Blaze News - Pakistan

Political tensions in Azad Jammu and Kashmir's (AJK) LA-17 Haveli constituency on Wednesday escalated after several vehicles parked along a roadside in the village of Hoter were vandalised, with allegations also surfacing that passports and cash belonging to some visitors were taken during the incident. The AJK general elections are being held in phases across the territory. Polling in the first phase, covering Mirpur Division, has already been completed, followed by the second phase in Muzaffarabad Division and the refugee constituencies. Local sources alleged that workers affiliated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and an independent candidate attacked people gathered outside the residence of Zahid Hashmi, a senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and president of the International Kashmir Peace Forum Europe (IKPF), in his native village. During the alleged attack, several vehicles parked on the roadside were damaged with their windows smashed, according t...

Lawyer Jibran Nasir on Tuesday alleged serious negligence in the investigation into the murder of waffle chain owner Mir Raza, questioning the handling of key evidence and demanded a criminal inquiry against three police officers. Raza, 25, was allegedly kidnapped from PECHS before his body was found in bushes near a wedding hall in Gulistan-e-Johar. Police had suspected that he had been tortured before being shot. The case had initially been surrounded by uncertainty over whether he had been murdered or had died by suicide. However, the findings of the second post-mortem had strengthened his family’s longstanding claim that he had been killed. Speaking at a press conference tonight, Nasir said reports from the University of Karachi indicated Raza was administered a local anaesthetic and that the body was 20 to 22 hours old. Nasir alleged that the victim had remained in someone’s captivity for around 12 hours. He further said that Mir Raza’s...

A group of bipartisan United States Congress members on Tuesday sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging him to take up the detention of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder and former prime minister Imran Khan with Pakistan. Imran has been imprisoned since August 2023, currently serving a sentence at Adiala Jail in a £190 million corruption case. He also faces pending trials under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) related to the protests of May 9, 2023. His party has regularly raised concerns about his health and well-being in detention. In a post on X today, the PTI's US account posted the letter from the lawmakers to Rubio. "We are concerned about former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Imran Khan's conditions in detention at the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, and throughout their entire time in custody," the letter said.  It said that, as per a December 2025 communication by the United Nations special rapporteur...

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Monday announced that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s entire political leadership, alongside its allies such as the opposition coalition Tehreek Tahaffuz-e-Ayeen Pakistan (TTAP), was on board for a long march to Islamabad on September 27, warning that the public's anger over ongoing injustices may become unmanageable. Speaking on a private news programme, 'Capital Talk', he said that the "entire political leadership of PTI, both federal and provincial, is on board for the protest, including our allies, Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz-e-Ayeen-e-Pakistan. We have collectively decided on the date of 27". Afridi stated that the protest was a last resort after democratic avenues to secure PTI founder Imran Khan's release were exhausted. He lamented that Imran was being treated like a "kidnapped individual" rather than a political prisoner, held in "solitary confinement and isolation for the past seven ...

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, on Sunday called for greater trade and investment to further deepen bilateral ties between the two countries. He was speaking at a special event organised by the Pakistani American Press Association (PAPA) to mark the 250th anniversary of US Independence and Pakistan’s 79th Independence Day. According to a statement by the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington on X, prominent community members, media professionals, public officials and other distinguished guests attended the event to celebrate the enduring values underpinning the longstanding friendship between Pakistan and the United States. Read: Natalie Baker hails evolving US-Pakistan partnership on America's 250th anniversary The statement said Ambassador Sheikh emphasised the importance of strengthening Pak-US ties through greater trade, investment and economic cooperation. Ambassador Rizwan Saeed Sheikh participated in a special event organiz...

Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon has approached the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) over what he described as false, fabricated, and malicious allegations circulating on social media linking him and his son, Rawal Memon, to the alleged murder of young Wafflix owner Mir Raza Ali. A formal written complaint was submitted to the deputy director of the NCCIA Karachi Zone on Aug 9, 2026, through his lawyer, Advocate Syeda Malaika Naqvi of Naqvi Law Associates. The complaint named unknown individuals and accused them of operating social media accounts, allegedly harassing the complainant, creating and disseminating false and malicious content, and damaging the reputation and standing of Memon and his son. Read: Murder charge added to Mir Raza case after re-postmortem report The complaint said the complainant did not know the identities of the individuals allegedly operating various social media accounts, pages and groups. It claimed that content against Me...