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Pakistan has emerged as a key intermediary between Iran and the United States to secure a temporary ceasefire and host negotiations to end the war in the Middle East. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the US and Iran — and their allies — had agreed to a ceasefire “everywhere” following mediation by Islamabad. PM Shehbaz said the two-week truce — which Washington and Tehran had announced early on Wednesday — would next lead to talks in Islamabad. The announcements brought a sigh of relief to the world, which had been on its toes as US President Donald Trump’s April 8, 8pm ET deadline (5am PKT) for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was about to end. Dawn takes a look at how Islamabad positioned itself as the peacemaker in the war, with its persistent efforts despite moments of dwindling hope of securing calm. The initial contacts The newly secured hope for sustainable peace is a result of intense diplomatic efforts by Pakistan, which was actively trying to pre...

Pakistan on Tuesday strongly condemned the storming of Al Aqsa Mosque by Israeli occupation forces, the Foreign Office (FO) said. The reaction comes a day after far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed East Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque compound, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa . The report quoted the Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem as saying that the minister toured the mosque’s courtyards, entering through the Mughrabi Gate and proceeding to the Chain Gate before returning via the same route, amidst a heavy deployment of occupation police. “He has stormed the mosque approximately 14 times since assuming his position in 2023, as part of an escalating policy towards the mosque,” the report said. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the FO said, “Pakistan condemns in the strongest possible terms the storming of Al Aqsa Mosque by Israeli occupation forces.” It noted that the “reprehensible act constitutes a direct assault on the sanctity and...

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Opposition Leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai on Tuesday suggested the formation of a “national government” to build consensus among the country’s political parties. Speaking in the NA during a debate on the Iran situation, Achakzai said, “We should at least agree on some points.” Stating that the time had passed when they used to blame each other for mistakes, the opposition leader said, “We will have to move toward a national government.” “The system that came after the elections has collapsed,” he claimed, referring to the PML-N-led coalition government formed after the Feb 8, 2024, general elections . This country, Achakzai said, could only move forward through “collective wisdom”. He maintained that the “establishment” tried to break ex-premier and PTI founder Imran Khan but failed. Achakzai, also the head of the opposition alliance Tehreek-i-Tahafuz-i-Ayin-i-Pakistan (TTAP), warned of “resistance” if any effort was made to sideline Imran. “We will h...

A criminal case against Myanmar’s newly-elected President Min Aung Hlaing was filed in Indonesia on Monday by a group of civil society organisations, accusing the leader of acts of genocide against the Rohingya ethnic group. Myanmar is a member of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), but relations have come under strain since a 2021 coup led by Min Aung Hlaing, leading to civil war and a humanitarian crisis, with large numbers of Rohingya Muslims displaced and forced into refugee settlements. Indonesia, which hosts ASEAN’s headquarters, is the biggest Muslim-majority country in the world, and is among the destinations for Rohingya people fleeing Myanmar or the refugee camps by boat. Myanmar’s armed forces, under thenjunta chief Min Aung Hlaing, launched an offensive in 2017 that forced at least 730,000 Rohingya from their homes and into neighbouring Bangladesh, where they recounted killings, mass rape and arson. The complaint to Indonesia’s Attorney General’s offi...

ISLAMABAD: The country’s fan industry on Monday sought policy interventions to reduce the export of its raw materials for balanced value addition, greater quality exports and energy-efficient fans in the country. They also recommended interventions that could enable financing and energy efficiency initiatives during a virtual meeting with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb. The group of representatives from the electric fan industry was led by members of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) and the Pakistan Electric Fan Manufacturers Association (PEFMA). The group highlighted sectoral challenges, export potential, and avenues for policy support. According to an official statement from the finance ministry, Aurangzeb reiterated the government’s commitment to undertaking focused consultations with individual sectors to better understand their operational landscape and support their growth. The group provided an overview of the structure and econo...

The Supreme Court on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on judicial cooperation with Turkiye’s Constitutional Court. On Sunday, the SC said it will be hosting a high-level delegation from Turkiye’s Constitutional Court from April 6 to 9, led by its president Kadir Özkaya, for the signing of an MoU. The agreement was signed at a ceremony held at the Supreme Court in Islamabad attended by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi and Özkaya. Addressing the ceremony before the signing, CJP Afridi expressed hope that the agreement will “provide a forward-looking framework for collaboration between the two judiciaries”. “One that emphasises the exchange of judicial knowledge and best practices, the promotion of comparative constitutional jurisprudence, strengthening of institutional linkages and the advancement of capacity building through joint programmes, research, and judicial exchanges,” CJP Afridi said. He noted that under the MoU, a joint working group compr...

Bangladesh said it suspected measles killed at least 98 children in the past three weeks, official data showed on Sunday, with Dhaka ramping up vaccination efforts in the worst-affected areas. Last week, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman directed two senior ministers to travel across the South Asian nation of 170 million people in an effort to assess the scale of the crisis to help coordinate a response. Health ministry data released on Sunday showed that children aged between six months and five years old with suspected measles symptoms soared to 6,476. “Compared with past years, the number of affected children is higher, and the death toll is higher too,” Halimur Rashid, director at the Communicable Disease Control, told AFP, referring to the number in suspected cases. The largest number of suspected cases on record was in 2005 at 25,934, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) data, though that number had significantly declined until this year. Rashid attributed the potential...