Skip to main content

Posts

Safety audit reveals over 300 city buildings in Karachi lack even fire extinguishers

• Only 370 of 783 commercial and residential projects found in compliance with fire safety rules • 416 buildings do not have emergency exits • Survey raises concerns over emergency preparedness in commercial and residential buildings KARACHI: A comprehensive fire safety audit of buildings across the city has revealed widespread non-compliance with basic safety standards, raising concerns over emergency preparedness in the city’s commercial and residential structures. The audit, conducted across seven districts, assessed 783 buildings on four key parameters — adherence to approved layout, availability of emergency exits, presence of portable fire extinguishers, and overall risk categorisation. The exercise was ordered by the provincial government following the devastating fire at Gul Plaza on M.A. Jinnah Road that had killed scores of people in January. The chief secretary had constituted sub-divisional fire safety audit committees headed by assistant commissioners to conduct the su...
Post a Comment
Read more
Recent posts

'Over 100 cops at hospital': Wife alleges Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk illegally detained under guise of medical care

The wife of an Indian hunger strike activist taken to hospital against his will accused the government on Sunday of “illegal detention” disguised as medical care. Police cited a court order and “deteriorating health condition” on Saturday when they picked up Sonam Wangchuk, who had refused to eat since June 28 in protest of alleged university exam fraud. The activist, 59, has demanded the education minister’s resignation after the leak of test materials that resulted in over two million students being forced to retake exams. Gitanjali J. Angmo, Wangchuk’s wife, said that she “lost faith” in the government hospital, which she said refused her desire to move her husband to a private facility. “With around 30 police personnel stationed on our floor and well over 100 across the hospital, our movement is severely restricted,” Angmo said. “It is not medical care. It is illegal detention,” she said, adding she asked the high court to allow her to move Wangchuk. The hospital, late on S...
Post a Comment
Read more

After backlash over proposed law, state minister outlines more stringent measures for blue passport issuance

ISLAMABAD: After criticism on a bill seeking to allow the issuance of blue passports to former parliamentarians’ children, Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry has assured that measures would be taken to ensure that the travel document is used for “only official duties” abroad and issued for a limited time in most cases. The bill, seeking the issuance of blue passports to dependent children under the age of 28 of ex-members of parliament, was approved by a Senate panel on July 10. If the Members of Parliament Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2026 becomes law, the legislation would place former members of parliament on par with retired Grade-22 government officers, whose dependent children already enjoy the same entitlement. An official press statement released by the Senate Secretariat earlier this month noted that Chaudhry had “also agreed on the passing of the bill”. However, he later claimed he had opposed the bill during the July 10 proceedings of the Senate...
Post a Comment
Read more

Anthropic to add Claude's Fable 5 model to Max, Team Premium plans at 50pc of usage limits

Anthropic said on Saturday that it will reintroduce its most advanced AI model, Fable 5, in the paid Max and Team Premium plans from July 20. After its redeployment , Fable 5 had been included in the Pro, Max, Team and select Enterprise plans from July 1 to 7 for up to 50pc of weekly usage limits, after which it was available via usage credits . In a post on Saturday, Claude said, “Beginning July 20, Claude Fable 5 will be included in all Max and Team Premium plans, at 50 per cent of limits.” However, Pro and Team Standard users “will continue to have access to Fable via usage credits” — rather than as part of weekly usage limits — though they will receive a one-time $100 credit. Usage credits allow individuals subscribed to paid Claude plans (Pro, Max 5x, and Max 20x) to continue using Claude after reaching their included usage limits. “Demand for Fable has been challenging to predict, which is why we rolled it out to subscription plans in stages, extending access several times a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Police register FIR after foreign woman residing in Karachi's DHA alleges sexual assault

KARACHI: Police on Saturday said they have arrested a man over the alleged rape of a foreign woman in the city’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA). South Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Syed Asad Raza told Dawn that the suspect has been arrested, a day after the Darakhshan police registered a first information report (FIR) on the woman’s complaint. DIG Raza said the woman was a medical assistant in cardiology in the United States. He added that she arrived in Pakistan on Nov 13, 2025 and was residing in Phase VI of DHA. Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed told Dawn that Darakhshan police brought the 49-year-old woman for a medical examination on Friday after she reported the alleged sexual assault. “Her samples have been collected for serology and DNA,” the police surgeon said. The FIR was registered on Friday, hours after the alleged incident, under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code. Police said further investigation into the matter was under way. Accordin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Families of martyred policemen end Quetta sit-in after 10 days as agreement reached with govt

QUETTA: A sit-in committee, which included family members of policemen martyred in a deadly terrorist attack in Ziarat , ended its protest on Saturday after reaching an agreement with the Balochistan government last night. On July 6, 27 policemen were martyred in a terrorist attack on a police post in Balochistan’s Ziarat district. Families of the martyred personnel had been holding the sit-in at Quetta’s Koila Phatak since July 9 , along with the martyrs’ bodies. “The sit-in has been called off; bodies of seven martyrs had been shifted to their native areas in the early hours of the day; and Koila Phatak has been opened for traffic after 10 days,” the committee announced after the agreement was reached late on Friday night. The provincial government accepted all demands of the bereaved families. Their main demand was establishing a judicial commission for investigating the Ziarat and Hanna Urak incidents that claimed the lives of 32 policemen and civilians. On July 5, armed men a...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is new Labour leader Andy Burnham's policy approach for Britain?

Former Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham was one step away from becoming Britain’s next prime minister on Friday after being appointed leader of the governing Labour Party . Following are the policies he has spoken about since returning to parliament in June, which offer an insight into how he could govern Britain to try to overcome a cost-of-living crisis, revive anaemic economic growth and win back voters. Decentralisation of power Burnham has promised to “bring about the biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen”. His focus is on Whitehall, a part of London dotted with government departments where public officials help elected ministers devise and implement policy, which he said had become overly powerful to the detriment of Britain’s regions. “It is time for Whitehall to accept that growth cannot be ordered from the top down. Instead, it can only be nurtured from the bottom up,” he said in a speech on June 29. While focusing initially on England, where 85 per cen...
Post a Comment
Read more