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Noor Mukadam case: SC dismisses Zahir Jaffer's review plea, upholds death sentence

The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday dismissed a review petition filed by Zahir Jaffer and maintained its earlier verdict upholding his death sentence in the Noor Mukadam murder case. Noor, aged 27, was found murdered at Zahir’s Islamabad residence in July 2021, with the probe revealing she was tortured by him before being beheaded. Zahir was sentenced to death by a trial in February 2022 and his sentence has already been upheld by the SC once. Prior to that, the Islamabad High Court had also dismissed his plea challenging the trial court’s verdict. A three-member bench comprising Justices Hashim Khan Kakar, Salahuddin Pahnwar and Ishtiaq Ibrahim heard Zahir’s review plea on Thursday. Advocate Khawaja Haris appeared as Zahir’s counsel, while Shah Khawar was present from the respondents’ side. Both presented their arguments during today’s hearing, following which the bench announced its verdict. After today’s ruling by the SC, a presidential pardon under Article 45 of the Constit...
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Nvidia CEO mounts charm push in South Korea with TV talk show, baseball appearances

When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang makes his second visit to South Korea in just seven months this week, it won’t be only to meet top memory chip and robotics executives, but to throw the first pitch at a baseball game and appear on a TV talk show. While a celebrity in his own right, the charm push by the Taiwan-born 63-year-old highlights South Korea’s critical position in the AI landscape. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix between them make about 70 per cent of the memory needed for AI chips like Nvidia’s. And the country’s strength in manufacturing and robotics sets it up to be a key player in physical AI, where AI is embedded in robots, cars and factories. “Nvidia’s dependence on South Korean suppliers is rising,” Jeff Kim, an analyst at Seoul-based KB Securities, wrote in a research note. Huang “needs a manufacturing site for physical AI”, Kim said. “South Korea is emerging as a perfect testbed.” Asia’s fourth-largest economy is also a major Nvidia customer, with the Silicon Vall...
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Superior courts should issue directions to high courts for swiftly deciding pending cases sparingly, FCC rules

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) on Thursday ruled that directions to the high courts for expeditious decisions in pending matters by superior courts should be issued sparingly and couched in appropriate words. The judgement comes against the backdrop of a recent petition by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) before the Supreme Court challenging its May 12, 2026 direction to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for deciding in two weeks the sentence suspension pleas of human rights lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha in the controversial social media posts case. The NCCIA had also requested the SC to recall and withdraw that order to help preserve the “sanctity and independence of the judiciary, maintaining equality among citizens and avoiding discrimination”. According to a three-page order by Justice Aamer Farooq, issued in deciding a dispute between the Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) and Master Tiles and Ceramics Indu...
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Tropical storm Jangmi batters Japan, cuts power to 60,000 homes

Severe tropical storm Jangmi ripped across Japan on Wednesday, with fierce winds and torrential rain disrupting transport and businesses, and knocking out power for tens of thousands of homes. The storm’s centre lay about 150 kilometres south of Tokyo as of early Wednesday afternoon, moving northeast with maximum sustained winds of up to 25 metres per second, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said. The storm is set to pass very close to the Pacific side of eastern Japan and heightened vigilance is needed, the agency added. At least 15 people have sustained minor injuries, according to authorities. The storm, with a central pressure of 985 hectopascals, has cut power to nearly 60,000 households so far, and authorities have been receiving reports of flooding, fallen trees and debris, and landslides across a wide stretch of regions, government spokesperson Minoru Kihara said during a regular press briefing. “If you sense any danger, please ...
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FOOTBALL: THE BALL AT HER FEET

Muqaddas Abdul Rasheed in action | Courtesy Kiran Foundation In the crowded streets of Karachi’s old city neighbourhood of Lyari, football has always been more than a game. It lives in the narrow alleys, on dusty grounds and through evening street matches, in which children grow up chasing a ball long before they learn to chase success. For decades, however, that dream largely belonged to boys. Now, five young girls from Lyari are rewriting that story. Selected through competitive trials organised by the Kiran Foundation, the girls — Syeda Umme Zunaira Shah, Muqaddas Abdul Rasheed, Saiqa Faisal, Javeria Ejaz and Marium Zehri — travelled to Qatar to train at the prestigious Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) Academy. Their journey marked more than an international football opportunity — it became a powerful statement that girls from Lyari can compete on the global stage. Karachi’s neighbourhood of Lyari is known for its passion for football. But that passion was ...
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THE UNRAVELLING OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.” — Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias “I am in blood, Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er.” — William Shakespeare, Macbeth PROLOGUE This is and isn’t about America’s illegal war against Iran. It is primarily about hiding an empire in plain sight and now watching it unravel in plain sight. The war against Iran becomes a consequential event in tandem with other structural weaknesses, a fillip of sorts. It reminds one of the Soviet war on Afghanistan. That war, in and of itself, did not bring down the Soviet Leviathan. The process inhered in the very make-up of the Soviet Union. The war just shoved it over the precipice. But let’s get on with our purpose here. In Aug...
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Security forces thwart attack on military post in North Waziristan: security sources

Security forces foiled a suicide attack by Fitna al Khawarij on a military post near Miranshah in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s North Waziristan district, security sources said on Tuesday. Fitna al Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. As per security sources, the terrorists attempted to ram an explosive-laden vehicle into the post. However, security forces took timely action and destroyed the vehicle before it could reach the target, they said. During the operation, four terrorists were killed, and security forces were on high alert, due to which the attack was thwarted. Security sources further stated that the terrorists attempted the attack fearing the success of operations around Miranshah over the past few days, adding that over 20 terrorists have been killed in these operations so far. According to security sources, further operations were underway in the area, and the perpetrators of the attack and their facilitators w...
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