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Electric vehicle policy insufficient for real impact

In a move presented as a decisive step against worsening air pollution, the Punjab government has announced a phased shift to electric vehicles (EVs), banning the purchase of new fuel-powered cars for government departments. However, critics argue that limiting the transition to official fleets alone is unlikely to significantly reduce emissions unless broader incentives and policies are introduced. According to official figures from the Excise and Taxation Department, more than 15,000 electric vehicles are registered in Punjab, most of them electric scooters and motorcycles, while electric cars number only about 1,500. This is negligible when compared to the nearly 26 million vehicles registered across the province. In percentage terms, EVs account for roughly 0.06 per cent of all vehicles. Data from the Punjab Clean Air Policy shows that transport contributes about 43 per cent to overall air pollution in the province, while a report by The Urban Unit estimates that nearly 80 per cent...
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Indonesia seeks to leverage PAF's training ecosystem and aerospace capabilities

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has expressed keen interest in leveraging the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) state-of-the-art training ecosystem and aerospace development infrastructure to enhance his country's defence capabilities, the military's media wing said on Friday. A statement from the Inter Services Public Relations said the Indonesian president showed his intent during a meeting with Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu, who is on an official visit to Indonesia. During the meeting, the air chief underscored the shared values and longstanding brotherhood between Pakistan and Indonesia. Earlier, he held separate high-level meetings with Defence Minister Lieutenant General (Retd) Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, the commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces and the Indonesian air marshal. "During discussion with the Indonesian air chief, both sides discussed enhanced air force-to-air force cooperation, joint training from basic to a...
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Rubio meets China’s Wang Yi in Munich ahead of possible Trump-Xi summit

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, as Washington and Beijing prepare for a potential visit by President Donald Trump to China in April. The meeting marked at least the second in-person encounter between the top US diplomat and Wang. Washington and Beijing have sought to ease tensions over issues, including trade, tariffs and the future of Taiwan. Rubio and Wang shook hands and posed for cameras before the two delegations, flanked by their senior aides, sat opposite each other in a hotel conference room in central Munich. They made no remarks and ignored a shouted question from a Reuters reporter. The meeting lasted about an hour, according to a senior US official. This month, Trump held a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which the Republican president described as "very positive". Following months of trade tensions triggered by Trump's tariffs, Xi and Trump reach...
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Qureshi blames Punjab govt for denial of medical care, raises concerns over prisoners’ rights

Senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday criticised the Punjab government and jail authorities over what he termed the denial of medical facilities and prisoners’ basic rights after reports surfaced regarding former prime minister's Imran Khan's eye condition. The Supreme Court has been informed that only 15% of Imran's vision remains in his right eye. The information was conveyed to the apex court by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) counsel Advocate Salman Safdar in a report commissioned by the SC, who quoted the former premier as saying that he had been left with only 15pc vision in his right eye following medical complications. The court, upon receiving the report, ordered that Imran be granted access to his personal physicians in Adiala jail and allowed telephone contact with his sons. Informally speaking with the media during his appearance at an anti-terrorism court in Lahore, Qureshi stressed that prisoners were entitled to certain rights, ...
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K-P governor recommends posthumous civil award for bystander who resisted Islamabad bomber

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi has recommended Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to bestow a posthumous civil award on Aoun Abbas for displaying extraordinary courage in attempting to stop the suicide bomber who attacked the Khadijatul Kubra Imambargah in Islamabad's Tarlai area. On February 6, At least 32 worshippers were killed and dozens more injured when a massive bomb tore through an imambargah in the Tarlai area of Islamabad. The blast occured during Friday prayers. The incident has drawn widespread national admiration for Abbas, a resident of the area who was reportedly preparing for his upcoming wedding and attempted to halt the attacker. His actions have been compared to other national heroes who similarly risked everything to protect innocent lives. In his letter, Governor Kundi expressed profound grief and condolences over the tragic loss of innocent lives in the suicide bombing. He paid glowing tribute to Abbas's "unpa...
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Rethinking some conspiracy theories

The phrase has entered into normal conversation so strongly that every time someone utters the word conspiracy, it has to be followed by the additional word; theory. As I had always understood, conspiracy theories were easy, wild and ludicrous explanations of an otherwise obvious and clear fact. I always believed and to some extent still do that conspiracy theories were lazy explanations to all things we did not understand and refused to do some mental work to make sense of. But a friend of mine who teaches at a Las Vegas university recently joked about something that was quite shocking to me actually. We were talking about Epstein conspiracy theories as to how he might have been murdered instead of him committing suicide and how he might be still alive as some social media noise seems to suggest. His joke was that pretty much all the conspiracy theories he had heard since his school days turned out to be realities with the passage of time. When 9/11 happened, there were many conspirac...
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Insurgency in Baloch areas of Balochistan — way forward

The analysis scene in Pakistan over situation in Balochistan, especially the former Kalat State, is in overdrive. Most analysts lament the policy adopted by Pakistan over decades in dealing with Baloch 'grievances' and 'sense of deprivation', blaming this or that civil or military government. Some are crying hoarse that the issue has 'political solution' only, with kinetic response in the past and now being a blunder. When grilled, this segment does not have cogent solutions and suggests empowering the same tried and tested political faces-cum-militant sponsors-cum-Sardars, who are part of the problem, have remained so for years, and are squarely responsible for it. Sardar Akhtar Mengal and his father Sardar Attaullah Mengal are cases in point. So, let us restate the problem candidly, without hiding in the sands of time, geography and ethnicity. One, the obtaining situation is an 'insurgency' limited mainly to the erstwhile Kalat State of Balochistan, wi...
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