#pakistan

#pakistan

At the start of this year, Pakistan had more imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) than it could use, with demand falling from a peak of 8.2 million tonnes in 2021 to 6.1 million tonnes by late 2025. The government sold excess gas shipments to other countries and shut down domestic gas wells to prevent pipelines from bursting under oversupply.

Indian authorities have reportedly ordered an audit of the nation's CCTV cameras, after police uncovered what they claim was a Pakistan-backed surveillance operation involving cameras aimed at railway stations and other infrastructure.

From February 2 to 4, Libya's eastern commander, renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar, visited Rawalpindi for talks at Pakistan's army headquarters with the army chief, Asim Munir. The visit might have seemed routine, but it highlights Pakistan's expanding defence diplomacy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Pakistan reportedly signed a $4bn defence deal with Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), including 16 JF-17 fighters and 12 Super Mushak trainer aircraft, structured over roughly two and a half years.

Pakistan's security forces have carried out raids in the country's southwest, killing at least 41 armed fighters, whom the country's military linked to regional rival and neighbour India. The military said in a statement on Friday that the deadly encounters took place in the province of Balochistan, which shares a long border with Afghanistan and has long been a base for separatist groups seeking independence from Pakistan's central government in Islamabad.

The ban follows a march by the party, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), earlier this month from the eastern city of Lahore to the capital city, Islamabad. It escalated into a vicious street battle between TLP supporters and police in Lahore and the nearby city of Murdike, leading to a crackdown on the party, which has come to be known for these violent confrontations.

Growing up in Rawalpindi, a city adjacent to Pakistan's capital Islamabad, Mahnoor Omer remembers the shame and anxiety she felt in school when she had periods. Going to the toilet with a sanitary pad was an act of stealth, like trying to cover up a crime. I used to hide my pad up my sleeve like I was taking narcotics to the bathroom, says Omer, who comes from a middle-class family her father a businessman and her mother a homemaker.

Pakistani police have arrested more than 100 people following violence in the eastern city of Lahore, a senior official said Saturday. Supporters of the radical Islamist political party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, or TLP, want to march from Lahore to Islamabad to express their solidarity with Palestinians. But authorities said they don't have permission to demonstrate in the capital. Police have clashed with the party's supporters in Lahore since Friday, using tear gas and batons to disperse the crowds. People are throwing stones in retaliation.

The statement issued Monday by the foreign ministers of eight Muslim-majority countries endorsed Trump's 20-point plan that was introduced on September 29. The countries vowed to "engage constructively" with the US and all other parties to "finalize and implement the agreement." Despite the political leadership of much of the Islamic world supporting the plan, the Hamas Islamist militant group, which carried out the October 7 terror attacks on Israel that sparked the current conflict, has not issued a response. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted the plan.

Transgender persons are a vulnerable segment of society and we must all give them dignity and respect.

A man accused of murdering a 17-year-old social media influencer at her home in Pakistan after she repeatedly rejected his advances has been formally indicted. Sana Yousaf's murder in June this year drew nationwide condemnation and reignited debate over women's safety, after some online comments alongside condolences blamed her for her own death. The 22-year-old accused, Umar Hayat, also a TikTok influencer, pleaded not guilty in a court in the capital Islamabad on Saturday as the trial formally began.

"This [extramarital affair case] is very anti-women. The kind of shame I have to face in the courtroom. Our courtrooms are full of men ... the way everyone looks at me, it's a different horror experience."