Public Relations and Information Centre who said on X that the wounded also included 32 women and 18 children and teenagers
Earlier on Saturday Iran launched strikes targeting United States military bases in Kuwait Jordan and Bahrain while an adviser to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned that the conflict was entering a more "aggressive" and "destructive" phase Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said its naval forces carried out missile and drone attacks on a US fleet fuel support pier at Al Ahmadi Port in Kuwait and Sheikh Isa Air Base in
Bahrain The IRGC also claimed to have destroyed a US intelligence data centre in Bahrain, identified as Batelco, as well as a US signals and communications centre in Kuwait, according to Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency
Separately recent US attacks on Hormozgan province in southern Iran killed about seven to eight people all civilians according to provincial representative Ahmad Moradi, who told Tasnim that one strike targeted a bridge, hitting two family vehicles and killing six people
The report added that the Tappeh Allaho Akbar neighbourhood in Bandar Abbas was also struck killing a woman seriously injuring a one-year-old child who later underwent an amputation, while a fuel delivery driver was killed in a fire K U
The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said one of its vital oil facilities had come under repeated Iranian attacks resulting in injuries and significant material damage According to a statement carried by Kuna news agency and cited by Al Jazeera, the injured received medical treatment while the site was evacuated and emergency response operations were
Pakistan s petroleum sector and creating a more competitive pricing environment Minster Malik informed participants that the reform had been introduced on the directive of Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and approved by the federal cabinet as part of the government's commitment to establishing a rulesbased petroleum pricing regime
conducted in coordination with the relevant authorities
Iranian provincial official said a US strike on a water desalination plant in the coastal village of Bunji in Hormozgan province disrupted drinking water supplies to around 10 000 people Tasnim quoted the Chief Executive Officer of the Hormozgan Water and Wastewater Company as saying
the attack completely destroyed at least two American fighter jets and caused significant damage to several others Iran also called on the Jordanian military to target US forces, describing them as "legitimate targets" and urging action against what it termed "invading" forces
Iran renewed attacks on US-allied Gulf states after a seventh consecutive night of US strikes targeting Iranian military facilities and logistics infrastructure, deepening the conflict one week after the collapse of a fragile ceasefire agreement Both sides also intensified pressure on maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz with Washington saying it was enforcing a naval blockade while Tehran said it was targeting vessels allegedly violating Iranian navigation rules in the strategic waterway,
following the Iranian attacks on Saturday morning According to a statement cited by Al Jazeera the affected personnel were evacuated and provided with medical assistance after sustaining injuries during firefighting operations
tion since the ceasefire collapsed raising fears of a return to full-scale conflict
IT seemed like a move out of an old playbook
The government shortened the period for its oil fixes from a week to a day, and announced a substantial hike in the price This was exactly what happened when the government moved from a fortnightly determination of the price to a weekly The government should realise that it has no place to go, because it cannot very well announce even half day prices let alone hourly or some smaller internal However this should be seen as a signal that the government expects the Strait of Hormuz crisis to last longer, and it refuses to be responsible for the lag between the oil price rise and the pump price The pump owners’ association had already expressed opposition to the idea but now it has been implemented Pump owners have already been exercised by the switch from fortnightly pricing to weekly, and now the switch to daily is likely to increase their inventory management problems
The possibility of a prolonged Strait closure is being seen by people who know about it After all Pakistan was at the centre of the negotiations leading up to the Memorandum of Understanding signed in June, and at the centre of efforts to get Iran and the USA to de-escalate after the resumption of the US bombing It would thus know what were the direction in which events in the Strait, and thus the price of oil,were moving Going by the recent past, the Pakistani consumer can expect greater shocks down the line as not only oil price shocks are passed on immediately but the government tries to see if it can use petrol and diesel to somehow meet the promises it has made to the IMF, The IMF is likely to be as unrelenting as before in its insistence that targets be met And it is a distinct possibility that the government will rely on the petroleum levy to prop up revenue as it has been doing
Pakistan cannot afford to leave girls offline
the War Powers Resolution "fundamentally a fake and unconstitutional law in January before the Iran war began The White House spokesperson has said Trump has been transparent with the Hill through 30 bipartisan briefings, as if consultation is an adequate substitute for authorization Republican leadership has largely held its caucus together in blocking the resolution with only Senator Rand Paul crossing party lines consistent with his longstanding position and Senator John Fetterman crossing in the opposite direction The constitutional standoff is real, the deadline is imminent, and neither Congress nor the courts have developed an adequate mechanism for resolving it The historical record requires honest accounting before assessing the current situation
The War Powers Resolution has never successfully ended an unauthorized military operation President Clinton deployed forces against Yugoslavia for 79 days without authorization President Obama s Libya campaign was argued by the administration not to constitute "hostilities under the Resolution s text a reading so strained it prompted bipartisan criticism The pattern across administrations of both parties is consistent: presidents invoke inherent authority, notify Congress after the fact, and continue operations regardless of the Resolution s 60-day limit Congress has blocked the mechanism that
ment, and entrepreneurship The new divide is between those equipped to participate in the
EV E RY generation is remembered for the technology that reshaped its future The industrial age belonged to the steam engine, the 20th century to electricity and the 21st belongs to digital innovation Yet technology alone never transforms societies People do When a young girl learns to code she is not simply acquiring a technical skill She is learning to think critically, solve problems creatively, and imagine possibilities beyond the boundaries of circumstance For Pakistan that is not merely an educational achievement It is an investment in national progress Pakistan rightly regards education as a constitutional right but constitutional guarantees alone cannot prepare a nation for a rapidly changing world Millions of children remain out of school, while many others are still being educated for an economy that no longer exists As artificial intelligence, automation and digital technologies reshape industries worldwide the real question is no longer whether young people need digital skills but whether any nation can remain competitive without making digital education a national priority The challenge today extends beyond literacy Reading and writing remain fundamental, but they are no longer enough in a world where digital skills increasingly determine access to education employ-
ulation
ers
norms,
access to technology Closing this gap is not only a matter of equality It is an economic imperative
Coding has become a powerful symbol of this transformation not because every student will become a software engineer but because it teaches habits of mind that extend far beyond programming It develops logical reasoning, analytical thinking, persistence, creativity, and the confidence to tackle complex problems Students learn that mistakes are part of learning and that every problem has a solution waiting to be discovered These qualities are
The true wealth of a nation has never been the resources beneath its soil but the potential within its people PakistanÊs future will be written not by those who inherit the digital age, but by those who are prepared to shape it Every girl who learns to code adds another voice to that future, another innovator to the economy, and another builder to the nation In the end, empowering girls with digital skills is not simply an educational reform or a policy choice It is one of the most important nation-building investments Pakistan can make
would force a confrontation supplemental appropriations by passing continuing resolutions rather than demanding new war authorizations Courts have declined to adjudicate the constitutionality of the Resolution consistently finding that members of Congress lack standing or that the matter presents a nonjusticiable political question What distinguishes Epic Fury from its predecessors is not the constitutional violation, which follows a familiar pattern, but its scale Previous unauthorized operations Kosovo, Libya Yemen were limited in scope duration or intensity in ways that made the constitutional question practically containable Epic Fury is none of those things It has killed a head of state It has consumed strategic munitions reserves that will take years to replenish It has established a ceasefire that may require ongoing military enforcement It has generated diplomatic commitments the Islamabad framework that implicate American credibility regardless of how the conflict resolves A president who can launch this campaign unilaterally can, under the precedent being established, launch any campaign unilaterally The limiting principle being tested is not whether the Iran campaign was justified that is a separate and
legitimate debate but whether any limiting principle on executive war-making exists at all
Some Republican senators are showing unease as the May 1 deadline approaches Senator John Curtis has written that he will not support ongoing military action beyond 60 days without congressional approval citing both historical and constitutional grounds Representative Don Bacon has stated plainly: By law, we ve got to either approve continued operations or stop "
These are not Democratic objections to a Republican war they are Republican acknowledgments that the constitutional framework requires legislative authorization for sustained military operations regardless of party The question is whether enough Republicans will break from leadership to force a vote before May 1, and whether the administration will respect the outcome if they do
The stakes extend beyond the Iran campaign The precedent established by Epic Fury that a president may kill a foreign head of state commence a campaign consuming strategic military reserves, and wage sustained war for 60 days and potentially beyond without congressional authorization is not a precedent that belongs to one administration or one conflict It belongs to every future president in
What is being decided before May 1 is not whether Trump's Iran campaign was right or wrong It is whether the constitutional architecture governing the use of military force by the most powerful military in history retains any operative meaning The cameras of history, as Representative Gregory Meeks observed during the floor debate, are rolling
Border infrastructure lacking
Turbat
ALEENA SAIF ULLAH
DR ZAFAR KHAN SAFDAR
CORPORATE CORNER
Corporate leaders explore
‘Milestone in Digital Transformation’: PPCBL, AutoSoft Dynamics
The Lawyers Action Committee (LAC) on Saturday rejected the Judicial Commission of Pakistan’s process for appointing judges to the high courts calling it a deeply flawed exercise and announcing a nationwide movement on issues facing the country
In a resolution adopted at a meeting in Islamabad the committee said the current method of making high court appointments had become particularly troubling amid what it described as the damaging effects of the 26th and 27th constitutional amendments on the justice system The resolution termed the appointment process horse trading and urged members of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan who in its words still possessed a conscience not to take part in what it called a farce The committee also chose veteran lawyer and former Supreme Court Bar Association president Ali Ahmed Kurd to head the movement Speaking to reporters at the Supreme Court alongside senior lawyers Hamid Khan, Salahuddin Ahmed and Abid Shahid Zuberi, Kurd said he had
accepted the role reluctantly because of what he described as a collapse of public confidence in the justice system Kurd said the movement would seek to engage the public arguing that citizens were the real stakeholders in the justice system He said the committee s first public meeting would take place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and added that the LAC also intended to hold a programme in London at the invitation of overseas Pakistanis to highlight the issues behind the campaign Resolution criticises appointments and interview process
According to the resolution, appointments to the high courts had come to resemble Senate nominations with positions allegedly awarded either for political loyalty or through financial influence It said that if judges reached the high courts through political manoeuvring within the Judicial Commission rather than merit and integrity, the future of justice in Pakistan would be at risk
The resolution also described the interview process as a mockery alleging that interviews were being conducted in camera and that several members of the Judicial Commission had been left out of the
interview committee creating room for what it called the selection of blatantly unqualified candidates Concerns over security, detentions and bar elections
The committee also raised concern over the worsening security situation in Balochistan and the deaths of dozens of people in recurring terrorist attacks Its resolution said the pursuit of a hard state had alienated large sections of the population in affected regions caused loss of life and security and deepened grievances that were being exploited by others It called for a fact-finding commission for troubled regions to identify local issues and grievances and to hold public consultations on possible remedies The resolution further alleged that the continued incarceration of lawyers Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha, as well as political figures including former prime minister Imran Khan, Dr Yasmin Rashid Mahrang Baloch and Ali Wazir showed an absence of ideas for dealing with dissenting voices It also criticised what it called the silence and complicity of the judiciary, the legal fraternity and political parties in the face of blatant injustice
Wanted terrorist k illed in C TD operation in Dera Ismail Khan
wanted terrorist was killed in an intelligence-based operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa s Dera Ismail Khan district, according to a statement issued by the Counter Terrorism Department on Saturday
The CTD identified the dead man as Khalid alias Commander and said he had been wanted in several cases including the targeted killing of CTD Constable Muhammad Ali, who was martyred on March 17, 2025
According to the department, its technical team received confirmed intelligence that Khalid was present in the Korai area within the jurisdiction of Shorkot police station Acting on that information a CTD Special Weapons and Tactics team carried out a targeted operation early on Saturday on the TankDera Ismail Khan Road
The statement said Khalid was linked to the banned Tehreek-iTaliban Pakistan s Zakir Kochi Karwan group He had been avoiding law enforcement by hiding his identity, frequently altering his appearance and shifting between locations
The CTD said the suspect was encircled and repeatedly asked to surrender and that attempts were made to arrest him He instead opened indiscriminate fire at personnel, after which he was killed when the CTD returned fire
According to the CTD, a 9mm pistol, a hand grenade and a smartphone were recovered from his possession The items have been taken into custody for forensic examination
The department said efforts were continuing to identify and proceed legally against those involved in facilitating, financing and providing logistical support to him
