Blaze News - Pakistan

The Balochistan government on Wednesday unveiled a Rs1.089 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2026-27, setting aside Rs206 billion for development spending, announcing the creation of 5,000 government jobs and projecting Rs771 billion in transfers under the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award. The provincial cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti, unanimously approved the budget before Provincial Finance Minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani presented it in the Balochistan Assembly. The total budget outlay stands at Rs1.089tr, including Rs797b for non-development expenditure and Rs206b for the Provincial Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). Of the development allocation, Rs106b has been earmarked for new schemes, while Rs100b has been reserved for the completion of ongoing projects. Read: CM Murad unveils Rs3.56tr Sindh budget, raises salaries and minimum wage The province will also receive Rs45b under federally funded development projects and Rs40b in f...

The United States has so far not released the full text of the interim US-Iran agreement to halt the war in Iran and open the Strait of Hormuz. But a draft copy reviewed by Reuters lays out in 14 points a high-level understanding that defers until a final agreement is signed many of the most difficult issues, such as how to wind down Iran's nuclear program. It ​paves the way for a broader 60-day negotiation period due to begin in Switzerland on Friday. The full draft document is published here verbatim: 1. The Islamic Republic of Iran and ‌the United States, together with their allies in the current war, declare upon the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and undertake that from now on they will not launch any hostile action against each other, and will refrain from the threat or use of force against each other. The final agreement will confirm the provisions of this Article and the rem...

A proposed $300 billion private investment fund is part of the US-Iran framework agreement, with more than half the amount already committed, a source familiar with the negotiations told Reuters. The fund, tentatively named the Reconstruction and Development Fund, is designed to encourage investment in Iran and provide both sides with an economic incentive to reach a final agreement. According to the source, commitments exceeding $150 billion have already been secured from companies in the United States, Gulf states, Asia, South America and Africa. The fund would support projects in energy, logistics, manufacturing and transportation. The investment vehicle would not contain government money, grants or war reparations. It is also separate from discussions on sanctions relief and the release of frozen Iranian assets. A senior Iranian source said Tehran had initially sought $400 billion in compensation for war-related damages, but the idea evolved into a private investment fund ...

Elon Musk's SpaceX, is buying the startup behind the popular AI coding agent Cursor, Anysphere, for $60 billion in an all-stock deal to boost its presence in the lucrative enterprise AI tools market. Anysphere was cofounded by Pakistan-born Sualeh Asif. Tuesday's deal follows a blockbuster Nasdaq ​debut for the rockets-to-AI company last week, in which its valuation surged to more than $2 trillion. The acquisition will give xAI, which was acquired ‌by SpaceX in February, a stronger hold in AI coding, one of the first areas where companies have turned AI into a real source of revenue from businesses. Capitalising on that interest is crucial for SpaceX as it had pitched its IPO investors an addressable market worth $28.5 trillion, the theoretical maximum revenue it could capture, of which a big share is expected to come from ​AI for businesses. SpaceX has exercised the option to acquire @cursor_ai in an all-stock transaction with the goal of building the world...

Twenty-two years ago, in 2004, I met Syed Babar Ali for the first time. I was a post-doc at MIT, and through colleagues and friends, had heard about a new initiative in Pakistan to start a school of science and engineering. This was a topic dear to me, and the idea to create an institution in Pakistan that prioritised basic science at the undergraduate level was as exciting as it was unbelievable. I was not sure I belonged in those conversations, but those who had been thinking about it for a while were exceptionally generous to let me in those early meetings in Boston. Though I had not met Babar sahib personally, I had heard about him. In the mid-1990s, when a friend went to LUMS in their new undergraduate programme in CS, I was intrigued by what was being created. I saw Babar sahib's smiling picture in the brochure and somehow that image stayed with me. A few years later when I was at MIT, I got to meet two of his granddaughters who were undergraduates there, and I was so t...

Over the course of the US-Israeli war on Iran, waves of airstrikes killed an entire echelon of the Islamic republic's political and military elite, starting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. President Donald Trump had claimed in March that the campaign had achieved "regime change", but Iran showed resilience in rapidly replacing killed leaders and keeping up the war against the US and Israel. With Washington and Tehran agreeing on a deal announced on Monday to halt the conflict, here is a recap of some of the key figures killed in the war: Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Khamenei, Iran's number one since 1989, was killed in the first hour of the war on February 28 in a strike on a meeting of senior officials in Tehran that also left his daughter-in-law, daughter and at least one grandchild dead, according to reports. On July 9, Khamenei will be buried in the Imam Reza Shrine in the city of Mashhad following a funeral ceremony there on July 18. PHOTO:...