Infinity Social Updates

KARACHI: A delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad on Friday and discussed the budget for FY2026-27 and development projects for Sindh were discussed, according to the PM’s Office and MQM-P leader Aminul Haque. Haque told Dawn that the matter of a “special development package” for Sindh’s urban areas was raised during the meeting and that his party sought an allocation of Rs20 billion for projects for Karachi and another Rs5bn allocation for Hyderabad in the budget. He said that PM Shehbaz had assured the delegation that “sufficient” allocations had been made in the budget for Karachi and Hyderabad. The prime minister also “promised the release of the required funds” for the Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme or K-IV project, Haque said. “He told us that the government is taking all-out measures to complete the project by December 2026,” he said. Moreover, he said, the MQM-P delegation also raised the...

KARACHI: Several individuals have been arrested for participating in a rally in support of MQM founder Altaf Hussain on Karachi’s Arif Jiyeja Street, it emerged on Friday. The first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with Dawn, was registered on Thursday and under Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). It nominated 11 people and said that police constable Deedar Ali, while on patrol duty, saw some people forming a group, chanting slogans in favour of Hussain and carrying flags with “ jiye Altaf ” and “48th foundation day APMSO” written on them. Hussain’s political career began during his student years at the University of Karachi (KU), when he and Azeem Ahmed Tariq founded the All-Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO). As per the FIR, the constable said the slogans were causing “tensions and hostility” and inciting political pa...

Mongolia has recovered a rare dinosaur skeleton and a trove of fossils illegally exported two decades ago, authorities said Wednesday, concluding years of efforts to return the palaeontological treasures. The collection includes a Tarbosaurus bataar skeleton, estimated to be more than 50 per cent intact, along with 28 groups of fossilised dinosaur remains originally found in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, according to police. The bones had been illegally taken from Mongolia in 2006 “with the aim of making a profit”, said D. Munkhkhuyag, head of the police public relations department. A Mongolian official walks past boxes of dinosaur fossils during a handover ceremony in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, on June 11, 2026. —AFP French customs agencies confiscated the fossils between 2013 and 2015, and began returning them a year later to Mongolia under international conventions to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural heritage. Following the lengthy pro...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday approved a strategic roadmap for comprehensive reforms in Pakistan Railways, which includes improvements in services, digitisation, track upgradation and private-sector investment, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said. In a statement, the PMO said PM Shehbaz chaired an important meeting on reforms in Pakistan Railways in Islamabad on Thursday, adding that the prime minister approved the strategic roadmap for comprehensive reforms in the railways sector. The PMO stated that the meeting was given a detailed briefing on the strategic roadmap and targets for comprehensive reforms in Pakistan Railways. “The roadmap includes targets to increase market share in both passenger and freight sectors,” the statement said, while highlighting the key points. “Improvement in railway services, enhancement of network capacity and financial sustainability will be the key pillars of the roadmap,” it added. Fu...

Gilgit-Baltistan region, famed for its towering peaks, vast glaciers and pristine lakes, is facing a sharp decline in its prized trout population as climate change, habitat loss and overfishing threaten the species. Its icy, glacier-fed waters provide an ideal environment for the breeding of trout, one of Pakistan’s most prized freshwater fish. In recent years, however, the trout population has drastically reduced due to a slew of climate and human-induced factors, which include habitat fragmentation, pollution, construction of hydropower projects, and, on top of all, overfishing. According to experts and officials, the trout population has been slashed by 50 per cent over the past two decades. “Climate change-induced flash floods have been destroying spawning habitats of trout in most streams and tributaries by changing sediments and gravel size,” said Farasat Ali, an official of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) Pakistan. Speaking to Anadolu , he said the local rivers and stre...

No survivors were reported after an Mi-17 helicopter of Pakistan Army Aviation crashed near Muzaffarabad on Wednesday during take-off “due to a technical fault”, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. Rescue and recovery teams immediately reached the crash site. “All personnel on board embraced martyrdom. There were no survivors,” the ISPR said in a statement. “A board of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the exact technical cause of the accident,” the military’s media affairs wing said. Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir and all ranks of the army “express deep grief over the tragic loss of precious lives and extend heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families”, the ISPR said. In the last such incident reported, five personnel had died in September 2025 after an army helicopter crashed in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Diamer district after a “technical fault”. In August 2025, a rescue helicopter of ...

Workers’ remittances were recorded at $4.3 billion in May, registering growth on both a monthly and annual basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday. Adviser to the Finance Minister Khurram Schehzad also shared the data on X, stating that Pakistan had recorded its “highest-ever monthly remittance inflow in history”. According to the SBP, the inflows increased by 20.2 per cent compared to April and were 15.4pc higher than the amount received in May last year. “Cumulatively, remittances reached $38.1bn during July-May FY26, up 9.2pc from $34.9bn recorded in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year,” the SBP said. It elaborated that remittances from Saudi Arabia remained the highest in May at $1,025 million, followed by $1.006.6m from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Remittances from the United Kingdom stood at $645.5m and those from the ...