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[ad_1] ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday vowed to make Pakistan "cleaner than Europe" as he formally launched a campaign aimed at improving sanitary conditions in the country. Khan planted a sapling and participated in the 'Clean and Green Pakistan' drive at the Model College for Girls in Islamabad, according to Radio Pakistan. Speaking on the occasion, the prime minister urged the students and youth to lead the campaign as it is connected with the future of the country. Khan vowed to make the country "cleaner than Europe" in five years. "For this to happen, we will also have to bring a change in our mindset," he said. He pointed out that "plantation is imperative to protect the environment and check global warming". He said Pakistan is the seventh most vulnerable country to global warming. He mentioned that Lahore is among the cities where the pollution level is very high. Khan claimed his party's government had pl...

[ad_1] ISLAMABAD: A high-level constitutional body in Pakistan on Thursday recommended the removal of a high court judge for his scathing remarks against the country's powerful spy agency ISI, the first such case in nearly five decades. The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) recommended to remove Islamabad High Court (IHC) Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, who was facing a case of alleged misconduct over his controversial speech targeting the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Justice Siddiqui while addressing the Rawalpindi District Bar Association on July 21 had alleged that the ISI was manipulating judicial proceedings to constitute panel of judges to get favourable decisions. The army had asked the chief justice of Pakistan to take the notice of the remarks after IHC chief justice Anwar Kansi rejected the allegations against Siddique. The matter was referred to the SJC, which is the body to take up complaints against judges of higher courts and also recommend punitive actions inclu...

[ad_1] BALI: The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that Pakistan has not approached the body to begin negotiations for a possible bailout to stem a balance of payments crisis, hours after Islamabad announced it will enter talks. Former cricketer Imran Khan 's new administration took office in August vowing to weigh up whether to seek an IMF bailout to stabilise its economy as it sought other avenues of financing, as analysts warned the looming crisis was becoming more urgent. "We have not been formally approached yet," said Maurice Obstfeld, the IMF's top economist, during the fund's annual meeting in Bali. The IMF's comments added to the appearance of confusion around the abruptly announced decision. Pakistan's finance minister told the daily Dawn newspaper on Saturday that the government had not yet decided whether it would go to the IMF, and had not sketched out a formal proposal to the fund ahead of the Bali summit. "We will be liste...

[ad_1] ISLAMABAD: Washington's newly named point man tasked with finding a peaceful end to Afghanistan's 17-year war is in Pakistan to seek help from the new government in Islamabad in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table, the US Embassy said Tuesday. A former US ambassador in Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad arrived in Pakistan from neighboring Afghanistan. His tour of the region will also include Middle East stops in the United Arab Emirates , Qatar and Saudi Arabia . In Afghanistan, he met with President Ashraf Ghani, a long-time friend. Khalilzad, who was also born in Afghanistan, first served in Kabul as a special envoy of President George W Bush following the 2001 ouster of the Taliban, and then later as Washington's ambassador. But Khalilzad has had a prickly relationship with Pakistan and has often accused Islamabad of fomenting violence in Afghanistan by supporting the Taliban. He has even said the United States should declare Pakistan a terrorist state. Washingto...

[ad_1] ISLAMABAD: Pakistan 's new government will open talks with the International Monetary Fund for emergency financial assistance to ease a mounting balance of payments crisis, the finance ministry said on Monday. New Prime Minister Imran Khan spent nearly two months since taking office looking for alternatives to a second IMF bailout in five years, which would likely impose tough conditions on government policy that would limit his vision of an Islamic welfare state. But on Monday, he decided his finance minister should meet with officials at this week's annual conference of the IMF and the World Bank in Bali, Indonesia, to discuss a potential package, the finance ministry said in a statement. "Today, it was decided that we should start talks with IMF,” Finance Minister Asad Umar told GEO TV in an interview on Monday night. The finance ministry did not specify how much in emergency financing the government would seek, but Umar earlier said the government would need ...

[ad_1] WASHINGTON: The US has rejected Pakistan's plea to facilitate talks with India and pressed for the bilateral engagement between the two South Asian neighbours, foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said. Pakistan wants the US to facilitate talks with India as the two nations are not engaging bilaterally, the top Pakistani diplomat told a Washington audience Wednesday. "When we asked the US, to play facilitating role...Why do we ask? Simply because we are not engaging bilaterally. And that bilateral disengagement is…a distraction," Qureshi said in response to a question at the US Institute of Peace, a US Congress-funded top American think-tank. "We want to focus, we want to move on the western side of the border, which we are not being able to because we have to watch our back from eastern side (of the border with India). That is not a healthy situation to be in," he said. "Now can you (United States) facilitate (the talks)? The answer from them i...

[ad_1] WASHINGTON: Islamabad is seeking an American role in facilitating talks between India and Pakistan because the two South Asian neighbours are not engaging bilaterally, Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said, warning that absence of such a facilitation could lead to escalation of tension. But the latest Pakistani request in this regard has again been rejected by the US, the top Pakistani diplomat told a Washington audience on Wednesday, a day after he had meetings with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton, during which he raised the issue only to be pushed back by the Trump administration. "When we asked the US, to play facilitating role ... Why do we ask? Simply because we are not engaging bilaterally. And that bilateral disengagement is…a distraction. We want to focus, we want to move on the western side of the border, which we are not being able to because we have to watch our back from eastern side (of the borde...