Infinity Social Updates

Authorities have finalised a traffic plan for Karachi for New Year‘s Eve while security arrangements have also been made in different cities, including Sindh’s provincial capital, for 2025’s last night. According to the traffic plan issued by the Karachi Traffic Police, the stretch of Seaview Road between two eateries, McDonald’s and Clock Tower, will be open for only one-way traffic. Vehicles will be barred from moving towards McDonald’s from Clock Tower. Commuters will be diverted towards Khayaban-i-Ittehad Road or Do Darya instead, according to the traffic plan. The traffic police also announced that “heavy vehicles, including water tankers, dumpers, trailers and trucks, will only be allowed to enter the city after 2am”. Traffic managemetn plan issued by the office of DIG Traffic Polcie, Karachi. — Karachi Traffic Police Moreover, heavy vehicles such as water tankers, dumpers and trucks will only be allowed to enter the city after 2am, a statement issued by the Karachi Traff...

Speaker of the National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar shook hands in Dhaka on Wednesday, marking the first high-level contact between Pakistani and Indian officials since the military conflict in May of this year. Relations between Islamabad and New Delhi reached their lowest point this year following an attack in Pahalagam, in Indian-occupied Kashmir. India blamed Pakistan, while Islamabad denied any connection and offered — and continues to offer — an independent probe. A press release from the NA Secretariat stated that during Sadiq’s visit to Dhaka for former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia’s funeral, Jaishankar approached him for a handshake. “Indian External Minister Dr S Jaishankar approached the Speaker [of the] National Assembly and shaked hands,” the press release read. “During this interaction, Dr S Jaishankar introduced himself to the speaker and told the speaker that he had recognised him [ sic ].” The press releas...

A Saudi airstrike on what it said was a weapons shipment in Yemen on Tuesday marked the most significant escalation between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to date. Once the twin pillars of regional security, the two Gulf heavyweights have seen their interests diverge on everything from oil quotas to geopolitical influence. Here is a timeline of how the relationship has evolved: 2011: As the Arab Spring spreads, the two form a unified front against extremist movements, deploying joint forces to Bahrain to quell an uprising and coordinating support for Egypts 2013 military overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government. March, 2015: They launch a military intervention in Yemen to restore the government ousted by the Houthis rebels. UAE troops lead ground operations, while Saudi air power controls the skies. June, 2017: The allies lead a boycott of Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism, charges it denies. The move cements the alignment between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) a...

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari on Tuesday staged a walkout during a Punjab Assembly session in solidarity with journalists who have been boycotting the provincial legislature over alleged “ill-treatment” during Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi’s visit to the assembly. During his three-day visit to Lahore over the weekend, the KP chief minister had given an address at the Punjab Assembly to opposition MPAs last week. However, the visit was marred by altercations between members of his entourage and security officials, while heated exchanges between PTI leaders and journalists were also witnessed. Speaking during the session today, Bokhari staged a walkout to show solidarity with journalists from the Punjab Assembly’s press gallery, who she said were “beaten and pushed around” by people accompanying the KP CM. During yesterday’s assembly session, a statement by opposition member Col. (retd) Shoaib Amir about the press gallery, calling them “sellouts”, also sp...

LAHORE: An election tribunal dismissed on Tuesday incarcerated PTI leader Yasmin Rashid’s petition that challenged PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s victory from Lahore’s NA-130 in the 2024 general elections. The tribunal, comprising retired Justice Rana Zahid Mahmood, dismissed Rashid’s plea on technical grounds. It said in its decision that the petitioner had failed to comply with the requirements under the Election Act, 2017 for filing an election petition. A written order of the tribunal is yet to be issued. Rashid had filed the petition challenging Nawaz’s victory notification on April 16, 2024. The petition argued that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had issued Sharif’s victory notification in violation of the law. Rashid requested in her plea to set aside the victory of the former prime minister and to declare her a returned candidate. She alleged that the ECP manipulated the election results to ensure her defeat. The ECP had issued the notification of Nawaz’s victo...

The National Assembly Secretariat on Monday wrote a fourth letter to the opposition’s chief whip, Amir Dogar, seeking a written reply detailing court cases pending against former opposition leader Omar Ayub. Since Omar Ayub’s disqualification by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the seat of the opposition leader in the lower house has been vacant. Meanwhile, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had maintained that the matter of the nomination of the opposition leader in the house is “sub judice”. According to the press release issued by the NA Secretariat spokesperson, earlier letters on the same matter were sent on November 19, December 5, and December 19 , 2025. “However, no response has so far been received by the National Assembly Secretariat,” it said. The statement said that the “provision of this information is essential to fulfil the constitutional requirements for the appointment of the Leader of the Opposition”. “The [National Assembly] Secretariat has been made a party in ...

Want to be on the ball and go into 2026 knowing exactly what's cool, what's trending and what to avoid? Eos off ers its annual cheat sheet... Published in Dawn, EOS, December 28th, 2025 from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/Wr16GjQ

French film icon Brigitte Bardot, a symbol of sexual liberation of the 1950s and sixties who turned her back on cinema to devote herself to protecting animals, has died aged 91, her foundation said Sunday. Bardot was hospitalised in October and, in November, released a statement denying rumours that she had died. The foundation did not say when or where she died, however. “The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces with immense sadness the death of its founder and president, Madame Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actress and singer, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation,” it said in a statement sent to AFP . Tributes were immediately paid to the star who became known as “BB” in her home country. Born on September 28, 1934, in Paris, Bardot was raised in a well-off, traditional Catholic household. Married four times, she had one child, Nicolas, with her second husband, actor Jacques Charrier. Bardot became a...

Humour me for a second: despite its big, flashy, expensive exterior, I believe Avatar: Fire and Ash to be the perfect Christmas family movie — kind of like the first Die Hard, another fun Christmas family movie. Strip away the action, and Avatar is about overcoming odds, keeping the family together, forgiveness and redemption, with a little bit of unexpected magic near the climax. Isn’t that exactly what a Christmas movie is all about? In Fire and Ash, the magic comes courtesy of Eywa, the spirit of the alien planet Pandora that resides in everything and commands the wildlife. One connects to Eywa through tendril-like organic connections called “queues” at the end of Na’vi hair, which provide neural links to control animals and access the spirit realm, where souls of every dead person on Pandora reside (after their bodies are absorbed into Eywa’s soil). A happy family reunion of glowing auras, warmth and forgiveness with those who’ve passed away occurs early and late in the movie — ...

Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, a former chief minister of Punjab and one of Pakistan’s most durable political survivors, passed away on December 16, 2025, at the age of 86. His death marks the passing of a particular species of politician — less ideological than instinctive, less rhetorical than tactical — who thrived in the interstices of power rather than at its commanding heights. Wattoo was never the face of a movement, nor the author of a grand political vision. Yet, for decades, he remained relevant in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and politically decisive province, precisely because he understood how power there actually worked. He belonged to a generation shaped by instability. Born in Okara district, in the fertile plains of central Punjab, Wattoo came of age in a Pakistan where democracy was episodic and political loyalty was often provisional. Coups, dissolutions of assemblies and abrupt changes of regime were not aberrations but recurring features of national life. In suc...

PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari highlighted on Sunday the significance of the politics of reconciliation, saying that the ruling party and its allies, as well as the opposition would have to play their role in this regard. Bilawal expressed these views while speaking to the media at the inauguration ceremony of the Sindh Institute of Child Health and Neonatology in Larkana. He recalled that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had given the message of “truth and reconciliation” and “reconciliation in politics”. Linking it with the country’s progress and economic prosperity, he said the ruling party and its allies would have to play their part for this while the opposition would also have to play a “responsible role”. “If stringent [measures] are taken in response to the politics of extremism, then there should be no complaints,” he remarked, quoting English idiom “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”. He added that “if you (the PTI) attack a national institu...

Renowned economist and former State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar, 71, passed away due to cardiac arrest on Saturday. Akhtar, known for her leadership roles in both national and international financial institutions, took over as the 14th governor of SBP on Jan 2, 2006, becoming the first woman to hold the position. She had also been the finance minister in the caretaker set-ups prior to the 2018 and 2024 general elections. Akhtar also served as the vice president of the World Bank for the Middle East and North Africa and the executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Prior to her appointment as SBP governor, Akhtar was with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as the director general for its Southeast Asia Department since January 2004. She also held the position of the Governance, Finance and Trade Division director for ADB’s East and Central Asia Department. President Asif Ali Zardari expressed g...

WASHINGTON: History does not always announce itself with thunder. Sometimes it arrives as a decision — taken calmly, consciously and against fear. “I am returning to Pakistan on October 18 to coalesce the forces of moderation against extremism,” Benazir Bhutto said in Washington in 2007. “Our goal, quite literally, is to save democracy in Pakistan.” She made that statement on September 25, 2007, at meetings hosted by the Middle East Institute and later at the Russell Senate Building. It was not a slogan, it was a commitment — one she fully intended to honour. I had met Benazir countless times over the years — in Pakistan, in London and in Washington — across different phases of her political life. She could be warm and disarming, cautious and guarded, sharply analytical and politically defiant, sometimes all of the above within the same conversation. But on that September day in Washington, there was a particular clarity about her. She had already decided. As she was leaving the Mi...

United States President Donald Trump urged the Justice Department (DOJ) on Friday to “embarrass” any Democrats who worked with Jeffrey Epstein after it began poring over millions of documents linked to the late sex offender. The DOJ began releasing records last week from the investigation into Epstein, a wealthy financier who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for trafficking underage girls for sex. The latest disclosures on Tuesday contain numerous references to Trump, including documents detailing flights he took on Epstein’s private jet. Trump was once a friend of Epstein but distanced himself after his crimes came to light, and has appeared reluctant to discuss the case despite strong support in the Republican party for fuller transparency about the deceased man’s associates. “Now 1,000,000 more pages on Epstein are found. DOJ is being forced to spend all of its time on this Democrat inspired Hoax,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Friday. “Th...

ISLAMABAD: Players of POPO FC attend a training session on Dec 6, 2025.—Mohammad Asim/White Star ISLAMABAD: At the F-11 Multipurpose Ground the day’s rhythm is set not by a whistle, but by the soft thud of a football. Here, in the heart of the capital, an unassuming patch of grass has become the most fertile ground for Pakistani football. This is the home of POPO Football Club — not a corporate academy, but a volunteer-run sanctuary that has, against the odds, become a national talent pipeline. Two years ago, the nation celebrated a historic 1-0 victory against Cambodia in the World Cup Qualifiers, Pakistan’s maiden win on the global stage. What it didn’t see was the quiet genesis of that triumph. Five of the players on that pitch were products of this single, modest club in Sector F-11. Their work is not only limited to the senior team but the efforts on the players starts from the grassroots level. In the last 24 months alone, POPO FC — who works under the patronage of Pakis...

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Aalia Neelum on Friday overturned the decisions of deputy commissioner-led committees that granted the possession of properties to people in 10 districts of Punjab, deciding cases of land disputes. Justice Neelum reversed the decisions after hearing petitions against the Punjab Protection of Ownership of Immovable Property Act 2025, which empowers deputy commissioner-led committees to decide property disputes. During the hearing, the chief justice remarked that had the “patwaris” (revenue officials) performed their duties promptly, such issues would not have arisen. Rejecting a notion of prolonged pendency of civil litigation, Neelum observed, “I am well aware of how many old cases are pending before courts.” She asserted that commissioners and deputy commissioners had no authority to remove or restore possessions of properties on their own, and questioned how many laws the government would throw aside. The chief justice regretted tha...

Pope Leo decried conditions for Palestinians in Gaza in his Christmas sermon on Thursday, in an unusually direct appeal during what is normally a solemn, spiritual service on the day Christians across the globe celebrate the birth of Jesus. Leo, the first US pope, said the story of Jesus being born in a stable showed that God had “pitched his fragile tent” among the people of the world. “How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold?” he asked. Leo, celebrating his first Christmas after being elected in May by the world’s cardinals to succeed the late Pope Francis, has a more quiet, diplomatic style than his predecessor and usually refrains from making political references in his sermons. But the new pope has also lamented the conditions for Palestinians in Gaza several times recently and told journalists last month that the only solution in the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people must include a Palestinian ...

An attempt to ambush a security forces’ convoy in North Waziristan’s Mir Ali district was thwarted, security sources said on Thursday. According to security sources, Fitna al Khawarij militants attempted to attack a convoy on the main highway. Fitna al Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). They said the incident occurred when the security forces’ convoy was passing through a populated area. Militants linked to Fitna al Khawarij attempted to ambush the security convoy near a residential locality, they said, adding that security forces responded swiftly, thwarting the attack. Security sources also dismissed what they called malicious rumours being spread about the incident on social media. After the failed attempt, the attackers fled the scene, they said, adding that security forces had cordoned off the area and launched a search operation. They further said that an exchange of fire had been reported between s...

Zunaira with Unicef's Deputy Executive Director Kitty van der Heijden at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November 2024 Zunaira Qayyum, who will turn 15 in July next year, is currently reading Crime and Punishment, arguably the most well-known work of Russian master Fyodor Dostoyevsky. A voracious reader, the ninth-grade student races and, at times, slogs through the daunting tome, balancing it with her studies and extracurricular activities. “I should be able to finish the book in the next few days,” she tells Eos in a phone interview. Finishing Dostoyesky’s psychological masterpiece is just a stepping stone for the young woman from Balochistan’s impoverished Hub district. Zunaira aspires to become the secretary-general of the United Nations (UN). “There is yet to be a female secretary-general of the UN and I want to change that,” she says with confidence. PUTTING IN THE HARD HOURS Zunaira has already racked up a string of achievements that belie her age. Her research on the ...

At least four children were injured in the Gondalabad area of Kurram district on Wednesday after a quadcopter attack, said official sources. For months, militants in the region have used quadcopters to drop explosives on security forces and the current year has seen an increase in such attacks. In today’s attack, a quadcopter released its explosive payload over a residential area. As a result, three boys and a girl sustained injuries, confirmed official sources. The injured minors were shifted to a nearby medical facility for medical treatment. Security sources condemned the attack, calling it “an act of violence against innocent civilians and children”. “Such incidents reflect a deliberate targeting of non-combatants and have nothing to do with religion or humanitarian values,” they added. An investigation into the incident is underway, while security in the area has been tightened following the attack. Last week, two women and two teenagers were injured in a quadcopter attack...

The President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, will arrive in Pakistan for an official visit on December 26 (Friday), according to a statement from the Foreign Office (FO) issued on Wednesday. This will be the second time the Emirati president will visit Pakistan this year, having met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Rahim Yar Khan in January. However, Friday’s trip, according to the FO, will be his first official visit as president. According to the statement, President Al-Nahyan will review the entire spectrum of bilateral relations with PM Shehbaz and the pair will “exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest”. “The visit will provide an important opportunity to further strengthen the longstanding brotherly relations between Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates,” the FO said. The FO added that the visit reflects the depth of bilateral relations between both nations and their shared commitment to bolster collabora...

ISLAMABAD: Proceedings in the controversial social media posts case against lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chatha took a tense turn on Tuesday as lawyers for the prosecution and defence nearly engaged in a physical altercation after a heated exchange during today’s hearing. A detailed cross-examination of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency’s (NCCIA) witnesses exposed procedural gaps and triggered heated exchanges inside the courtroom. The court began recording the statements of prosecution witnesses afresh last Tuesday in compliance with directives issued by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) the day prior, while hearing a petition filed by Mazari challenging the trial court’s November 19 order. The hearing was conducted by Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka at the District and Sessions Court in Islamabad, with the couple appearing along with their legal teams. During cross-examination, NCCIA Naib Qasid Afzal admitted that he did no...

PTI founder Imran Khan‘s sister Aleema Khan and PTI workers staged a sit-in at Rawalpindi’s Factory Naka on Tuesday as they were barred from moving towards Adiala Jail in a bid to meet the incarcerated ex-premier. Over the past several weeks, the PTI founder has been denied meetings in prison with his family, party members and lawyers, prompting them to stage sit-ins near or outside the prison complex every Tuesday and Thursday — the court-mandated days for visiting Imran. At times, police also used water cannons and baton charges to disperse them. As they again gathered near the prison complex today, Aleema said that Imran was being kept in “solitary confinement”, stressing that the “government had become so fearful of Imran’s message that they had resorted to breaking the law” — in a reference to the police presence at the scene. Aleema’s video statement was posted on PTI’s X account, in which she was standing in front of a riot fence. Police could also be seen in riot gear behi...

Protesters in Albania’s capital of Tirana hurled petrol bombs at the government building housing Prime Minister Edi Rama’s office on Monday, demanding the government’s resignation after prosecutors indicted the deputy prime minister for alleged corruption. Political tensions in Albania have escalated in recent weeks after accusations were made against Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku. Along with several officials and private companies, she has been accused of using state funds to favour some companies in major infrastructure projects. View this post on Instagram She referred to the accusations in parliament last month as “mudslinging, insinuations, half-truths and lies,” and stated that she would fully cooperate with the judiciary. The Special Prosecution Office, tasked with combating corruption and organised crime, has requested that parliament lift Balluku’s immunity this week and allow her arrest. It is not clear when the p...