anymore and now it is up to the wicket-keeper/batsman’s own availability to lead the team.

It has been reported that Rizwan had asked the PCB for the no-objection certificate to play the Nepal League, but the PCB only allowed him to feature in domestic cricket.

Meanwhile, Imam’s return to the domestic cricket was made official by the OGDCL.

Farah Batool, president of the OGDCL sports department, told Dawn that Imam would play the seventh-round match of the President’s Trophy after receiving the directions from the PCB. Sources in the PCB also confirmed this.

Rizwan was summoned by the NCCIA in Lahore on Oct 2 when the agency grilled him for more than three hours. However, no official statement on the matter has been released by the NCCIA so far. Rizwan, after this case emerged, had requested the PCB to allow him to use the National Cricket Academy which was denied.

Indian actor Tiger Shroff remained unhurt in a shooting incident in Mumbai’s Juhu area, in which his driver and a bystander sustained injuries, local media reported.

A report by Indian news website The Hindu quoted an official as saying that the incident took place around 7pm as Shroff was leaving his place of work.

Mumbai Zone-II Deputy Commissioner of Police Mohit Garg further said that Shroff’s driver, Firdaus, sustained an injury to his left hand while a bystander, identified as Chauhan, was also wounded and taken to a hospital.

According to the report, Maharashtra Chief Minister and Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis has directed Mumbai Police Commissioner Deven Bharti to investigate the case and take action against the perpetrators.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde told The Hindu that “our priority is to keep Mumbai’s citizens safe. We will not spare anyone trying to threaten our film industry”.

He added, “It is time we respond to them in their own language. In the 1990s, Mumbai saw the gang war era. The Mumbai Police stopped it. We will not tolerate such gangs. This incident is unfortunate.”

The All Indian Cine Workers Association, which represents those part of the film industry, released a statement on the incident, saying it was “shocked and deeply anguished by the firing on Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff in Mumbai’s Juhu area”.

“This is not an isolated incident. Shots were fired outside Salman Khan’s residence in Bandra. Actor Saif Ali Khan was stabbed in an attack at his Bandra home. Shots were fired outside the Juhu home of filmmaker Rohit Shetty. Comedian Kapil Sharma’s cafe was attacked repeatedly. Now Tiger Shroff has been fired upon.

“One after another, people from the film industry are being targeted, and a deliberate atmosphere of fear is being created. The intent is plain: gangsters want to terrorise Bollywood personalities and extort money from them,” the statement said.

The association said that despite repeated incidents, the government and the police had failed to stop these attacks.

“Gangsters have openly claimed responsibility in earlier cases, yet the network continues to operate. Statements are not enough. Bollywood needs real protection,” it stressed.

It demanded from CM Fadnavis to take the strictest possible action against the gangsters behind these attacks, arrest the shooters and also those who ordered the firing, without delay, and “break the extortion network”.

The body also called for provide adequate security and protection to film personalities and their families and fix accountability for the repeated failure to prevent these attacks.

Local media reported that the responsibility of the attack was claimed in an unverified social media post, which said: “Those in the Mumbai industry who work with Salman Khan and don’t listen to us will meet the same fate.” Authorities have not addressed the post yet.

The captain of a flydubai flight who was attacked by a co-pilot who intended to crash the plane has described blocking axe blows to the head and screaming for help as he reached for a knob to open the cockpit door.

Captain Smit Machchhar has been hailed as a hero for his role in averting disaster on the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv last month, helping to thwart what the UAE attorney general has said was an attempted suicide attack by the co-pilot who intended to crash the plane into Ben Gurion Airport.

Speaking in an interview with The National newspaper from a hospital bed in Abu Dhabi, his head and left arm bandaged, Machchhar said that when the first blow landed, he thought something had gone “horribly wrong (with) the aircraft structure”, before quickly realising he was being attacked and things had “taken a drastic turn”.

“The next thought was I need to get help in here,” he said in the interview published on Saturday.

“My immediate action was to free myself from the seat belts and I tried to just block the blows as much as I could,” he said, pointing to his arm that was wounded as he defended himself. “The blows were coming on the head.

“Immediately my hand went to the knob which opens the door and screaming for my colleagues, screaming his name.

“I believe that was the first time when I lost my consciousness.”

The aircraft, flight FZ1073, was in Saudi airspace when the co-pilot attacked Machchhar with a crash axe, typically kept in the cockpit for emergency use.

The incident caused the airliner to plunge 16,000 feet (4,900 metres) in 30 seconds before the attacker was overwhelmed and two other pilots who were on board landed the aircraft safely in Saudi Arabia. The suspect, an Omani national, was transferred to the UAE, flydubai’s home country.

The plan was inspired by the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the US, UAE public prosecutors say, as a result of their criminal investigation launched on October 1.

Machchhar said he heard the cockpit door opening and screaming “between my colleague and the guy”.

He said the scariest thing he felt was the aircraft nose “steeply going down”.

“I was not very sure that I’ll make it out alive from this. Did I give up? No.”

United States President Donald Trump on Sunday endorsed his ally Benjamin Netanyahu as the longtime Israeli prime minister struggles for an edge in next week’s parliamentary election.

Trump praised Netanyahu as a “great warrior prime minster” and peace partner, crediting him with joining the United States in launching strikes on Iran in February. The conflict, in its seventh month, has disrupted energy markets globally and wreaked havoc across the Middle East, damaging critical infrastructure and destabilising regional economies.

“Bibi Netanyahu has been Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel, itself,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“Despite all of that, he has endured and, in fact, he has thrived! I have watched Bibi under the most trying of times. Normal men or women in such situations would have wilted under the pressure But Bibi did not wilt, he actually got stronger, and maintains that same Strength today.”

In his message, addressed to “the Great People of Israel”, Trump added, “Please let this Letter serve to represent my Complete and Total Endorsement of Bibi Netanyahu in his upcoming Race for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Israel.”

The Trump endorsement is not certain to give Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party a boost in the Oct 27 national election, as Israeli public support for Trump has diminished amid Israeli-US disagreements over Iran.

Polls have suggested no candidate has a clear path to power. Israel’s prime minister is chosen through coalition-building in parliament rather than by direct popular vote.

It will be Israel’s first vote since the Hamas attack on Oct 7, 2023. Israel has launched an assault on Gaza and carried out strikes in Lebanon and Iran since.

The election could determine whether Netanyahu remains in power after one of the most consequential periods in Israel’s history, or is defeated by centrist rivals promising to usher in a new era.

Netanyahu promptly expressed his thanks to Trump on X, saying, “Together we will complete the mission!”

Trump has broken with longtime US tradition by endorsing candidates in elections in foreign countries, including Hungary, Colombia, Argentina, Japan and Honduras.

Torched cars, smashed shopfronts and burnt debris scarred numerous streets in Paris on Sunday, where officials said 557 people were in custody as France reeled from widespread damage caused by violent protests the day before.

Hundreds of shops were looted in Paris and other cities, including Marseille, Bordeaux, Nice and Strasbourg, during the protests over the cost of living. The city of Limoges lost its 19th-century town hall to a fire, while a tourist office in the centre of Lyon was set ablaze as well.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 1,800 people were arrested over the protests and looting, with investigations under way “to identify the perpetrators of these acts”. Around 500 police, firefighters and paramedics were hurt in the protests, the minister said.

Here are glimpses of what went down across France over the weekend after the “Yellow Vest” movement called Saturday’s “yellow and youth” demonstrations.

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Header image: A protester wrapped in a French national flag stands in front of Lyon’s tourism office set on fire during a demonstration to protest against the “high cost of living”, in Lyon, southeastern France, on Oct 17, 2026. — AFP

French police battled protesters and looters for a second day on Sunday as the country reeled from the violent chaos left by a day of cost-of-living demonstrations in which around 2,000 people were arrested nationwide.

Paris city workers had not finished clearing up the torched cars, smashed shopfronts and burnt debris from Saturday’s unrest when the new troubles started and political recriminations erupted.

AFP journalists said several hundred people gathered in the Republique square in the capital following social media calls for a gathering that authorities said had not been approved.

Television footage showed the looting of a clothing store and bikes were also set alight nearby.

The Paris police prefecture said security forces moved in when “faced with the initial signs of tension”.

AFP journalists saw police firing tear gas and stun grenades at hundreds of people gathered in the square. Bottles and rocks were hurled at police who made several arrests.

Some 550 people out of 855 arrested in Paris remained in detention from Saturday’s troubles and police stations were struggling to cope, according to the Legal Team Paris group of lawyers.

Government under pressure

Six months from a presidential election, the government faced opposition attacks over preparations for the nationwide day of action that followed weeks of mounting student protests over conditions in schools.

President Emmanuel Macron, who on Saturday vowed that anyone who engaged in vandalism or looting would be prosecuted, was to address the nation on Sunday evening at 1800 GMT.

Marine Le Pen, the far-right presidential candidate for the National Rally party, said the troubles showed that Macron’s administration was “running on fumes, exhausted and disoriented”.

“We are experiencing a profound crisis of trust and authority, which poses a threat to democracy,” said Le Pen, who leads opinion polls ahead of the election.

Le Pen has blamed ultra-left groups, while Jean-Luc Melenchon head of the far-left France Unbowed party accused authorities of inflaming tensions.

With images of French town halls burning and shops being looted grabbing headlines around the world, US President Donald Trump waded into the debate, blaming immigration for the unrest.

“France is burning! The immigration of people from an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has shattered that once great country,” Trump said in a social media post.

Looting rampages were reported on Saturday in Paris and other cities, including Marseille, Bordeaux, Nice and Strasbourg, on the margins of protests over the cost of living.

Around 1,500 businesses were damaged with losses estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the Retail and Trade Federation. One person died during the main march in Paris, but officials said the case was health-related.

“It’s like we had a war,” a 78-year-old Paris resident Mehmet Ozeden told AFP amid burnt street barricades from the protests.

‘Animals’

Another resident, Anita Gras, said she saw young men loot a sports shoe retailer.

“It’s appalling, terrifying — groups of young people came here yesterday, looting, smashing everything, with total impunity,” said 57-year-old Cecile Rogue surveying a pile of charred bicycles.

The city of Limoges lost its 19th-century town hall to a fire that local prefect, Maurice Barate, told news channel LCI had been deliberately set by “a wild horde”.

About 7,000 people staged a march in the central city on Sunday to show their anger at the devastation.

In Lyon, a store owner, Jean-Christian, said those behind the violence were “animals”.

“We saw them looting, men high on adrenaline.”

A tourist office in the city centre was set ablaze during the protests amid multiple clashes and looting.

On Sunday, a clothing store was also looted in Lyon.

Tourists stunned

In Paris, startled tourists were seen on Saturday running with suitcases along streets filled with tear gas and protesters.

A Danish tourist, Soren Petersen, said it was “sad” to see damage to Paris buildings. “It is not a protest, it’s far beyond a normal protest,” he told AFP.

Around 500 police, firefighters and paramedics were hurt in the protests, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said.

The violence took place on the sidelines of nationwide protests that the interior ministry said drew 550,000 people. The CGT union said 800,000 people participated.

A 17-year-old boy had his right hand blown off by a crowd-control grenade in the southern city of Saint-Etienne. In Mulhouse a 17-year-old girl lost an eye, according to prosecutors.

France’s Yellow Vest movement, which staged street protests eight years ago against Macron’s government over planned fuel-tax hikes, had called Saturday’s “yellow and youth” demonstrations.

The normally close ties between Turkiye and Azerbaijan have come under strain, fuelled by a dispute over Baku’s restrictions on headscarves in schools and disagreements over Israel.

Public tensions have become evident in what has traditionally been a very close relationship between two nations which share a common language and whose bond is characterised by the slogan: One nation, two states.

Although the rhetoric has remained restrained at the top, senior officials have been more outspoken in their reactions.

On Monday, Oktay Saral, chief adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, shed his normal diplomatic reserve to denounce as “unacceptable” Azerbaijan’s move to change school uniform regulations, banning anything that conflicts with the normal uniform or the secular principles of education.

“The headscarf is not an obstacle; it is a requirement of faith! The right to education cannot be sacrificed to any ideological imposition!” he wrote on X.

“We expect Azerbaijan to reverse this mistake as soon as possible.”

The following day, the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party (YAP) hit back with a sharply worded statement denouncing Saral and MPs from Erdogan’s AKP for their “populist and irresponsible statements”.

“The recent disinformation campaign targeting Azerbaijan has become increasingly aggressive, systematic, and openly slanderous,” it said.

The confrontation reflected sharp differences between Azerbaijan — one of the most secular states in the Muslim world — and the leadership in Ankara.

But it also highlighted tensions over the growing rapprochement between Azerbaijan and Israel since Baku’s 2020 Karabakh war with arch-foe Armenia, when the Israelis supplied them with drones and other weaponry.

Turkiye’s ties with Israel, by contrast, could hardly be worse, with Erdogan accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza and Ankara regularly releasing images of top-level talks with the leaders of Hamas, whose October 2023 attacks on Israel sparked the latter’s onslaught on Gaza.

Baku more ‘pragmatic’

Turkiye’s pro-government media has held little back, with the Yeni Safak daily denouncing the headscarf regulations as a gesture towards Israel.

“We firmly reject attempts to deliberately distort Azerbaijani-Israeli relations, portray these ties as supposedly exceptional, and use this as a basis for making political accusations against Azerbaijan,” the country’s ruling party said.

The sharp response underscores Azerbaijan’s emergence as a regional middle power.

It is more willing to push back against Turkiye as Ankara seeks to project influence from the Black Sea, increasingly ensnared by the Russia-Ukraine war, and an ever-more volatile Middle East.

“The changing geopolitical order in the greater Eurasia has enabled Azerbaijan to pursue a more pragmatic foreign policy,” said Fuad Shahbazov, an independent political analyst, indicating that meant Baku now “categorically resists the attempts of external actors, even its ally Turkiye”.

But on Friday, Kursad Zorlu, deputy head of Erdogan’s AKP, said the two sides knew how to tackle problems “within the family” in what appeared to be a tacit call for online restraint.

At a regional summit in Baku on Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan hailed “the unshakable bond … between our leaders” despite being tested “in very difficult times”.

Too much to lose

Observers agree the two nations share too much to risk a rupture.

“The sometimes-tense relations with Moscow and the Iran war happening next door mean that Baku cannot afford to alienate an otherwise good partner,” Ivan Klyszcz of the Estonia-based International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS) told AFP.

“Moreover, energy cooperation, ongoing well before the current spat, is too important for both parties,” he stressed.

“For Turkiye, Azerbaijan is an essential gate for Central Asia, a region … seen by Ankara as strategic.”

Paradoxically, Baku seems to hold the cards, despite the fact that its population is ten times smaller than that of its ally.

“The litmus test of the Baku-Ankara axis will depend on the latter’s further attitude and commitment to quickly get back on diplomatic tracks to handle this crisis,” Shahbazov told AFP.

“Azerbaijan possesses energy leverage and access to the Central Asian region, giving it leverage over Turkiye,” he said.

And this is a crucial asset, given Ankara’s ambition to maintain its role as a transit hub between Europe and Asia.

Even so, points of friction remain.

On Friday, Baku said it had issued an “international arrest warrant” for a Turkish journalist working for the Sanliurfa Olay daily. According to prosecutors, Celal Ciftci called for a “coup d’tat” in Azerbaijan and promoted “religious extremism”.

THE post began with an apology. The writer Amitava Kumar explained that Facebook had blocked his Substack link in India, so he was sharing his essay as plain text instead. I read that line twice. Then I laughed, because I recognised it.

In Pakistan, we know this routine well. The link that won’t open. The site that loads everywhere except here. The workaround that everyone shares and no one in authority admits is needed.

Kumar was writing about the young Indians who call themselves cockroaches. Their movement began as satire, a joke party mocking the government over a leaked medical entrance exam. Then it became the Cockroach Janta Party. For over a month, young people camped at Jantar Mantar – Delhi’s iconic protest site.

Now their anger has turned on a revision of the voter rolls that has, reportedly, stripped millions of their right to vote. Last week, the state responded with brute force: thousands of protesters and journalists were detained; CJP leaders were picked up on arrival in Delhi, and mobile and internet services were jammed in most parts of the capital. India’s mainstream television channels looked the other way.

Seen from here, none of this looks new. We have lived through nationwide internet suspensions. We spent more than a year with X blocked. We have watched names vanish from television screens, speeches go unaired, and protests barricaded before they began. We have seen leaders detained on their way to rallies and journalists told, politely or otherwise, what not to cover. If the government across the border has a playbook, some of its chapters were written here.

But the cockroaches have a playbook too, and it is one we also know. They named themselves after the creature everyone wants to crush but can never eradicate. It is a brilliant choice. An insult became a badge. A threat became a punchline. Their posters are irreverent, often profane and frequently very funny, in a culture where young people are raised to be respectful towards their elders. Reporters at the protests have described crowds fanning each other in the heat, laughing into the police’s eyeglasses with facial recognition.

Humour is what people use when the usual channels close.

Humour is what people use when the usual channels close. It is harder to arrest and cheaper than a lawyer. Pakistanis understand this instinctively. Under Ziaul Haq, satire went underground and survived. In recent years, when television fell silent on certain subjects, the jokes simply moved online. A meme can say what a news anchor cannot, and a whole generation has learned to read between the punchlines.

When the media looks away, someone else fills the gap. In India, young reporters and small digital outlets have covered the protests that big channels ignored. One protest site even had a wall honouring the journalists who showed up. That, too, is familiar.

In Pakistan, some of the most important reporting of the past few years has come from people working with a phone, a YouTube channel — and very little protection.

Kumar wrote in the same post about another writer urging his fellow guests to “celebrate the cockroach”. Young Indians, he said, had given the country its most hopeful moment in a long time.

The sentiment is understandable. There is something moving about young people who refuse to be solemn, who meet barricades with jokes and detentions with more jokes. But hope is not the same as change, and the state has a long memory and a large budget. Laughter can sustain a movement. It cannot, on its own, win one.

It is tempting, from this side of the border, to watch In­­dia’s troubles with a certain satisfaction. I would resist that. The tools bei­ng used against India’s young protesters are not foreign to us. Neither is the courage of those using humour to fight back. What is happening in Delhi is less a story about India than a story about the region, about governments that have learned to switch off the internet faster than they can create jobs, and young people who have learned to make jokes faster than governments can ban them.

There is one difference, and it is worth naming. India has long called itself the world’s largest democracy. That claim is what makes the barricades at Jantar Mantar so jarring to watch.

We have never made such grand claims about ourselves. Perhaps that is honesty. Perhaps it is simply lowered expectations. Either way, when I look at Delhi and see a reflection of the state of affairs at home, I am not sure who should be more embarrassed.

The cockroaches are laughing. The state is cutting the internet. And from across the border, it all looks very familiar.

The joke is on us.

The writer is a journalist and conducts writing workshops in Karachi.

X:@LedeingLady

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2026

PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Sunday that if the opposition was willing to fight against terrorism and engage with the Centre on a plan, governor’s rule and emergency imposed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could end.

He made these remarks while speaking to the media in Karachi, where he was visiting the Karsaz Monument on the 19th anniversary of the Karsaz bombing.

His statement comes a week after the Centre imposed governor’s rule and emergency in KP, citing the provincial government’s “deliberate disengagement” from the fight against terrorism. The move also followed a mobilisation drive and protest march by the PTI, which was in power in KP and in opposition in the Centre, to demand the release of its jailed founder, Imran Khan.

“If they really want to fight terrorists, and if they want that emergency and governor’s rule in KP to end, they should engage with the federal government and politicians and discuss a united policy regarding the fight against terrorism,” Bilawal said on Sunday, referring to the PTI-led opposition.

He added that if the opposition was ready to fight terrorism and “we agree on a plan” to do so, the emergency and governor’s rule in KP could end.

“If the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister (Sohail Afridi) is a coward, if he is not ready to defend his homeland, if he is not ready to fight those terrorists, then the PPP is ready to fight them,” Bilawal said.

“That is why we supported the government’s decision to impose governor’s rule in KP.”

He stressed that the party would “join forces with everyone to fight these terrorists”.

In his media talk, the Bhutto scion said the country had reached a point where “terrorist attacks are taking place from Khyber to Khuzdar”.

He regretted that when the Taliban came to power in Kabul in 2021, the Pakistani government at that time “also decided to invite the terrorists who were in Afghanistan to come back and live in our Swat, our Malakand, our former tribal areas”. He was seemingly referring to then-prime minister Imran’s plans to resettle members of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan in the country.

Bilawal went on to say that terrorists who were in jail in Pakistan were also freed. “Today, Pakistan is suffering the losses from these wrong decisions,” he lamented.

He added that the country had now once again reached the point where “some forces want to take down Pakistan’s flag in Swat” and there was a fight against terrorism ongoing across the entire country, while security forces, law enforcers and the public were being targeted.

However, he claimed, in the province where the highest number of terrorist incidents were taking place — KP — its chief minister had pledged that he would not face the terrorists.

In response to a question about the Karsaz bombing, the PPP chairman remarked that the greatest loss was caused when terrorist incidents were not taken seriously.

He said that the PPP had “prepared entire society” to fight terrorism by creating an environment for counterterrorism operations in 2008, when the party was in power. After that, he said, when the National Action Plan was introduced, the PPP adopted a holistic approach towards bringing changes in institutions to assist with combatting terrorism.

He emphasised that success was achieved when “every citizen” of Pakistan joined the fight against terrorism, saying, “Today as well, we will make efforts to create an environment where we are all united, and will fight the terrorists together.”

Answering further questions, he said Pakistan was facing a “historic economic crisis”.

“It appears that the situation will worsen. Our priority is to address this economic crisis, and to do that, we will have to fight terrorism as well,” he added.

He said efforts should also be made to improve the democratic and electoral system in Pakistan.

For this reason, he said, the PPP had highlighted the need for a new NAP and consensus on the fight against terrorism, while also extending an invitation to the opposition to play a part in this.

He said the PPP also made an effort to improve the democratic system by pushing for electoral reforms. To this end, the federal government had decided to establish an electoral reforms committee in the National Assembly, adding that he had invited the opposition to play their part in that committee as well.

“If they say that democracy is weak in this country, they should help us to strengthen it,” the PPP chairman said.

He added, “If we can create such an environment, we will be in a better position to fight terrorists.”

Bilawal also said KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi had been nominated by the PPP for the office of governor, but “constitutionally, he is now a representative of the federal government”.

He said Kundi reported to the federal government, but “I will keep talking to him and keep advising him; in principle, though, he is now working together with the federal government”.

Responding to a question regarding a potential “compromise” with the opposition, Bilawal said, “You say ‘compromise’ like it’s a bad word […] Compromise and politics go hand in hand.”

He stressed that ex-PM Benazir had always strived for compromises during her political career, adding that she knew that one could reach “extremes” if they remained a revolutionary or an activist who only protested rather than working for their cause.

“We had to solve our issues and lift the public and our workers out of difficulty,” Bilawal said about the PPP’s past tenures in government. He asserted that it was the result of the PPP’s “compromises” that led to the end of Gen Pervez Musharraf’s dictatorship, as well as the passage of the 1973 Constitution and the 18th Amendment.

“We (the PPP) are not in the federal government. Nor do we have a majority in Parliament,” he said. “But [we have to see] how we can conduct politics in the space we have.”

New provinces

Answering a question regarding the creation of new provinces, Bilawal stated that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi knew “clearly” what the PPP and President Asif Ali Zardari’s policy was regarding new provinces or administrative units, and that this was “not possible without the president’s signature”.

Naqvi’s July remarks calling for new provinces and reforms in the current governance system had ignited an animated debate across the country. The PPP, which rules Sindh, has strongly opposed any possible division of the province.

Bilawal stressed that the PPP’s position was clear: that they could be created in accordance with the Constitution and law if the provincial assembly agreed. The Sindh Assembly, amid a boycott by the opposition, adopted a resolution last month rejecting all attempts to divide the province or create new administrative units.

“Where there is consensus and it is not a political stunt, if there is no other purpose behind it … why aren’t provinces being made there?” the PPP chairman said, giving the example of Gilgit-Baltistan.

“If we really want this to be implemented, it must only be implemented where the provinces want this,” he stressed, noting that the entire GB Legislative Assembly had passed a resolution with consensus for the region’s constitutional rights.

Bilawal requested politicians, whether on the treasury or opposition benches, not to politicise the issue of terrorism or create controversy out of steps taken to combat it, but rather to play their role in fighting it.

Bilawal also spoke about Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, saying he had the right to criticise the government’s policies, and that there should certainly be room for difference of opinion in the country.

He said the PPP had always imposed emergency through constitutional and legal means.

“In fact, during the 2008–2013 government, when emergency rule was imposed in Balochistan, it was also because of the terrorism situation, and governor’s rule was imposed there against the PPP’s own government.

“If the PPP thought only of itself, how would it have removed its own government?“

He said Fazl’s party has also been affected by terrorist attacks, so he hoped the JUI-F chief would criticise the PPP politically as much as he wished, but also condemn the terrorists.

Bilawal added that if Fazl made an effort, harmony between the government and the opposition could be achieved.

Maldives’ President Dr Mohamed Muizzu will undertake a three-day state visit to Pakistan from Oct 20-22 at the invitation of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Sunday.

President Muizzu will be accompanied by First Lady Sajidha Mohamed and a “high-level delegation comprising cabinet ministers and senior officials”, according to a statement issued by FO.

During the visit, Muizzu will meet his Pakistani counterpart, President Asif Ali Zardari, who will host a state banquet in his honour, FO said.

He will also hold “restricted and delegation-level” talks with PM Shehbaz, it added.

During the talks, the two leaders “will review the entire spectrum of bilateral relations and explore avenues for further strengthening cooperation in trade, investment, health, education, tourism, agriculture, defence, maritime security, climate change and people-to-people exchanges”.

They will also exchange views on regional and international developments of mutual interest, FO added.

A Pakistan-Maldives Business Forum will also be held during the visit to promote interaction between the two countries’ business communities and explore opportunities for trade and investment, according to FO.

“A number of agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) covering diverse areas of bilateral cooperation are expected to be signed during the visit,” the statement added.

FO highlighted that the visit marks the first by a Maldivian president to Pakistan in 11 years. It will take place as the two countries mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1966.

“Pakistan and Maldives enjoy warm and fraternal relations rooted in shared faith, mutual respect, longstanding goodwill and close cooperation at regional and international forums,” the statement said.

The forthcoming visit reflected the “shared commitment of both countries to further strengthening their bilateral partnership and opening new avenues of mutually beneficial cooperation”, it added.

In 2015, former Maldivian president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom undertook a two-day state visit to Pakistan on May 6-7 at the invitation of then-premier Nawaz Sharif.

This piece was originally published on June 1, 2022.

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Over the last few decades, there is a severe burden of ‘resilience’ that has been thrust upon the inhabitants of some large cities in Pakistan, whether it is in the form of persistent rates of crime, diseased public utilities, unbreathable air, floundering healthcare or dismal transportation infrastructure.

This oft-romanticised resilience is once more being demanded by the state as citizens of cities like Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar are again being pushed into an unhappy reunion with an affliction that has reared its ugly head after a relative lull — accelerating terror attacks at home.

Deadly incidents of this nature are cause for serious emotional instability among residents of these cities. But by now, many locals have whittled down emotional survival to a fairly simple and linear process:

Internal security event → temporary panic and lament of said event → desensitisation → next internal security event → repeat.

It may seem somewhat callous to reduce this to such a mechanical progression, but the defence mechanisms adopted by those who live in the midst of frequent terrorism are not really up for judgment. If sanity is to be preserved, some form of detachment is necessary. And as someone who has personally employed this process many times in the past, I can say that it works, and works well at that.

Until your father is present at the site of a bombing. Then the process comes crashing down.

When calamity hits home

Karachi, 18th October 2007: Celebrations of Benazir Bhutto’s return to Pakistan were met with two bombs ripping through Karsaz in quick succession, killing nearly 200 people and injuring 500 others. Jammers were activated, emergency was declared, and public healthcare facilities were put on high alert. My father was drowning somewhere in this sea of deadly chaos.

The rest of us were home when the news found us. On hearing it, my mother lost all sensation in her legs and collapsed. We began dialling my father’s mobile phone number but couldn’t get through because of the jammers. There was no way of knowing if he was safe, or injured, or even alive.

The only information we could get was coming from our television set — all I remember of it now is a crimson BREAKING NEWS template designed to incite fear and a casualty count that was escalating with horrifying frequency. We kept dialling my father’s number desperately in the hope that we could break through the infrastructural blockade imposed by the state. The minutes kept passing and panic kept mounting.

At this point, there is no formula or process in the world that can help you.

You’d think crying would come naturally at this time but it doesn’t; you are too gripped by fear to respond as you normally would. Your heart throbs and you lose basic bodily control. You are gasping for air and trembling all over, and it is a Herculean task to collect yourself enough to focus on dialling a number, over and over again.

As soon as they could, my father’s brothers and cousins set off to find him — I vaguely remember one of them rushing into the car without his shoes on. They didn’t think about what would happen if another bomb went off in a city that appeared to be under the control of terrorists. Frankly, I don’t think they cared. The meaning of family truly comes through in times of crisis, and if there’s one thing to be grateful for in a society where relationships are unravelling constantly, it is to have the support of loved ones who prioritise those bonds above all else. But that’s a subject for another time.

Hurt is good

Soon after they left, we received a phone call from my mother’s sister in Hyderabad. She had somehow miraculously gotten through to him. “He’s hurt,” she told us.

How hurt, she could not say — she had only spoken to him for a few seconds. In the days that passed, we would come to learn that shrapnel from the bomb had pierced through his torso and legs, lodging pieces of metal deep inside his body and permanently damaging a large part of his intestinal tract.

But at that time, ‘he’s hurt’ was good to hear. We were happy with hurt because hurt meant alive, and alive meant hope. My father had found his way to an ambulance that was taking him to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre — a designated hospital for injuries and casualties — but he eventually ended up at (what is now known as) the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi.

The cosmic irony of the situation is still astounding — at the time, my father was employed at the Civil Hospital as Professor of Surgery. Had any patient in his condition come to the hospital that night, they would have been surgically operated on by my father and his team. And yet here he was, bleeding profusely out of his abdomen, playing the role of patient instead of surgeon.

As word spread through the hospital that one of their own was injured, a team of healthcare workers began stabilising him for surgery. He was operated on at around dawn, some hours after hell exploded in Karsaz. My father lost half his intestines that morning in a procedure known as a hemicolectomy. He was in intensive care for the weeks that followed. Metal still remains lodged in his body, buried deep in his bones. But he is with us today. Words cannot express how grateful we are for this, and all of us pray constantly for his sustained health.

The scars that never heal

Words can, however, attempt to convey the depth of trauma we were exposed to as a family that night, and the lasting impact it has had. Nearly 15 years later, I have still not been able to talk about it. I can only write about the horror of October 18th, protected by the façade of screens and the comfort of one-way communication. If the bombing comes up in conversation, I change the topic; when I fail at that, I leave the room. That period of my life haunts me completely and is triggered every time there is a terror attack in Pakistan, especially in my hometown Karachi.

As one can imagine, it has been particularly difficult to deal with the spate of IED bombings in Karachi these past few months. Nights have been spent with tears, terror, and trauma as memories of 2007 find their way into bedtime thoughts and nightmares.

There is little hope for stability that can be offered by a leadership that is forever dancing with these forces of terror, sometimes in negotiation and at other times in battle with them. Loss of innocent life remains an unrelenting theme in Pakistan. The mental health impact of living with terrorism day in and day out remains an invisible cost that goes unfactored and uncared for. We are mentally breaking down inside. But so long as we appear functional on the surface, who really cares about what’s going on internally?

Some among us are still able to deal with terrorism using the standard emotional survival process mentioned at the beginning of this piece. My own emotional response, unfortunately, has changed. It now goes:

Internal security event → terror → incapacitation → next internal security event → repeat.

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Header illustration: Panuwach/ Shutterstock.com

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday inaugurated a Daanish School in Islamabad, saying the initiative aimed to provide quality education to talented students from underprivileged backgrounds and give them opportunities equal to those available to children from affluent families.

Daanish schools, originally introduced by the Punjab government, aim to provide quality education to marginalised and talented students. It is said to be the largest network of boarding schools for girls and boys in the country.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony today in the capital today, the premier highlighted stories of Daanish School graduates, including a girl from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who overcame challenges and a woman from Bahawalpur who went on to become a doctor after losing her father in childhood.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this was a vision we had seen in Punjab when I was its servant. How come the sons of rich people enter the iron steel gates of Aitchison College; sons of prime ministers, governors, bureaucrats, judges, civil servants, military servants, landlords, mill owners, regardless of their acumen and their level of intelligence,” PM Shehbaz said.

“And those millions of boys and girls, [who are] extremely intelligent, but come from the poorest of backgrounds in the four corners of Pakistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, cannot even imagine opening the gates of Aitchison College, let alone having the opportunity to receive a decent education,” he noted.

According to the premier, this vision led his team to establish Danish Schools back in 2010.

“[The] concept was introduced in Punjab, not only to match the quality and level of Aitchison College and other grammar schools all over Punjab and other parts of Pakistan, but to excel,” he asserted.

PM Shehbaz stressed that every child deserved equal opportunities, whether they were the son or daughter of the richest man in Pakistan, the prime minister or anyone from the elite class, or a child who had lost both parents.

“If these children are left to waste their time in the muddy streets of their villages and cities, then this is not the Pakistan of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. This is certainly not his Pakistan,” he remarked.

The premier noted that the richest people in the country, regardless of how they earned their wealth, had the opportunity to send their children to the best schools in Pakistan and even to North America and the south of France.

“Imagine the plight of children like this daughter from Bahawalpur, this daughter from KP, and this boy sitting before you, who also became a doctor.”

A post by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said, “A new dawn of education and excellence is about to rise in the capital!”

PM Shehbaz also interacted with multiple students at the campus. Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui also spoke on the occasion.

The foundation of the school in the federal capital was laid in 2024, with 10 acres of land allocated by the Capital Development Authority.

In March, thousands of students across Pakistan sought admission to the school, which received over 7,000 applications against just 210 seats.

The school’s board of governors had also approved a budget of Rs3.8 billion for the year 2026-27 earlier this year.

With a sports car that somersaults through the air, Elon Musk is back in the headlines for technological daring — but his plunge into politics and his return to US President Donald Trump’s side mean the world’s richest man no longer enjoys the unqualified praise of years past.

“All the things that we were promised since the 1950s, of space travel and flying cars… he’s doing all of those things,” said Andrew Selepak, a social media professor at the University of Florida.

“And yet we’re not giving it the attention, we’re not giving it the awe that it probably truly deserves,” he added.

In recent weeks, Musk has seemed to be everywhere at once.

On Sept 28, SpaceX’s Starship megarocket reached orbit for the first time and deployed 26 Starlink satellites before splashing down in the Pacific — a milestone for the rocket central to Musk’s Mars ambitions.

Musk’s central role in geopolitics has also been on display, with Ukraine complaining of disruptions to the Starshield satellite communications system its military relies on.

Even the platform formerly known as Twitter is enjoying something of a renaissance, with Musk’s X now the go-to social media app for Silicon Valley insiders and the main marketplace for talk about artificial intelligence.

But despite his continued success, Musk’s unrelenting commitment to right-wing politics has taken a toll.

No image captured that shift more than Musk brandishing a chainsaw on stage in February 2025 — a gift from Argentine President Javier Milei — as a symbol of his drive to slash the US government as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the early months of Trump’s second term.

Through DOGE, Musk’s allies fanned out across federal agencies, driving cuts that effectively dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and contributed to a net loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.

‘National treasure’

That combative imagery has been matched by Musk’s posts on X, where hardline anti-immigration views and right-wing conspiracy theories sit alongside posts about rocket launches and Tesla robotaxis.

Now Musk is back in Trump’s good graces, after a spectacular falling-out that followed his exit from DOGE in May 2025.

Last week, Trump presented Musk with the nation’s top science medal, calling him a “national treasure” and “our modern-day Thomas Edison”.

The renewed relationship comes as Musk has spent at least $276 million on Republican political campaigns ahead of next month’s midterm elections, in which the president’s party is expected to struggle.

Of that, $158m is funding a massive advertising campaign in Texas, Musk’s home state, where the Republican candidate is trailing in the polls.

For left-leaning pundits, Musk is now increasingly seen as an agent of Trump and the tech billionaires rather than a technology savant working for the good of humanity.

That opposition plays out in ‘Musk’, a four-hour documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney now in US theatres, which traces the life and career of the South Africa-born billionaire.

“I once described him as somebody who can jump off the edge of a cliff and invent a parachute on the way down. I think he thrives on chaos,” Musk’s first wife Justine Musk, who features prominently in the film, told podcaster Kara Swisher.

Yet, she added, “I always assume that there’s a method to his madness,” and many of his loudest actions may in fact be deflections and “sleight of hand”. The same may be true of Musk’s dealings with Washington.

Few entrepreneurs depend as heavily on the federal government as Musk does.

SpaceX — which went public in June in the largest initial public offering in history — earns billions of dollars a year from Nasa and Pentagon contracts, while Tesla’s bet on robotaxis hinges on how quickly regulators allow driverless cars onto US roads.

Seen in that light, Musk’s millions for Republicans may be less a political conversion than an investment.

Pakistan’s first astronaut will undertake a space mission from a Chinese space centre on November 25, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Sunday.

The minister made the announcement while addressing the concluding ceremony of World Space Week in Narowal, held in collaboration with the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco), the planning ministry said in a statement.

According to the handout, the planning minister also said the country was aiming to achieve a lunar landing by 2035, expressing hope that Pakistan’s cooperation with China would help it “reach new heights in space exploration”.

In his address at the ceremony, the planning minister highlighted the importance of space technology in agriculture, communications, climate monitoring, education and national security.

Iqbal stressed that scientific research and space exploration were essential for technological advancement, the ministry’s statement said.

He further noted that Muslim scholars had once made significant contributions to astronomy and scientific discovery, calling for renewed efforts to restore Pakistan’s leadership in knowledge and research.

The astronaut will be one of the two — pilots Zeeshan Ali and Khur­ram Daud— China selected in April this year as candidates for its manned space programme and who have been undergoing intensive training in Beijing.

China has not said which of the two will fly or when, but speaking to Reuters last month, Amer Gilani, who oversees human spaceflight cooperation at Suparco, said a final astronaut selection decision was expected in mid-to-late October.

According to another Suparco official quoted by Reuters, once in space, the chosen pilot will carry the title of “payload specialist”, which is astronaut-speak for someone whose job in orbit is running Pakis­tan’s science experiments rather than flying the ship.

The astronaut will fly aboard a Chinese-built spacecraft, launched from a Chinese site, trained by Chinese instructors and communicating in Mandarin in orbit.

Security forces have killed eight “India-sponsored” terrorists during three intelligence-based operations conducted in the Quetta, Nushki and Khuzdar districts of Balochistan, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Sunday.

The IBOs took place on Oct 17 (Saturday) on the “reported presence of terrorists belonging to Indian proxy Fitna al Hindustan”, the military’s media affairs wing said in its press release.

The state has designated Balochistan-based groups as Fitna al Hindustan to highlight India’s role in terrorism and destabilisation across Pakistan.

In the Panjpai area of Quetta district, terrorists’ attempt to establish a roadblock to disrupt local traffic was “intercepted by security forces, resulting in [the] killing of five India-sponsored terrorists”.

Separately, during a sanitisation operation in Nushki district, security forces busted a terrorist hideout and “after an intense fire exchange, two India-sponsored terrorists were sent to hell”. Weapons and ammunition were also recovered, ISPR added.

In another IBO in Khuzdar, a terrorist hideout was “engaged by security forces through prompt offensive action”, killing one terrorist. ISPR said a large quantity of explosives (490 kilogrammes) was also recovered.

Sanitisation operations were being conducted to eliminate any other terrorist found in the area, according to the statement.

ISPR reaffirmed that the “relentless counterterrorism campaign under Vision ‘Azm-i-Istehkam’ (as approved by the Federal Apex Committee on the National Action Plan) by security forces and law enforcement agencies of Pakistan will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country”.

President Asif Ali Zardari, in a statement, paid tribute to the security forces for eliminating eight terrorists.

He also commended their professional capabilities for thwarting the attempt to disrupt traffic in Quetta, as well as their actions in Nushki and Khuzdar.

“Conspiracies of the terrorists’ foreign patrons and their local facilitators will be foiled,” President Zardari declared.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also commended the security forces, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

He said the forces were achieving significant successes in the fight against terrorism under the vision of ‘Azm-i-Istehkam’ and reiterated the government’s resolve to completely eradicate all forms of terrorism from the country.

In his statement, Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said operations will continue until terrorism is completely eradicated from the province and peace is established.

“There will be no compromise on Pakistan’s integrity, peace, and the protection of its people,” he affirmed.

Intensified operations

Balochistan has witnessed an increase in terrorist activities in recent years, prompting security forces to intensify counterterrorism operations.

On the night of Oct 12/13, security forces busted a terrorist hideout and killed five terrorists during an IBO in Washuk, ISPR said.

Days later, Balochistan government officials said that six terrorists affiliated with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), two would-be female suicide bombers, and two commanders of a banned organisation had been arrested during IBOs across the province.

They said around 90 arrested terrorists were being held at a centre where investigations and legal proceedings were under way.

Earlier this month, five terrorists were eliminated in Balochistan’s Mastung district, state media reported.

The number of terrorist attacks in the province increased by seven per cent from 83 in July to 89 in August, according to data compiled by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS). As per the report, Balochistan was declared the province “most affected” by terrorism.

Egypt is ready to provide Saudi Arabia with the support it needs to defend its security and stability, the presidency said on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said two officers were killed when their helicopter crashed near the Yemen border, after the rebel group claimed it shot the aircraft down.

The coalition blamed a “technical malfunction” for the helicopter crash, which inflicted its first military fatalities since the long-running conflict with the Houthis reignited in July.

The incident comes a week after strikes by the Houthis killed 13 people at Riyadh’s international airport, the deadliest attack in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade.

An AH-6i reconnaissance helicopter belonging to the Saudi Ministry of National Guard crashed “inside Saudi territory in Najran Region due to a technical malfunction”, coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

“The accident resulted in the martyrdom of its aircrew, consisting of two officers.”

Late on Saturday, Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree claimed the group had “downed an Apache helicopter belonging to the Saudi enemy” in the same area.

Egypt ready to give ‘all necessary and possible forms of support’

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had requested an urgent parliament session to authorise the military, one of the region’s largest and most powerful, to help defend Saudi Arabia if the kingdom requested its support.

“Egypt will provide Saudi Arabia with all necessary and possible forms of support to defend its security and stability, protect its resources, territorial integrity and Islamic holy sites,” the Egyptian presidency said in a statement on Sunday.

It followed a meeting of Egypt’s National Defence Council chaired by Sisi and attended by the parliamentary speaker, the prime minister and the army chief.

A parliamentary vote had been expected on authorising the request for military support on Sunday, but discussions were due to continue on Monday, two lawmakers and local media reports said.

Sisi said in a speech on Saturday that Egypt would act in accordance with guidance from Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who visited Sisi on Sept 15, after fighting in Yemen reignited.

Dar, Egypt FM condemn Houthi attacks

On the diplomatic front, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held a telephone conversation with Egypt’s FM Dr Badr Abdelatty, the Foreign Office (FO) said.

“The two leaders exchanged views on recent regional developments and strongly condemned the Houthi attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, reaffirming their full solidarity with the Kingdom and support for its sovereignty, territorial integrity and security.”

They also discussed cooperation under the R-4 (Pakistan, Egypt, Türkiye and Saudi Arabia) framework and looked forward to the next meeting of the R-4 soon to further strengthen mutual ties and to coordinate on the regional issues, the statement added.

The foreign ministers of the four countries last met on Sept 21 in New York, where they had reaffirmed their support for Riyadh’s sovereignty and supported its right to self-defence.

Pakistan, which has signed two defence agreements with Riyadh, has repeatedly expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia.

The first one, the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA), was signed in Sept 2025, under which the two countries pledged that any attack on either nation would be treated as an act of aggression against both.

The two countries are also parties to the Makkah Defence Alliance, which also includes Turkiye. The pact was signed on August 7 and provides that an attack on one member state would be treated as an attack on all.

Yemen fighting

After an uneasy, four-year truce, Yemen’s conflict has surged back to life, with the Houthis declaring a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in July.

The conflict intensified when Houthis captured territory around the Bab al-Mandeb strait, the Red Sea chokepoint and vital export route for Saudi oil since Iran blockaded the Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz.

The Houthis have also hit Saudi targets including tankers in the Red Sea, oil facilities and Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport.

On the other hand, the Saudi-led coalition backing the internationally recognised government has launched repeated air raids on Houthi territory.

The coalition said overnight that it intercepted two drones in the Riyadh area and a third over the oil-rich Eastern Province. Saudi authorities had earlier issued a threat alert in the capital.

Two ballistic missiles “launched by the terrorist Houthi militia towards Khamis Mushait” were intercepted in the kingdom’s south, the coalition added.

On Saturday, the Houthis reported that Saudi strikes killed 12 people in Yemen, including three children.

Sri Lanka were cruising.

Only 53 runs stood between them and a flying start in the One-day International tri-series opener against Pakistan after Pavan Rathnayake and Janith Liyanage’s 119-run stand.

The dew that made the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium outfield relentlessly slick on Sunday night had also deprived Pakistan’s pacers of the chance to extract reverse swing from the old ball.

Then came two moments of madness. Liyanage, who had looked composed throughout his innings, chipped Haris Rauf casually to Babar Azam at long-on before Dasun Shanaka, who had threatened to take the game away from Pakistan, heaved Shaheen Shah Afridi to the same fielder in the same position. In the space of four balls, Sri Lanka unravelled.

Naseem Shah then had Sachindu Colombage caught behind, Eshan Malinga was run out after a mix-up, and Haris cleaned up Asitha Fernando to seal a 37-run win for Pakistan, who had earlier posted 305 thanks to Salman Ali Agha’s fourth ODI century.

Salman celebrated his return to the Pakistan side after his unceremonious axing from the Test team two months ago with a composed 107 off 90 balls, including 10 fours and a six.

Pakistan’s innings, however, finished with a flourish from Sri Lanka’s bowlers, who conceded only 36 runs while taking five wickets in the last five overs. Eshan Malinga led the charge with figures of 4-46.

After openers Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub fell to Dilshan Madushanka, Babar Azam and Saad Baig steadied the innings with a 74-run partnership for the third wicket.

Malinga broke through by bouncing out Babar for 45 and Saad for 39, bringing Salman and Hasan Nawaz together.

The pair added 97, with Salman gradually increasing the tempo after initially settling in. He brought up his half-century in the 35th over, rotating the strike and punishing loose deliveries.

Hasan supplied the acceleration with two sixes off Sachindu Colombage, including a powerful slog sweep over cow corner.

Salman then took charge, pulling Dasun Shanaka through the leg side before launching Malinga’s slower delivery over long-off for six.

He reached three figures in the 45th over, finding the boundary through deep midwicket before edging a full delivery past the infield to third man.

Hasan fell for 37, caught by Pavan Rathnayake at short midwicket off Asitha Fernando, who also removed Arafat Minhas for 18.

Salman departed for 107 at 279-6, mistiming a lofted shot to Shanaka at long-on, and Sri Lanka seized control.

Malinga dismissed Faheem Ashraf and trapped Naseem Shah lbw in the next over, while accurate yorkers restricted Pakistan’s lower order. Haris was run out for a duck in the final over, leaving Pakistan all out for 305 in 49.5 overs.

Sri Lanka’s reply began poorly. Shaheen and Naseem made early inroads, reducing the visitors to 91-4 and leaving the chase in need of repair.

But as the ball and outfield grew wetter, Pakistan’s bowlers struggled to make the ball grip, allowing Rathnayake and Liyanage to rebuild with patience and calculated aggression.

Rathnayake initially played watchfully before cutting Arafat Minhas late through deep point and pulling Saim Ayub to the deep midwicket boundary.

He raised his maiden ODI half-century with a single off Arafat in the 31st over, then pulled two short balls from Shaheen over square leg in successive deliveries.

Liyanage offered stability at the other end, rotating the strike and punishing anything loose. He drove Naseem through the gap between mid-off and extra cover before dancing down the track to hammer Arafat straight down the ground.

Their running between the wickets kept the scoreboard moving as Pakistan struggled to find a breakthrough.

Faheem finally ended the partnership in the 38th over, when Rathnayake, having faced 74 deliveries, pushed a length ball straight to Salman at short cover.

But the wicket did little to ease Pakistan’s anxiety. Shanaka attacked immediately, pulling Faheem for four and driving through extra cover before launching Arafat over square leg for six.

Liyanage brought up his half-century with a fierce drive down the ground, and Sri Lanka remained firmly in the contest.

With 82 needed from the final 10 overs, the visitors had a genuine chance of pulling off the chase.

Then Liyanage’s loose chip and Shanaka’s reckless heave turned a promising pursuit into a collapse. From there, Pakistan needed only to keep their nerve.

Salman’s century had given Pakistan the platform; Malinga’s late burst had kept the total within reach. But Sri Lanka’s two costly shots ultimately decided the opener, handing Pakistan a winning start to the tri-series.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The authorities here on Saturday locked and sealed the historic Ram Leela Temple in Rahim Bazaar days after civil society activists intervened to stop the demolition of the heritage building for the construction of a commercial plaza at the site.

The building had earlier been sealed by Assistant Commissioner Hamid Siddiq following public protests and work at the site was stopped, said local sources.

The latest development came as civil society representatives and members of the Hindu community held a joint meeting to discuss the reported move to demolish the temple.

The participants condemned the proposed construction and called on elected representatives to raise the issue in the National Assembly.

The meeting, held at the office of civil society president Sohail Ahmed Azmi, was attended by former MPA and Hindu community representative Kishore Kumar, social worker Muhammad Nauman and others.

The participants said the Ram Leela Temple was among around 400 buildings in Dera Ismail Khan identified as cultural heritage properties by the Evacuee Trust Property Board.

They expressed concern over any move to demolish the temple and said civil society, the business community, writers and heritage advocates would resist any action that could damage the city’s historical heritage.

The participants also alleged that the relevant authorities had allowed construction of a commercial plaza at the site despite questions over their legal authority to do so.

They called for an inquiry into the matter and said complaints would be submitted to the district administration, the NA speaker, the archaeology department and other relevant authorities.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2026

A speeding truck in India killed 13 people when it ploughed into a crowd at a Hindu festival, officials said on Sunday, with President Droupadi Murmu describing the deaths as “heartbreaking”.

The heavily loaded truck reportedly lost control in the early hours of Sunday and hit devotees gathered at a temple in Gwalior, in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency cited hospital officials as saying 13 people had died.

“I express my deepest condolences to the bereaved families and pray for the swift recovery of those injured,” Murmu said on social media.

The Indian Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan expressed sorrow at the loss of life.

“Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of lives in the accident involving devotees in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. I wish a speedy recovery to all those injured,” he wrote in a post on X.

The incident comes a day after at least 17 people were killed and two dozen more injured on Saturday in eastern India after a stampede that was likely caused by sudden rainfall during a Hindu religious gathering, officials said.

India, with 1.4 billion people, recorded more than 183,000 road traffic deaths in 2025, or over 500 a day, according to the roads ministry.

Many are linked to inadequate road infrastructure, ill-maintained vehicles and exhausted drivers, according to official data.

SAHIWAL: On the direction of DPO Usman Tipu, Yousafwala Police have registered a case against Rustam Ali Bhatti, ASI of Fatah Sher Police Station, and Bashir Ahmed Bhatti, custodian of the shrine of Hazrat Diwan Baba Haji Sher, in village 55/5-L, tehsil Sahiwal, for showering currency notes over dancers during the annual shrine festival on Friday night.

The police officer himself was seen showering currency notes on the dancers. After a video went viral on social media, the DPO ordered a case under Section 294 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 155C of the Police Order on the complaint of Zulfikar Ali, ASI of Yousafwala Police Station.

ASI Rustam Ali Bhatti was arrested and confined to lockup, while police teams are conducting raids to arrest the shrine custodian.

CJ: Chief Justice Lahore High Court Aalia Neelum arrived in Pakpattan on Saturday where she paid respects at the shrine of Hazrat Baba Fariduddin Ganj Shakar.

Later, the chief justice inaugurated the newly-built Judicial Complex and formally launched the installation of solar panels within the court premises.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2026