Islamabad, July 8 (PTI): Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday urged the world community to share information on their strategies to deal with the coronavirus, as the country's COVID-19 death toll reached near 5,000-mark.   Addressing a virtual summit of the International Labour Organisation, Khan said that the constant exchange of ideas will help soften the coronavirus impact on labourers.   He said that the entire world was praying for a vaccine bu

KARACHI, June 30 (Reuters): Pakistani airline pilots and their union have raised questions about a government list of 262 pilots with "dubious" credentials, saying it is full of discrepancies.   Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan announced last week the grounding of 262 airline pilots suspected of dodging their exams, a move that caused global concern.   The minister said the pilots included 141 from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), nine from Air

ISLAMABAD, June 30 (Reuters): Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan told parliament on Tuesday he had 'no doubt' that India was behind an attack on the stock exchange building in Karachi a day earlier.   Four gunmen armed with grenades attacked the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday, killing two guards and a policeman before security forces killed the attackers.   India said on Monday it had nothing to do with the assault.   "There is no

KARACHI, Pakistan, June 29 (Reuters): Gunmen armed with grenades attacked the Pakistan Stock Exchange in the city of Karachi on Monday in a bid to take hostages, killing two guards and a policeman before security forces killed all four of the attackers, security officials said.   Separatist insurgents from the troubled southwestern province of Balochistan claimed responsibility, a senior counter-terrorism official, Raja Umar Khattab, told Reuters.   The Baloc

ISLAMABAD, June 27 (Reuters): Pakistan is grounding 262 airline pilots suspected of dodging their exams following inquiries into their qualifications, the aviation minister said on Friday in a move that has caused global concern.   The action was prompted by the preliminary report on an airliner crash in Karachi last month, which found that the pilots had failed to follow standard procedures and disregarded alarms.   Ninety-seven people were killed in that cr

NEW YORK, JUNE 24 (IANS): The US on Wednesday slammed Pakistan for continuing to be a safe haven for terrorist groups and for failing to prosecute Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) boss Masood Azhar and Lashkar-e-Taiba's (LeT) Mumbai attack mastermind Sajid Mir.   The State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism said: "Islamabad has yet to take decisive actions against Indian- and Afghanistan-focused militants." Pakistan has "made no effort to use domestic aut

ISLAMABAD, June 24 (Reuters): The pilots of a Pakistan airliner that crashed last month, killing 97, were distracted and preoccupied as they talked about the coronavirus pandemic while preparing for an initial failed attempt to land, the country's aviation minister said on Wednesday.   The Airbus A320 of national carrier Pakistan International Airlines crashed on May 22 in the southern city of Karachi, killing all but two of those aboard as it came down a kilometre

Srinagar, June 20 (IANS): Three civilians were injured on Saturday in Pakistan shelling on the line of control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri sector.   Police sources said three civilians, including a woman, were injured in Pakistan shelling in Nambla village of Uri sector on Saturday.   "The injured civilians have been shifted to hospital. Efforts are on to shift the villagers to a safer place away from the line of enemy shelling", sources said.

Jammu, June 9 (IANS): Pakistan resorted to intense, unprovoked mortar shelling and firing on Tuesday on the line of control (LoC) to violate ceasefire in J&K's Poonch district.   Colonel Devender Anand said, "At about 6.30 a.m. today Pakistan initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and intense shelling with mortars along the LoC in Mankote sector of Poonch district.   "Indian army is retaliating befittingly". &n

ISLAMABAD, June 8 (Reuters): Authorities in Pakistan have stepped up enforcement of government safety measures after a rise in the daily number of coronavirus infections pushed total cases to more than 100,000.   Official statistics released on Monday showed 103,671 infections and 2,067 deaths from the virus. Record numbers of new infections over the last 10 days partly reflect increased testing.   The south Asian nation lifted its lockdown last month, puttin

ISLAMABAD, JUNE 5 (IANS): The Pakistan government has sought an explanation from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for writing a letter to the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), which suggested the pilot of the plane that crashed in Karachi did not follow the instructions of air-traffic controllers (ATC).   "We have sought an explanation from the CAA official (for writing a letter to PIA implying that the pilot of the PK-8303 flight did not follow the instructions

New Delhi, May 30 (IANS): Pakistan on Saturday violated ceasefire agreement in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.   At about 10 a.m., the Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and intense firing with small arms along the Line of Control in Kirni sector. Indian Army is retaliating befittingly, a defence statement said.   The ceasefire violation along the LoC started even as an encounter was underway in Kulgam district, where security forces were successful in ne

ISLAMABAD, May 28 (Reuters): The captain of a Pakistani airliner that crashed last week, killing 97 people on board, approached Karachi airport without announcing he couldn't open his landing gear and hit the runway three times, a government minister said on Thursday.   Search teams recovered the cockpit voice recorder from the wreckage of the Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A320 that crashed into a residential neighbourhood of Karachi on Friday, a spokesman

PIRA FATEHAL, Pakistan, May 24 (Thomson Reuters Foundation): Gul Muhammad was expecting a decent wheat harvest this year - until torrential rains and freak hailstorms in March destroyed the crops on his farm, leaving him with no income and no way to feed his family of 10.   "I've never seen such a hailstorm before. I had only heard about such calamities from my forefathers," said Muhammad, 55, as he stood among the crushed stalks in his two-hectare (5-acre) fie