In April, the provincial assembly passed the KP Provincial Assembly (Powers, Immunities and Privileges) Act, 2026, granting blue passports to members and their spouses, arms licenses, blanket immunity from preventive detention and making the speaker’s permission necessary before arresting members on criminal charges.

The law faced harsh criticism from the media and general public, prompting KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi to order a review of the legislation on Wednesday.

In a video message shared on X, KP Information Minister Shafi Jan said: “On the directives of Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, the provincial government has decided to withdraw all controversial provisions incorporated into the KP Provincial Assembly (Powers, Immunities and Privileges) Act, 2026.”

He said that cabinet members met with the chief minister earlier in the day, adding that KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati also joined the meeting via video link.

The minister said that, following the chief minister’s directives and in consultation with the assembly speaker, it was decided to withdraw all controversial clauses of the act.

“All controversial clauses will be restored and corrected in accordance with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Powers, Privileges and Immunities) Act, 1988.”

The law under discussion had repealed various provisions of the 1988 law on the same subject.

Jan also added that a meeting would be held on Monday, during which parliamentary leaders would be taken into confidence.

He said that the KP Assembly was formed on the basis of the people’s genuine mandate and, therefore, would not make any decision that ran contrary to public aspirations.

“The provincial government will listen to and address the concerns of both the journalist community and the general public,” he reiterated.

Meanwhile, KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, in a post on social media platform X, asked National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and Senate Chairman Yousaf Raza Gillani to immediately convene a meeting of the speakers of all four provincial assemblies and agree on a single, harmonised bill governing the salaries, privileges and entitlements of legislators across Pakistan.

“No province should legislate extraordinary privileges for itself while expecting the people to embrace austerity. Salaries, security, official passports, allowances and every other entitlement should be uniform across the federation, ensuring one standard for all,” he stated.

Kundi further noted that a harmonised national framework was the only way to ensure “fairness, accountability and public confidence”.

In a separate post, the governor, who had himself assented to the controversial law on May 6, shared his observations on the legislation.

Kundi said that he had made it clear that no law should become a means of expanding privileges when the people of Pakistan, especially those in KP, were being asked to endure austerity and economic hardship.

The governor said that he had called for the law to be implemented in the true spirit of fiscal discipline and the prudent use of public resources.

“A government that speaks of financial constraints cannot, in the same breath, legislate greater privileges for those in power. My position was clear then, and it remains unchanged today: public money belongs to the people, not to the perks of those who govern them,” he said.

He also shared a note based on his observations regarding the legislation.

“In exercise of my constitutional authority, I hereby give my assent to the bill, recognising it constitutionally valid,” the note reads.

“However, I strongly recommended the provincial assembly finance committee implement the Prime Minister’s 14-point austerity measures — including expenditure cuts, fuel rationing and elimination of unnecessary privileges-while executing the law.

“This ensures fiscal discipline is maintained despite assent, aligning provincial legislative practices with the federal government’s economic emergency framework amid the US-Iran war and global instability. The finance committee may reconsider it to operationalise these principles in true letter and spirit,” it concluded.

The department said that moist currents from the Arabian Sea were continuously penetrating the upper parts of the country, increasing in strength on Saturday (July 11) evening.

“Meanwhile, a westerly wave is also likely to approach the upper parts on Saturday,” it said.

Rain, windstorm and thundershower with isolated heavy rainfall have been predicted in Neelum valley, Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot, Poonch, Hattian, Bagh, Haveli, Sudhanoti, Kotli, Bhimber and Mirpur from Friday night (July 10) to Monday (July 13).

Similar weather conditions are expected in Dir, Chitral, Swat, Kohistan, Malakand, Nowshera, Charsadda, Karak, Tank, Lakki Marwat, Swabi, Shangla, Battagram, Buner, Kohat, Kurram, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Waziristan, Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Haripur, Peshawar, Mardan and Hangu on Saturday and Sunday (July 12).

Meanwhile, scattered rain, windstorm and thundershower with isolated heavy rainfall are expected in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Murree, Galiyat, Attock, Chakwal, Jhelum, Mandi Bahauddin, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Wazirabad, Faisalabad, Khushab, Sargodha, Lahore, Sheikhupura, Sialkot, Narowal, Sahiwal, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Nankana Sahib, Chiniot and Okara on Saturday and Sunday.

These weather conditions are expected to begin on Saturday night going into Sunday with occasional gaps in the Noor Pur Thal, Bhakkar, Mianwali, Layyah, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Khanewal, Lodhran, Muzaffargarh, Kot Addu, Rahim Yar Khan and Rajanpur.

Rain, windstorms and thunderstorms have also been forecasted in Diamer, Astore, Ghizer, Skardu, Hunza, Gilgit, Ghanche and Shigar starting from Saturday night to Monday.

Isolated rain and windstorms have been predicted in Zhob, Sherani, Kohlu, Barkhan, Dera Bugti and Khuzdar districts on Saturday and Sunday.

On the other hand, Sindh is forecasted to experience “mainly hot and very humid weather”, except Tharparkar, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Larkana, Dadu and Jacobabad districts, which will likely experience isolated rain on Sunday and Monday.

The department advised the authorities concerned to remain vigilant. It said that windstorms and lightning could damage weak structures such as solar panels, electric poles and billboards.

Landslides could occur in vulnerable areas of upper KP, GB and Kashmir on Saturday and Sunday, it warned. The met department added that water flow could increase in local streams of Kashmir, KP, GB and in the hill torrents of DG Khan on Saturday and Sunday.

Furthermore, heavy rain could cause localised urban flooding in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Gujranwala, Lahore and Faisalabad on Saturday and Sunday.

“Tourists and travellers are advised to remain extra cautious and avoid unnecessary travelling during the forecast period,” it said. The met department also advised farmers to manage crop activities in line with the weather conditions and to take care of their livestock.

“Prevailing hot and humid conditions are likely to subside during the forecast period,” it added.

The fatwa was originally issued by Darul Ifta, Jamia Darul Uloom, Karachi, and dated 24 Zilhaj 1447 AH (June 10, 2026). Apart from Mufti Usmani, a former judge of the Federal Shariat Court, five other prominent scholars are its signatories.

Responding to a question about purchasing books with cryptocurrency, the fatwa said: “It is not permissible for you to purchase the books in question using cryptocurrency.”

“According to research and opinion of experts so far, cryptocurrency is not considered ‘maal’ (wealth) in Sharia. Instead, it is merely the recording of fictitious numbers in an account, whether in the form of USDT or other crypto tokens,” it stated.

As cryptocurrency was not recognised as wealth, the fatwa maintained that the buyer did not technically become the owner of those books through such transactions.

“Therefore, it is not permissible for you to use them or sell them to others. Instead, it is mandatory upon you to return these books to the person from whom you purchased them,” the fatwa added.

The fatwa cited various references from works of religious jurisprudence.

Responding to a similar query about benefiting from a course purchased with cryptocurrency, it said: “Obtaining an educational course through cryptocurrency is not valid,” adding that it was delivered in violation of the law.

“It is mandatory for you to neither use this course yourself nor give it to anyone else.

“Because this course is in digital form and remains with the seller even after the sale, you should completely delete the materials related to this course from your devices and files,” it declared.

The Long March 10B rocket lifted off from the Hainan commercial space launch site in southern China at 12:15pm (9:15am PKT) and, about six minutes after separation of its booster and upper stage, the booster returned vertically and was recovered on an offshore platform, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The test marks China’s first successful retrieval of an orbital-class rocket, putting the country closer to developing reusable rockets.

The rocket had sent a satellite into preset orbit on Friday, state media said.

Shares in Chinese aerospace firms jumped on the news, with China Spacesat and China Satellite Communications hitting daily limits.

The Long March 10B has been compared to the Falcon 9, SpaceX’s widely used medium-lift rocket. It was developed for commercial aerospace by the country’s main state rocket developer, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), and is capable of carrying a payload of at least 16 metric tons to low-Earth orbit.

But unlike the Falcon 9, the Long March 10B does not autonomously land on deployable legs on a ground pad or drone ship, using instead four “landing hooks” to catch the net attached to a sea platform.

“Net-based recovery helps simplify the rocket’s onboard structure, reduces vehicle mass and increases payload capacity. It is also highly adaptable to landing-point deviations, as coordinated net systems can effectively expand the capture window,” CALT’s expert Chen Muye told state agency Xinhua.

SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 rocket from an orbital flight for the first time in December 2015, followed by Blue Origin’s New Glenn in November 2025.

By now, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launches around 150 times a year, or roughly three times a week, with its booster reused dozens of times as needed. The engine-packed booster is generally viewed as the most valuable part of a rocket.

China has spent nearly a decade developing reusable rocket technologies, from early low-altitude hover tests to orbital-class booster recovery attempts in recent years. A system of reusable rockets will lower launch costs for China’s rapidly expanding commercial satellite constellations.

Private Chinese firms are also stepping up efforts to test their reusable rockets amid intense global competition to acquire the technology, and China has eased IPO rules for firms developing reusable rockets to help them raise funding.

Two attempts by private Chinese firm LandSpace and state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation last year failed to complete the crucial final step of landing and booster recovery.

As part of the Long March 10 family being developed for China’s crewed lunar missions before 2030, the Long March 10B could also provide data and validate technologies relevant to the broader lunar programme.

China plans to use the Long March 10B’s booster stage again for another launch by the end of this year, CCTV said.

In a letter addressed to the principal and administrator of Veritas Learning Circle (Primary), dated July 10 (Friday), Sindh’s Directorate of Inspection and Registration of Private Institutions — part of the provincial government’s School Education and Literacy Department — referred to a hearing held the previous day regarding complaints about the school’s “illegal and extraordinary” fee hike.

A copy of the letter is available with Dawn.

“During the course of the hearing, it was determined that your school, including all of its campuses, had enhanced tuition fees without the approval of the registration authority, in violation of the Rule 7(6) of the Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Rules 2005,” the letter said.

The rule states that “any complaint regarding the tuition fees in violation of the rules or charging of any fee other than tuition fees shall be liable to be punished”.

“Therefore, you are hereby directed to immediately stop the collection of any excess or unapproved fees from the students,” the directorate’s letter stated.

It directed the school to immediately refund the amounts unlawfully collected as tuition fees from all students, noting that a compliance report was to be submitted to the directorate within 15 days, along with documentary evidence of the refunds.

It further directed the institution to only collect fees that had been duly approved by the registration authority.

“In case of non-compliance, action against the school shall be initiated under the relevant act/rules,” the letter added.

According to Rafia Mallah, additional director of registration at the Directorate of Private Schools, schools typically hike their fees after obtaining the directorate’s approval for a five per cent increase, for which they apply when renewing their registration.

In this case, she said, Veritas had not applied for the 5pc increment, nor was it scheduled to renew its registration this year: “They just enhanced their fees by themselves all of a sudden.”

A committee was constituted after complaints were received about the fee hike. As the school was closed for the summer holidays, it was summoned for a hearing on July 9 (Thursday).

During the hearing, it was found that the institution had decided to hike the fees on its own, following which a letter was issued directing it not to raise its fees “by a single rupee” above the amount previously approved by the directorate, she said.

She added that a circular was also issued to all schools, alongside a press release, to make it clear: “If any school increases its fees, action will be taken against it, and parents will be given a copy of the form stating that they do not have to pay any fees above those approved.”

The circular, a copy of which is also available with Dawn, noted that complaints had been received regarding excess tuition fees charged by schools as well as “additional hidden charges” being collected from parents.

“Do not request parents to pay any hidden charges other than the approved fees,” it said, as well as directing administrators to display the approved fee on the school’s notice board and reception.

It pointed out that fees outside of tuition fees, without the approval of the Registration Authority, violated Rule 7(4) of the Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Rules, and added that violations of Rule 7(6) were punishable with a fine “which may extend to five lacs rupees” under Section 11 of the Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Ordinance of 2001.

The circular further added that discrepancies would lead to “stern actions” against the school in accordance with Section 8 (Cancellation or suspension of certificate of registration) of the ordinance.

In a statement, the authority said the search and rescue missions by the Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency in the deep sea were still in progress.

“The search for the crew members is continuing with full vigour through the coordinated employment of aerial and sea-borne assets,” it said.

“Additional parts and debris of the ill-fated aircraft have been located and retrieved for subsequent analysis by the investigation team,” it said, adding that updates would be shared as the search and rescue operations continued.

On Tuesday night, a K2 Airways Boeing 737-400 cargo aircraft en route from Sharjah to Karachi had disappeared from radar over the Arabian Sea, about 300 kilometres west of Karachi, while approaching Pakistani airspace.

The pilot had reported a navigation problem during the flight and requested assistance from the area control centre. Five crew members were on board the aircraft, including two pilots, two engineers and one support staffer.

After 12 hours of a search and rescue operation in the deep sea, the wreckage of the plane was found 53 nautical miles (98km) south of Ormara port on Wednesday.

K2 Airways is a private airline based in Karachi. The carrier was established in May 2018 after being granted an airline charter licence by the government.

In February, the board formed a negotiation committee to engage with the ADB and discuss terms for a financial advisory services agreement. This committee would undertake negotiations and submit recommendations to the board for approval.

The meeting, presided over by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Privatisation and Privatisation Commission Chairman Muhammad Ali, reviewed the terms of the agreement negotiated with the ADB and approved it.

The board expressed confidence that the ADB, with its expertise and experience, would be able to successfully complete this important transaction swiftly while ensuring maximum competition and transparency.

Islamabad International Airport will be outsourced to a qualified private sector operator under a long-term concession framework through a competitive bidding process. The privatisation is expected to enhance operational efficiency, improve passenger experience, and align airport services with international best practices.

The government is targeting the privatisation of Islamabad International Airport during the current fiscal year.

The contract appointing ADB as transaction adviser was revised with certain changes to its conditions, including some indemnity clauses due to its multilateral status. The negotiated terms of the contract proposed by the Privatisation Commission were approved by the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation.

The process for hiring financial advisers for outsourcing the international airports in Karachi and Lahore would begin immediately, as previous government-to-government discussions had not progressed as expected.

Both airports were expected to attract more than $500 million each in fresh investment, Ali told Dawn a few days ago.

The board also approved the appointment of chartered accountancy firm BDO Ebrahim and Company as external auditors to audit the three financial years from 2025–26 to 2027–28, on the recommendation of the board’s Audit Committee.

It resolved to continue ensuring transparency, efficiency, and the maintenance of high standards to further strengthen investor confidence in the government’s privatisation programme, according to an official statement.

In June 2024, the government made privatisation its key priority, and directed that Islamabad International Airport be outsourced first.

In his FY25 budget speech, Finance Minister Mohammad Aurangzeb said the government should not be in business.

“The prime minister strongly believes in reducing government interference in the commercial space and promoting the private sector; that is why we have made privatisation a key priority.”

On the agenda are trade, tourism and sport — but recent undercurrents of anti-migrant sentiment risk tarnishing his trip to a nation long proud of its tolerance.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon celebrated the signing in April of the free trade deal with the world’s most populous nation, touting an export boom that would deliver jobs and investment in spades.

The pact is widely expected to be approved by New Zealand’s parliament. But not everyone is happy at the prospect.

Lawmakers in the populist New Zealand First Party, part of Luxon’s governing coalition, railed against parts of the agreement covering migration and visas.

“I don’t care how much criticism we get, I am just never going to agree with a butter chicken tsunami coming to New Zealand,” government minister Shane Jones told a local radio show.

An Indian community leader accused Jones of “outright racism”.

A prominent evangelical preacher went even further when he heard Indian leader Modi would soon be arriving on New Zealand’s shores.

Self-proclaimed “apostle” Brian Tamaki accused Modi of vilifying Christians in India — and suggested New Zealanders should retaliate in kind.

“Let’s purge New Zealand of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims,” Tamaki said on Instagram.

“While we’re at it, if they’re burning churches down, why don’t we burn mosques and their temples down? Tit for tat,” he said, in comments condemned by New Zealand’s race relations commissioner as “utterly appalling”.

‘Denigrated’

Indigenous Maori activist Che Wilson was earlier this year accused of insulting an Indian-born New Zealand lawmaker with a cultural “haka” performance that allegedly included several mocking references tinged by race.

Massey University anthropologist Sita Venkateswar said Modi was visiting as Indian-New Zealanders were being singled out and “denigrated”.

“A ‘butter chicken tsunami’, slurs set to a haka, graffiti on a school wall – South Asians are already the most frequent targets of racially motivated incidents in our data,” she told AFP.

“That is real and it is wrong.” Modi will be in New Zealand for little more than a day, at the tail end of a July 6-11 tour that has also taken him to Indonesia and Australia.

He will be attending an official ceremony at the Government House and a business and sport event in Auckland — the first visit to the country by an Indian leader in 40 years.

The big event is expected to be Modi’s starring role before as many as 10,000 people from the Indian diaspora at a community event in Auckland’s Spark Arena.

Despite the negative rhetoric about their ties from some quarters, New Zealand’s Luxon has been promoting a welcoming image for Modi’s visit to a country that is home to an Indian diaspora of about 300,000.

“This visit is about celebrating a winning partnership between New Zealand and India — one that delivers for our people and supports greater prosperity and security for both our countries,” he said.

Firefighters on Friday were still trying to contain one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires, with a total of 11 people confirmed dead, while 19 more are missing.

Authorities told some residents of areas in the mountains above Los Gallardos to evacuate via a recommended route, while residents of the forested hamlet of Bedar were told to shelter in place.

However, as the flames rapidly approached, Antonio Rubio, a handyman living in Bedar, said the smoke had made it impossible to shelter in place.

“We left the house yesterday (Thursday) afternoon at 5 o’clock. The fire didn’t reach my house; it stopped just short of it but we could already see so much smoke, even though the fire was some distance away, so we had to leave,” he said.

“We did so of our own accord.”

Sonia, a British woman living in Los Gallardos who declined to give her last name, said that she had taken in relatives as the authorities had told them to evacuate at 7 pm (1700 GMT).

She said that they had been told to avoid the main route out of Bedar, driving out on a back route further up into the mountains, instead, before doubling back towards the coast.

“There are many houses in the middle of the countryside in the mountains, so people would take whichever roads they could,” she said.

“The road from Bedar to Los Gallardos was blocked, since the fire had crossed the road and it was impassable.”

Sheltering in places saved lives

Antonio Sanz, head of emergencies in the Andalusia region, said residents of Bedar had been told either to take a recommended evacuation route, or stay in their homes given that the fire was so close.

“In situations like this, it is essential that we all follow the routes indicated,” he said.

“Unfortunately, in this instance, a decision was taken to use another route that wasn’t the one recommended for evacuation. Looking for another way out via a dry riverbed turned out to be a trap.”

Four people, whom he said appeared to be British as the steering wheel of their car was on the right-hand side, died in one vehicle, Sanz said, while seven others were found dead after apparently abandoning their cars to try to escape on foot.

Ten of the victims appeared to be foreign nationals, while one Spaniard has been confirmed dead, he said.

“The village of Bedar, in the end, wasn’t affected by the flames in most cases so that order to shelter in place avoided a more serious situation,” he added.

In the early hours of Friday, as the authorities sought to identify those dead and track down the missing, anxious relatives from around the world posted messages on social media and local forums.

One woman in the United States posted a message to the local emergency services saying her brother had been among a group of 10 people who tried to escape through a valley next to a stream, sharing the coordinates and asking emergency services to check for him.

The regional President Juanma Moreno said the instinct to flee was understandable.

“When many people see a fire, the first thing they do is run away, don’t they? And of course, they think they know the routes but if they don’t have the right information, those routes can of course turn into a death trap.”

His remarks come after the KP Assembly passed the KP Provincial Assembly (Powers, Immunities and Privileges) Act, 2026 on April 30. The law expanded provincial assembly members’ powers and immunities, including the issuance of lifetime official passports to them and their spouses.

Kundi had assen­ted to the law, alongside others, on May 6. However, following backlash, KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi this week ordered a review of the new law’s provisions.

In a post on the social media platform X, Kundi called on National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani to “immediately convene a meeting of the speakers of all four provincial assemblies and agree on a single, harmonised bill governing the salaries, privileges and entitlements of legislators across Pakistan”.

“No province should legislate extraordinary privileges for itself while expecting the people to embrace austerity,” he said, adding that salaries, security, official passports, allowances and “every other entitlement” should be “uniform across the federation, ensuring one standard for all”.

“A harmonised national framework is the only way to ensure fairness, accountability and public confidence,” he said.

The post came shortly after he appeared to distance himself from KP’s new law, saying that his observations were “on record” and that “public money belongs to the people”.

In a separate post on X, Kundi said his observations had been “on record since May” and that he had made it clear that “no law should become a means of expanding privileges when the people of Pakistan, especially the people of KP, were being asked to endure austerity and economic hardship”.

He said he had urged that the law be implemented “in the true spirit of fiscal discipline and prudent use of public resources”, adding that “a government that speaks of financial constraints cannot, in the same breath, legislate greater privileges for those in power”.

“My position was clear then, and it remains unchanged today: public money belongs to the people, not to the perks of those who govern them,” Kundi said.

In a copy of his observations published with the post, he recommended that the provincial assembly’s finance committee implement the spirit of the prime minister’s 14-point austerity measures, including expenditure cuts, fuel rationing and the elimination of unnecessary privileges.

He also suggested that the committee reconsider the law to operationalise those principles “in true letter and spirit”.

The privileges law expands provincial assembly members’ powers and immunities, including the issuance of lifetime official passports to them and their spouses, blanket immunity from preventive detention, and entitlement to licences for up to eight non-prohibited-bore weapons.

Through the KP Provincial Assembly (Powers, Immunities and Privileges) Act, 2026, the government repealed the 1988 law on the matter. Although most provisions of the repealed law were retained in the new legislation, certain changes were made to expand the privileges of assembly members.

The 1988 law provided that members could not be preventively detained during the period commencing 14 days before the start of an assembly session and ending 14 days after its conclusion. It also barred preventive detention during the period commencing seven days before the meeting of a committee of which the member was a part and ending seven days after the meeting concluded.

In a statement, Karak police said that credible information was received regarding the presence of terrorists in the area at around 5am. It said that an operation was carried out in tandem with the Kohat police.

“During the operation, terrorists opened fire on the police party, prompting an effective retaliatory response from the police,” it said.

Following an “intense exchange of fire”, four terrorists from the ‘Commander Zahid Group’ were killed, it added. The statement said the terrorist group had reportedly been involved in the killing of several police officers and personnel.

The statement said police had launched a search operation and cordoned off the area as they gathered further details on the identities and criminal records of the killed terrorists.

In its statement, Karak police reiterated its commitment to eradicating terrorism and establishing lasting peace in the region, adding that operations against terrorists would continue with full force.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi praised police for the successful operation against “India-sponsored terrorists”.

“KP police have once again foiled the nefarious designs of Indian-sponsored terrorists,” he said, adding that forces were determined to eradicate the menace of terrorism.

According to the Annual Security Report 2025 from the Centre for Research and Security Studies, KP recorded a significant surge in violence last year as “fatalities rose from 1,620 in 2024 to 2,331 in 2025”.

He made the remarks while meeting with PML-N members of the GB Assembly in Islamabad, according to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

The meeting was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Minister for GB and Kashmir Affairs Amir Muqam, and PM’s Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah.

“The development and progress of GB is among the federal government’s top priorities,” the statement quoted PM Shehbaz as saying.

He added that the government gained “direct insight” into people’s expectations, issues and priorities via the members of the assembly, as their elected representatives.

“Regardless of our affiliation with any political party, our sole objective is to serve the people and bring ease to their lives,” he said.

The prime minister stressed the need for effective communication between federal and local leadership, calling it indispensable to resolve people’s issues, improve governance and promote transparency.

He called on all assembly members to play a constructive role in working with the leadership to ensure the welfare and well-being of the region.

Noting that the members’ recommendations and suggestions were important to the government, he directed that a committee be formed to review their suggestions and present a report on them. The committee will be chaired by DPM Dar and include Muqam and Sanaullah as members, the statement said.

The premier highlighted that special attention was being given to enhancing “infrastructure, communications, energy, education, health, tourism, and employment opportunities” in the region.

He said that GB’s natural resources and tourist destinations would be used to strengthen the local economy. He also termed providing quality education, modern technical training, and dignified employment to the region’s youth “a key priority of the government” to allow them to “play a full role in national development”.

To this end, he said that four cadet schools were in the final stages of construction and ready to begin classes from next year. He also highlighted work being done “at a rapid pace” on a project to generate 100 megawatts of electricity from solar energy, and said that all available resources were being used to ensure the timely completion of development projects, the statement said.

An early warning system has also been installed in GB regarding climate change and glaciers, in order to inform locals of disasters in a timely manner and counter adverse weather conditions, the statement added.

“Through our collective efforts, we will take GB to new heights of development, prosperity, and sustainable stability,” the prime minister said.

Last month, the PPP announced that it would form a government in GB with the support of the PML-N, mirroring the arrangement at the federal level.

The two ministers held a meeting in New York. In a statement on the social media platform X, the ministry said that the ministers also agreed to expand cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

During the meeting, they discussed training and exchange programmes for police officers, it said.

It further said that they held a detailed discussion on the US-Iran conflict and the current situation in the Middle East. According to the statement, Ahmed lauded Pakistan’s “constructive role” in establishing peace.

Meanwhile, Naqvi was quoted as saying that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir played a vital role in maintaining peace.

“We must seize new opportunities to further strengthen our mutual relations,” he said.

Naqvi is currently in the US, where he represented Pakistan at the UN summit held on July 7 and 8. The summit brought together interior ministers, police chiefs and senior law enforcement officials from across the world to discuss peace, security and enhanced cooperation against transnational crime.

On the sidelines of the summit, Naqvi held a meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who appreciated Pakistan’s efforts for promoting peace. Naqvi also held meetings with his Chinese, Russian and Sri Lankan counterparts.

According to a press release issued by the WB, the project is being implemented under the Boosting Energy Security through Transmission in Pakistan (BEST-PAK) Multiphase Programmatic Approach (MPA).

It said the project is the first phase of a 10-year programme aimed at helping Pakistan modernise its “electricity transmission network, reduce power outages and bring more clean energy to homes, businesses and industries”.

“Pakistan’s energy challenges are deeply interconnected with its broader economic stability,” WB Country Director Bolormaa Amgaabazar was quoted as saying.

“By investing in advanced technologies for more resilient transmission infrastructure, this project will contribute to reducing electricity costs, bring more renewable energy onto the grid, and lay the groundwork for a power sector that works better for households, businesses and industries, as well as overall Pakistan’s economy,” she added.

The statement said that Pakistan’s electricity network struggled with grid instability and transmission bottlenecks that limited the delivery of reliable power and left clean energy generation underutilised.

It added that these constraints affected millions of Pakistanis through frequent power outages, higher electricity costs and lost economic opportunities.

“The project will install advanced equipment to stabilise the transmission grid and improve the flow of electricity at key substations,” it said, adding that the upgrades would help bring 640MW of currently curtailed wind energy onto the grid, enabling the full use of 1,840MW of wind capacity in southern Pakistan by moving power to major demand centres.

It added that the upgrades would also support the integration of around 491MW of planned private sector-led renewable energy projects.

“Together, these improvements will help Pakistan move toward its national commitment of achieving 60pc renewable energy in its electricity mix by 2030, in line with the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement,” the statement said.

It added that, over the project’s lifetime, it was expected to avoid around 832,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, or more than 20.8 million tonnes over 25 years.

“A reliable and modern transmission grid is essential for Pakistan’s energy future,” said Waleed Saleh Alsuraih, Lead Energy Specialist for the World Bank’s BEST-PAK programme in Pakistan.

“As the first phase of the BEST-PAK programme, it unlocks a pathway to large-scale clean energy deployment, stronger energy security, and a modern, commercially oriented transmission sector through targeted infrastructure investments and institutional reforms, creating the conditions for future private capital participation,” he said.

The statement said the project would also advance the government’s ongoing transmission-sector reform agenda, centred on restructuring the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) into specialised successor entities.

“The project, drawing on relevant international experience adapted to Pakistan’s needs, would support faster implementation of reforms aimed at strengthening governance, accountability, operational performance and the long-term sustainability of the power sector,” it added.

The bank noted that “Pakistan is among the countries most exposed to climate-related risks, including river and urban flooding and extreme heat events”.

It added that the project’s design accounted for these risks by requiring all new installations to meet climate-resilient specifications, including elevated platforms to reduce flood exposure and equipment designed to operate in temperatures of up to 55 degrees Celsius.

“These measures will help ensure reliable performance during monsoon seasons and heatwaves,” the statement said.

With its chronic shortage of interceptor missiles likely to continue until then, Kyiv faces tough choices over which targets are a priority to defend as Russia keeps pounding its cities and energy infrastructure.

Trump’s promise on Wednesday, when he met Zelensky during a Nato summit in Ankara, was a significant gesture of support that marked a huge improvement in their relationship since they clashed at the White House in February 2025.

Patriot interceptor missiles are vital for Ukraine’s defence at a time when Zelensky says Russia, whose battlefield advances have stalled, is trying to leverage its advantage in ballistic missiles by hitting Ukraine hard.

The Patriot is the only weapon in Kyiv’s arsenal capable of stopping Russian ballistic missiles. Ukraine has brought down only four of the 54 much-faster ballistic missiles launched by Russia this month.

But Trump’s pledge was vague. He acknowledged he had not spoken first to the companies that manufacture Patriot interceptors — Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

Experts say the time needed to build an assembly plant and organise contractors means production of Patriot PAC-2 interceptors made by Raytheon, or the more sophisticated PAC-3 from Lockheed, will not start soon enough to ease Ukraine’s situation in the near future.

“Short term, the impact will be very limited,” said Fabian Hoffmann, a missile expert at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies in Oslo. “I would be very surprised if this is faster than 12 months. I would assume significantly longer.”

By way of comparison, Raytheon reached an agreement with European weapons manufacturer MBDA in 2024 to produce GEM-T interceptors for the PAC-2 system in Germany and the first deliveries are not expected before early 2027. Conversations for PAC-3 production in Germany have so far not borne fruit.

A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said the company was focused on supporting the US government and its allies, and said further comments on the proposal should be addressed to the White House. Raytheon did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Production outside Ukraine?

Ukraine has managed to fast-track military development in the war since Russia’s 2022 invasion, but defence experts say building a system to down missiles travelling at several times the speed of sound is the toughest challenge in missile technology.

Serhii Beskrestnov, an advisor to Ukraine’s defence ministry, said on Telegram there was uncertainty over how long it would take subcontractors to scale production of scarce components.

One country that might be able to help Kyiv accelerate the process is Germany, which has developed a domestic production chain for PAC-2 interceptors.

Two sources familiar with the discussions said the new interceptors were likely to be manufactured in Germany or another European country, where it is safer, and production could be shifted to Ukraine when the war ends.

Zelensky said on Thursday technical teams would hammer out the details as quickly as possible but that he wanted production to start “in Ukraine as soon as possible”. He said a shipment of PAC-3 interceptors from the US was expected in “coming days”.

He has also asked other allies to provide missiles from their own stockpiles and under a Nato-coordinated financial arrangement providing for European allies and Canada to transfer funds to the US to procure US-made weapons for Ukraine.

Patriot missiles are not being produced in sufficient quantities to cope with Russia’s ballistic threat, as Russia is producing at least 700-800 Iskander ground-launched and Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched ballistic missiles a year, experts say.

Working on the principle that three Patriots are needed per ballistic missile to ensure an interception, they estimate some 2,400 interceptors would be needed per year if Russia’s output remains stable.

“Even with a licensed production facility in Ukraine, reaching that number will be very, very difficult, if not impossible,” Hoffmann said.

Lockheed delivered just over 600 PAC-3s last year and is aiming to scale its production to around 2,000 by 2030. A Ukrainian plant might produce 200 to 300 interceptors a year, Hoffmann said.

Plan B needed?

Zelensky has said Ukraine needs a Plan B.

“The only right option is an alternative to the PAC-3,” Zelensky said on Wednesday. He hopes European allies involved in a nascent missile defence project called Freya, being led by Ukrainian company Fire Point, will soon meet in France.

Fire Point is asking European companies to provide radar, data uplink and seeker solutions to bolt on to its existing missile technology, and hopes to have a cheaper alternative to the Patriot ready before year-end.

“Fire Point’s Freya project is a long shot but if it works, the reward is enormous,” said Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London.

Watling said there were other European options that should be feasible, such as the SAMP/T NG system developed by Eurosam — a joint venture of MBDA and France’s Thales — which he said would just need some technical adjustment and calibration of its radar.

Zelensky said on Thursday he hoped Ukraine would receive these systems from France soon.

Kyiv has previously floated the possibility of a truce on long-range attacks but Moscow rejected this. Zelensky has also sought to bring Russia to the negotiating table by attacking its energy infrastructure, sometimes deep in Russia.

Kyiv’s choices look stark as Russia bombards Ukraine.

“You can only defend a very small number of the targets that you would like to defend, so you need to figure out which ones those are,” Hoffmann said.

Ukraine aims to increase the protection of energy, manufacturing and military infrastructure by placing them in protective concrete structures or underground, but Hoffmann said its best option may be to go more heavily on the attack.

The use of technology has been at the heart of every major controversy at the tournament, including the saga around the red card for Folarin Balogun that drew in United States President Donald Trump.

Criticism of technology has ranged from charges of over-reach and inconsistency of application, to full-blown conspiracy theories that VAR was being used to determine the outcome of matches in favour of certain teams or players.

Egypt coach Hossam Hassan gave voice to all three on Tuesday after his team had a goal scratched off by VAR because of a foul at the other end of the pitch, and a penalty shout that went unchecked, before losing 3-2 to Argentina in the last 16.

“What’s happening isn’t fair,” he said.

FIFA referees’ chief Pierluigi Collina said in an interview on Wednesday that he was happy with how things were going and in particular defended the decision to disallow the Egypt goal for a foul in the lead-up.

“There is no defined limit regarding either the distance from goal or the amount of time between the incident and the goal,” he wrote.

“We believe that a foul is a foul. Regardless of whether the foul appears ‘obvious’, if the referee did not see it on the field of play, the VAR can intervene.”

The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was initially developed as a remedy for “clear and obvious” refereeing mistakes such as Diego Maradona’s famous ‘Hand of God’ handball goal against England in the 1986 tournament.

The introduction of VAR at the World Cup was resisted by Sepp Blatter when he was FIFA president but it was quickly adopted by Infantino when he took over the job in 2016.

There were 20 VAR interventions in 64 matches at the 2018 World Cup and fewer than 30 in the same number of games in Qatar in 2022, but those numbers were quickly dwarfed in the early stages of the 2026 tournament, which will have 104 matches.

More interventions

This was deliberate with the expanded role of the now four match officials in the television booth a key plank in Collina’s strategy for the World Cup.

In collaboration with the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the custodians of the rules of the game, Collina introduced four more areas where VAR could intervene.

Network scientist Brennan Klein said a future where a panopticon of cameras and AI adjudicated the match in real time, while possible, was unlikely simply because fans had already reached their limit.

“This kind of dystopian future of over-refereeing everything kind of fails to address what it’s originally designed to intervene on,” Klein, who with his team at Northeastern University has been analysing data throughout the tournament, told Reuters.

“My sense is that fans in the stadium, by and large, just hate this. They’ve sort of been informed that this is the right way to do things, but not really had a say in it.

“I think fans seem to be voting with their boos.”

‘Abuse of technology’

Had the round-of-32 match between Croatia and Portugal taken place at the 2014 World Cup, it would almost certainly have ended up 2-2 at the end of regulation time.

Josko Gvardiol found the net in the 13th minute of stoppage time to equalise for Croatia, but VAR said the ball had touched Igor Matanovic on the way through to the defender, rendering his teammate offside.

The touch was not clear to the human eye and the ball did not noticeably deviate from its course, but a sensor embedded in the ball registered contact, possibly from Matanovic’s hair.

“(The sensor) is capable of determining any slight contact … allowing officials an unprecedented level of data to make fast, accurate decisions,” FIFA said in a social media post.

Croatia great Luka Modric, whose 24-year World Cup career came to an end with the 2-1 defeat, was unimpressed.

“For some things it’s useful, but it’s either being used incorrectly or selectively, depending on the size of the team or whatever else,” he said.

“If it’s a 200pc mistake, then you intervene. If it’s not, if it’s in a grey area, then there’s no reason to get involved.”

The Croatian football federation (HNS), who are in favour of the use of VAR, have written to FIFA asking for an explanation of the call, calling it “an abuse of technology”.

Klein said red cards had more than tripled in comparison with the 2018 and 2022 tournaments with 13 issued to players up until the end of the round of 16, albeit in 94 games compared to 64 for the two previous World Cups.

At least two of them would not have been shown before VAR with US striker Balogun and England defender Jarell Quansah sent off for fouls missed in real time by the referee.

Trump cited the “unfairness” of the red card when he revealed that he had contacted Infantino in a bid to have Balogun’s one-match ban overturned, even if the FIFA chief later said he had nothing to do with it ultimately happening.

At least Quansah’s red card and a VAR penalty awarded against his captain Harry Kane in their round-of-16 contest did not result in England going out of the World Cup.

That did not do much to calm the mood of England manager Thomas Tuchel after the dramatic 3-2 victory over Mexico at the Azteca Stadium.

“VAR overturns (but) is this a clear and obvious error for the penalty? For sure not,” said the furious German.

“They overturned a situation where (the referee) doesn’t even give a foul. Referees just not good enough, fourth officials just not good enough.”

This was disclosed by Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal during a joint meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services and the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights on Thursday.

Jointly chaired by Senators Amir Waliuddin Chishti and Samina Mumtaz Zehri, the meeting was held to discuss Pakistan’s growing population and the need for coordinated policy reforms.

It is worth mentioning that Pakistan is the fifth most populous country and by 2030 it is set to become fourth by surpassing Indonesia.

Briefing the committee, the minister said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had convened several high-level meetings on population management and constituted a committee to address the issue. He said Field Marshal Munir was also a member of the committee, reflecting the government’s seriousness in tackling the rapid population growth.

“The government is treating this issue with the highest priority and important policy decisions are being taken at every level,” he said, adding that the finance and planning ministers were also members of the committee.

The minister said population management required both government action and public participation.

He argued that the current National Finance Commission (NFC) Award formula, under which 82 per cent of resource distribution was based on population, unintentionally incentivised provinces to have higher population growth.

“If a province succeeds in reducing its population growth, its NFC share declines, whereas a province with a larger population receives more funds,” he said, proposing that only 50pc of the NFC formula should be linked to population.

The minister said one factor contributing to high birth rates had been the limited availability of contraceptives, adding that tax exemptions had now been granted on contraceptive products. He said Pakistan records around 6.7 million births annually and estimated that wider access to family planning could reduce annual population growth by about 1.5 million people.

The committee members questioned whether population welfare remained a devolved subject following the 18th Constitutional Amendment. The minister confirmed that the subject had been transferred to the provinces, while lawmakers observed that federal decisions could not be imposed on provincial governments after devolution.

The members called for legislation to curb unchecked population growth. However, representatives of the Ministry of Law informed the committee that parliament could not legislate on matters exclusively devolved to the provinces.

A representative of the Council of Islamic Ideology told the meeting there was no sectarian disagreement on measures aimed at addressing rapid population growth. The committee directed the Ministry of Law, religious scholars and relevant parliamentary committees to hold consultations to develop a consensus-based strategy. Another joint meeting is expected in the coming days.

Balochistan nursing scholarship

Senator Jan Mohammad raised concerns about a scholarship programme under which 150 students from Balochistan were sent to Islamabad, including 47 nursing students admitted to the Health Services Academy.

He alleged that the students spent two years in Islamabad before learning that the promised nursing degree programme did not exist and that the diploma being offered was not recognised by the Pakistan Nursing Council.

He said the World Bank had already paid Rs36 million for the project and called for an investigation, alleging official negligence and terming it an injustice to Balochistan.

Responding to the concerns, Mr Kamal assured the committee that the matter would be resolved within a week, saying the government would not allow injustice to students from Balochistan.

The committee also called for the directors general of health and nursing in Balochistan to appear before it to explain the issue.

The meeting was attended by Senators Quratul Ain Marri, Anusha Rahman Ahmed Khan, Shahzaib Durrani, Nasir Mehmood, Poonjo Bheel, Attaul Haq, Syed Masroor Ahsan and senior officials from the relevant ministries and departments.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2026

The burial in Mashhad in northeast Iran follows a week of mass funeral processions, rallies and mourning ceremonies that have coincided with a renewed burst of conflict with the United States following weeks of truce in the four-month-old war.

Khamenei was assassinated in the first strikes of the war launched by the United States and Israel on February 28. The US and Iran agreed to a truce last month.

Khamenei’s body was carried slowly by truck on Thursday through the crammed Mashhad streets towards the gilt dome and minarets of the Shrine of Imam Reza as white-turbaned clerics walked on either side.

Black-clad mourners pressed close behind, waving Iranian flags, photographs of the late Khamenei and red placards with revolutionary slogans.

The burial is the culmination of a week of funeral events in both Iran and Iraq that the country’s clerical leaders encouraged huge crowds to attend.

‘Kill Trump’ placards appear at burial ceremony

The whereabouts of Mojtaba Khamenei, proclaimed supreme leader by a clerical assembly in early March, a week after his father’s death, has remained a mystery to Iranians.

He has not appeared in public since the war began. While he has made written statements, no image, video or voice recording of him has been issued.

He reportedly suffered debilitating injuries in the strike that killed his father, his face disfigured and limbs badly wounded.

Senior sources in Tehran have said he is recovering but that he has not yet been well enough to manage public appearances. State security services are also trying to limit his exposure in case of more US attacks.

As crowds jostled in Mashhad, awaiting Khamenei’s funeral cortege, the crowd chanted slogans demanding revenge on US President Donald Trump for his killing.

“I swear by the blood of the supreme leader, Trump, we will kill you!” they shouted, with women holding up placards reading “Kill Trump”.

Chants against the US

The shrine’s courtyard was a mass of mourners as dusk fell, their defiant chants of “Death to America” ringing out above the lyrical funeral laments and string music broadcast by loudspeakers.

A helicopter lifted Khamenei’s coffin from the truck over the impenetrable crowd for the final short stretch to a blue-tiled arched recess at the shrine.

Khamenei’s oldest son, Mostafa, said the funeral prayer, and a throng of male mourners carried the coffin, painted in the red, white and green of Iran’s flag, inside the shrine.

Many of those gathered inside held candles, stretched their arms toward the coffin and wept, video showed.

The official IRNA news agency reported early on Friday that the burials of Khamenei and four family members assassinated alongside him were completed.

Khamenei’s remains were previously paraded through Tehran, Qom and the Iraqi shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala. At each event, huge crowds have thronged the streets to the mournful accompaniment of sung laments and chanted revolutionary slogans.

MUZAFFARABAD: The proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) announced on Thursday that it would resume its long march on Muzaffarabad on July 15, if its demands remained unmet.

Addressing participants at the Eidgah sit-in, JAAC core member Umar Nazir Kashmiri said the alliance would stage a long march on Muzaffarabad on July 15 if its charter of demands was not implemented by July 14.

He said the long march, which had been halted in Rawalakot on June 10, would resume under the already announced standard operating procedures.

“Once again, the JAAC seeks implementation of its charter of demands by July 14. If there is no progress by the evening of July 14, we will make a new announcement on July 15. That day, there will neither be this charter of demands nor any demand for the implementation of any agreement. God willing, we will leave this place with a new announcement,” he said.

Kashmiri urged people across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to begin preparations for the July 15 march. He also appealed to national and international media, political parties, and local and international human rights organisations to monitor the march.

Referring to the ongoing protest campaign, he said sit-ins had continued at six locations on the outskirts of Rawalakot since June 10 and had completed one month.

He thanked several Pakistani opposition leaders for their efforts to broker peace but remarked that the initiative had come too late.

He also announced an interim organisational arrangement, saying that since Shaukat Nawaz Mir and several other core members from Muzaffarabad had been arrested, Sahib­zada Khalid Waqas, Raja Saeed Ahmed, Syed Shujaat Kazmi, Malik Adeel, Raja Iftikhar and Advocate Ali Raza would serve as interim core members for the Muzaffarabad division.

Two killed

Meanwhile, officials said at least two people were killed and several others injured in Poonch district during an exchange of fire with law enforcement personnel attempting to clear a road blockade for a food convoy.

Poonch Com­mi­ssioner Sardar Waheed Khan told Dawn that a convoy of food-laden vehicles, escorted by security forces, was travelling to Rawalakot via Bagh in the wee hours of Thursday when it encountered a blockade near Kotehri village, where activists of the proscribed JAAC had been staging a sit-in for some time.

Kotehri is located about four kilometres from the outskirts of Rawalakot city on the Bagh side, while the main protest camp at Eidgah Ground lies roughly the same distance away in the opposite direction.

Khan said another convoy of law enforcement personnel was dispatched from Rawalakot to provide additional security to the food convoy approaching from Bagh.

According to him, when the convoy from Rawalakot reached Kotehri, it came under fire from a nearby forest, prompting personnel to return fire. The exchange left one or two protesters injured.

He said that after the convoy moved ahead and reached Shujaabad, where it linked up with the food convoy coming from the opposite direction, it again came under fire from protesters.

“Obviously, the forces also responded, leaving two or three people wounded,” he said.

In a subsequent written statement, the Poonch administration alleged that armed activists of the proscribed JAAC had blocked all major routes leading to Rawalakot by felling trees and placing boulders on roads, disrupting the supply of essential commodities.

It maintained that security personnel had come under heavy fire while clearing the Bagh-Rawalakot road and that the route had subsequently been reopened for the movement of food supplies.

The commissioner confirmed that two people had been killed in the exchange of fire. Asked about social media reports claiming a third fatality, he said the administration was trying to verify the information.

Khan said the food convoy reached Rawalakot safely by 10:30am.

“Law enforcement personnel remained deployed in the area until around 3pm to facilitate civilian traffic before being withdrawn,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2026

Mbappe’s weak spot-kick was easily saved by Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, but he made up for that by producing a brilliant curling finish to make it 1-0 on the hour mark.

That was Mbappe’s eighth goal at the tournament, moving him level again with Lionel Messi in the race for the Golden Boot, before he came off late on and watched the final minutes with an ice pack around his right ankle.

Before exiting, he set up Ousmane Dembele to run through and settle the contest watched by 63,811 at the Gillette Stadium, as France knocked Morocco out, just as they did in 2022.

Their 2-0 win four years ago in Qatar came in the semi-finals, and this time the victory for Les Bleus takes them through to the last four. They will face Spain or Belgium in Dallas next Tuesday.

France are looking to reach a third consecutive World Cup final in their last tournament before long-serving coach Didier Deschamps stands down.

Winners in 2018 and runners-up in 2022, it has felt like they have eased through to another semi-final and they were too strong for a Moroccan team lacking firepower in the absence of the injured Ismael Saibari.

Mbappe is one of the greatest goal-scorers of his generation, and the World Cup continues to bring the very best out of him.

After netting braces in the group-stage wins over Senegal and Iraq, as well as the last-32 defeat of Sweden, he got the only goal from the penalty spot against Paraguay in the last round.

He has now scored 20 goals in 20 World Cup appearances, within one goal of Messi’s overall tournament record of 21.

More could have been expected from Morocco, who had more of the crowd behind them but lacked a cutting edge in attack as France kept a third clean sheet in as many knockout games.

Dembele also on target

Nevertheless, they have plenty of exciting young talents – including former France Under-21 captain Ayyoub Bouaddi in their midfield – and will surely be a force to be reckoned with again when they co-host the next World Cup in 2030 alongside Spain and Portugal.

On Thursday they were just the latest team to find containing Mbappe at a World Cup to be an impossible task.

The Real Madrid star provoked the penalty as he was scythed down in the area by Noussair Mazraoui after a quick breakaway in the 25th minute.

Argentinian referee Facundo Tello immediately pointed to the spot, although a review was needed to rule out a foul on Moroccan captain Achraf Hakimi in the build-up.

Maybe the wait got to Mbappe, whose kick was uncharacteristically weak and easily stopped. It was a reminder that he remains human, just like Messi who has squandered two penalties at this World Cup.

The excellent Bounou frequently kept France at bay in the first half, notably tipping a Desire Doue shot around the post after Bouaddi was robbed of the ball.

Lucas Digne crashed a shot onto the top of the bar from distance as the opening half ended goalless, but France got the reward for their pressure 15 minutes after the restart.

Doue slipped the ball to Mbappe just outside the area, and he controlled before using Issa Diop as a screen to direct a superb strike into the net.

France’s all-time leading marksman now has 64 international goals from 104 appearances.
His lay-off in the 66th minute allowed Dembele to advance on goal and curl a shot low into the same corner, a hand from Bounou proving unable to make it 2-0.

Dembele is the reigning Ballon d’Or and now has five goals at this World Cup, but Mbappe continues to hog the limelight.

In a judgement billed as redefining the boundaries of exercising judicial authority, the FCC ruled that though the objective behind the SC directions to demolish illegal buildings were well-intentioned and aimed at improvement of the city, the enforcement of building laws remained primarily within the domain of the provincial government, not the judiciary.

Justice Aamer Farooq, who authored the judgement, was heading a two-judge FCC bench that had taken up a set of appeals initially moved before the Supreme Court, but later transferred to FCC after the passage of the 27th Constitutional Amendment.

The ruling emphasised that it was for the government and its agencies to take all necessary legal measures to ensure due process in each case. The FCC cannot, on the basis of some reports of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) alone, direct the demolition of dwellings without adherence to the requirements of due process.

Ruling regrets how SC overstepped its role in launching demolition drive across Karachi, expanded into matters that were not placed before the court

The court noted that proceedings before the SC took an unexpected turn when it went beyond the issues before it, and proceeded to issue directions concerning the demolition of buildings that were allegedly illegally constructed in the city.

The matter stems from a case regarding the legality of construction of a multi-storey building in Lyari’s Mussa Lane. In November 2016, the Sindh High Court ordered the SBCA to demolish the building, which was challenged by the building owner before the SC.

The appeal continued to be heard from 2017 onwards and various orders were passed against illegal constructions across Karachi, and action was ordered against responsible officials of the SBCA.

In July 2018, the proceedings took a marked and unexpected turn, when the SC bench, including then-Justice Gulzar Ahmed, summoned a complete list and details of buildings with their status, which were constructed in Lyari Town without the approval of their building plan.

On Dec 21, 2018 the SC observed that it was not just Lyari Town, rather illegal construction had been carried out all over Karachi.

Consequently, the SBCA DG was directed to take action against all responsible officers found involved in aiding and abetting such illegal constructions.

Justice Farooq noted that on Jan 22, 2019, the SC bench headed by Justice Gulzar – who subsequently went on to become chief justice of the Supreme Court – gave an overarching order stating that various commercial activities were underway in Jam Sadiq Ali Park, and ordered all the marriage halls, markets, shopping centres built there to be demolished.

It had also directed the provincial authorities to ensure that city was restored in line with its original master plan, and that no deviation from it should be allowed.

Pursuant to these orders, extensive enforcement actions were undertaken across Karachi, resulting in proceedings against a wide range of allegedly illegal premises, as a result of which Nasla Tower was also demolished after a few years.

Thereafter, many individuals, who were aggrieved by such orders, including the Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD), had filed applications between 2019 to 2025 before the Supreme Court to become interveners in the appeal in question. After the formation of Federal Constitutional Court, all these matters landed in the FCC.

What initially commenced as adjudication of an SHC order gradually transformed into a broader anti-encroachment drive, accompanied by judicial proceedings concerning various allegedly illegally constructed buildings and houses, the FCC judgement regretted.

While the proceedings were initially confined to examining the legality of the impugned order only, they gradually expanded into what may aptly be described as the realm of “continuous mandamus” wherein the SC began to exercise supervisory role, FCC said.

The FCC emphasised that it was a trite law that when a court was seized of a matter, it must remain confined to the issue at hand and ought not to undertake any inquiry that was unnecessary for the adjudication of the matter before it.

FCC regretted that the tangent on which the SC-bench proceeded was not correct. Therefore, the broader directions issued by the Supreme Court did not satisfy the requirement of being necessary for resolving controversy actually pending adjudication.

At the same time, the judgement noted, that it did not seek to legalise illegality or confer any lawful cover upon unauthorised constructions within Karachi. A comprehensive legal framework already exists, supported by rules and designated regulatory authorities tasked with addressing such violations, the judgement said.

The Sindh government and other relevant departments are under a corresponding constitutional and statutory duty to supervise and regulate these matters, the ruling emphasised.

The court then recalled the earlier Supreme Court orders of Dec 21, 2018 and Jan 22, 2019, and withdrew all directions issued, and all consequential reports, proceedings, and actions taken or awaiting implementation in the matter.

In an additional note, Justice Syed Arshad Hussain Shah emphasised that the protection and preservation of fundamental rights of the citizens of Karachi was paramount.

Citizens are entitled to enjoy public amenities and civic facilities that contribute to a healthy, safe, and dignified life, Justice Shah observed adding such facilities include public parks, playgrounds, green belts, recreational spaces, libraries, community centres, footpaths, pedestrian walkways, public beaches, open spaces, sports facilities, healthcare and educational institutions and other civic amenities intended for public use and welfare.

These public assets constitute an integral part of the citizens’ right to life and human dignity and must be safeguarded from unlawful encroachment, arbitrary conversion, misuse or deprivation, the additional note said adding no person or authority, under the guise of any, policy, executive instruction or administrative order may curtail or diminish the rights already existing and approved in master plans except in accordance with the Constitution and the law. All concerned departments, agencies, and local authorities are, therefore, expected to ensure the preservation, maintenance, and accessibility of such public amenities for the benefit of present and future generations, the additional note said.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2026

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Law and Human Rights Azam Nazeer Tarar on Thursday reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to fulfilling its obligations under the European Union’s GSP+ framework and advancing human rights during a meeting with a delegation of the European Union and ambassadors of European countries.

The delegation, led by the European Union Ambassador to Pakistan Raimundas Karoblis, held discussions with the minister on Pakistan-EU relations, the GSP+ framework, human rights, the rule of law and areas of mutual cooperation.

The EU delegation comprised ambassadors of Sweden, Norway, France, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, as well as the chargé d’affaires of Ireland, the high commissioner of Canada and senior officials of the Canadian High Commission.

According to an official statement, both sides exchanged views on Pakistan’s progress in fulfilling its human rights commitments and reaffirmed importance of continued engagement to further strengthen the partnership between Pakistan and the European Union.

The visiting diplomats appreciated Pakistan’s recent initiatives in the field of human rights, particularly the establishment of the National Commission for Minorities and the enactment of the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act. They also discussed progress on issues relating to the death penalty moratorium and Pakistan’s broader human rights obligations.

During the meeting, Tarar briefed the delegation on the government’s ongoing legal and institutional reforms aimed at strengthening the protection of fundamental rights, improving access to justice and reinforcing the rule of law.

The minister said the government is committed to safeguarding human rights while ensuring that counterterrorism measures were implemented strictly in accordance with the Constitution and the law.

He said that legal reforms in the country were being pursued to strengthen democratic institutions and improve the justice system.

Tarar also assured the EU team that Pakistan would continue its constructive engagement and cooperation with the EU on human rights, legal reforms and implementation of commitments under the GSP+ framework.

The meeting concluded with both sides expressing satisfaction over the ongoing dialogue and reiterating their commitment to deepen cooperation and maintain regular engagement to advance shared objectives.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2026

Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabir passed a judgement allowing a petition filed by Nasir Ali Ranjha, setting aside an executing court’s 2017 order directing the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to block his CNIC for non-payment of maintenance to his wife and children.

The petitioner had challenged the order passed by the executing court in Gujrat under Section 51(e) of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), as well as subsequent orders refusing to recall the direction.

The executing court had ordered the petitioner’s CNIC to be blocked after observing that he was residing abroad and had deliberately avoided complying with the maintenance decree.

Observes blocking identity card without express legal authority violates due process, fundamental rights

The court had also initiated proceedings for the auction of his property.

Before the high court, his wife and other respondents argued that the petitioner had persistently evaded execution proceedings, making the blocking of his CNIC necessary to compel his appearance and ensure compliance with the decree.

Justice Shabir, however, observed that the executing court had exceeded its legal authority.

Relying on recent judgements by the Supreme Court and the LHC, the judge observed that Section 51(e) of the CPC, which allowed execution of decrees “in such other manner as the nature of the relief may require”, could not be interpreted to authorise the blocking of a CNIC.

The judge observed that although courts were expected to adopt effective measures for enforcing decrees, such powers could not be exercised in a manner that deprived a person of an essential identity document without express legal authority.

‘Indispensable’

Justice Shabir noted that a CNIC was no longer a mere statutory document but had become indispensable for leading an ordinary life.

“It is required for obtaining a passport, opening bank accounts, securing employment, accessing utility services, travelling, appearing before courts and availing numerous public and private services,” he added.

The judge observed that deprivation of a CNIC directly affected the enjoyment of several fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

Therefore, he added, its blockade could not be ordered except in accordance with the procedure prescribed by law.

The judge further held that under the Nadra Ordinance, a CNIC “may only be cancelled, impounded or confiscated in the limited circumstances specified by law, such as fraud, forgery or ineligibility”, and not to compel compliance with a civil decree.

The judge observed that the impugned orders passed by the lower courts dismissing the petitioner’s application for restoration of his CNIC on technical grounds were sketchy, as the petitioner had been directed to place the relevant document on record instead of having his plea rejected outright.

Allowing the petition, the judge declared the 2017 order blocking the petitioner’s CNIC to be without lawful authority and directed that his identity card be restored forthwith.

However, Justice Shabir clarified that the restoration of the CNIC would not affect the ongoing execution proceedings for the recovery of maintenance, which shall continue strictly in accordance with the law.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2026

LAHORE: The issue of refugee seats is constitutional in nature and would be decided by the upcoming Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly, former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference, the PPP central Punjab president expressed the confidence that his party would secure a convincing victory in the upcoming AJK elections, adding that only free, fair and transparent elections could help address the region’s issues.

He also announced that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari would soon visit the region.

Ashraf reiterated that the PPP believed in peaceful political struggle and said the current situation demanded comprehensive political dialogue involving all political forces.

He said the PPP leadership, including Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and President Asif Ali Zardari, had a deep historical connection with Kashmir, adding that the party would never compromise on the Kashmir issue.

Describing the PPP as the representative party of the people of AJK, Ashraf said it required no external assurances. He reiterated that Kashmir was Pakistan’s jugular vein and recalled that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had always forcefully presented Pakistan’s position on the issue.

The PPP leader’s comments came a day after party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari met Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday to discuss the overall political situation and developments in AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The discussion between the two leaders centred on the ongoing political and administrative developments in AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Both leaders had affirmed their commitment to ensuring that the upcoming general elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir are conducted under the strictest standards of electoral integrity, transparency, and democratic fairness.

‘Pay a heavy price’

Ashraf said that Pakistan will protect its water resources at all costs, warning that if India attempts to stop Islamabad’s water, it will have to “pay a heavy price” because water is the country’s lifeline and cannot be stopped under any circumstances.

Strongly criticising India’s stance on the Indus Waters Treaty, Mr Ashraf said New Delhi was attempting to stop Islamabad’s share of water despite having no authority to unilaterally suspend the treaty. He termed India’s position illogical, claiming that the International Court of Justice had also rejected such a stance.

Ashraf alleged that India was trying to avenge its May 10 defeat by creating instability in Pakistan. He urged the nation to remember the sacrifices of the armed forces and martyrs, saying generations make sacrifices for the development and survival of nations.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2026

“The objective of the Bill is to stop any statements against the security forces, followed by a hierarchy of sensitivity. Azma Bokhari and Marriyum Aurangzeb had complaints written to the NCCIA, they went to high court, directions were issued to the NCCIA but they were not satisfied. The objectives they wanted to achieve against those who had made their memes or defamed them were not achieved,” says lawyer Asad Jamal. Those people, he said, were not punished by the NCCIA because it had its own limitations and objectives.

“Now they want to establish a parallel institution in Punjab and they are moving towards it,” Jamal declared. Secondly, he added, the Crime Control Department (CCD) had brought a bad name to the government though at a certain level, it had also got approval among the common folks. So it’s an issue to give a cover to the CCD which is killing people on mere allegations and it has killed hundreds with impunity, he added.

Asad Jamal said the proposed law defined “habitual offender” as “against whom a criminal case has been registered and a report under Section 173 has been submitted”, which means a challan in common terms. He said that challan does not mean that a person is a convict but just an accused under criminal procedures act but an accused is innocent till proven guilty; however, this law would make the accused guilty till proven otherwise, turning the criminal law upside down. He added that the second category is that of the person who has been arrested for more than once under any of the offences enumerated in the schedule, which also includes anti-terrorism act and anti-narcotics law.

“After the implementation of the law, the whole Punjab would turn into an open jail. The concept of pervasive punishment is what this law envisages. All the people who are suspects in view of the state, those who have a different and so-called anti-national opinion on sensitive issues, those who have a different ideology from the state and challenge the accepted norms would be targeted either as anti-social elements or habitual offenders,” Jamal warned.

Lawyer Ali Javed said the bill is not making a paradigm shift as its architecture is based on the criminal tribes act, which was used to suppress the natives by the British. “The state punishes people when they commit a crime but under this law, action would be taken preemptively.”

Adnan Sattar, a professor of law at Lums, said the government comes up with repressive laws all the time but this proposed law takes the repression to another level. “Mostly laws have some saving grace to strike a balance but that’s missing in this law.”

He said it makes it necessary for the human rights defenders to be more introspective, adding that the process had started during the hybrid regime after the ouster of Imran Khan government when human rights organisations didn’t resist.

Opposition MPA Sheikh Imtiaz Mehmood said the bureaucracy is not dependable and called for reforms in bureaucracy before introducing any such laws. He called bureaucrats “real habitual offenders”. Giving his own example, he said he had no case against him before entering politics but was now implicated in 23 cases, all done by the officers.

He highlighted that the bill goes against at least 14 or 15 articles of the constitution. He said that interestingly, the PML-N colleagues in the assembly also themselves had informed the opposition about the issues with the law before the leader of the opposition raised it on the floor of the House.

The speakers said that the law is going to be a tool to control political opponents, particularly the PTI and labour unions. They said there was a state capture of all institutions, including the judiciary.

HRCP Director Farah Zia, Hussain Naqi, Salima Hashmi, Bushra Khalique and Arshad Dogar also spoke.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2026

The observation came while setting aside rulings of lower courts in a criminal appeal moved by Nayab Umrani before the Supreme Court regarding the murder trial of her sister Sanam Umrani. Advocate Sanam Umrani, who used to fight for women’s rights, was killed on May 31, 2018, in Jacobabad, Sindh.

A two-member bench headed by Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and comprising Justice Salahuddin Panwhar had taken up the criminal appeal in which the petitioner had approached the Supreme Court after her application to correct inaccuracies in her recorded testimony was dismissed by the trial court and the Sindh High Court (SHC).

The Supreme Court, however, ordered the trial court to carefully re-examine the video recording of the petitioner’s statement and compare it with her written statement available on the record, in the presence of the accused and counsel for the parties as well as the prosecutor.

Bench asks trial court to review petitioner’s statement, make corrections in case of any discrepancy

Upon such comparison, if any discrepancy, omission or inaccuracy is found in the petitioner’s written statement and cross-examination, the trial court will make its remarks by incorporating the correct version of the statement in a memorandum, as provided by section 360(2) of the CrPC, and make it part of the record.

Such exercise will be completed within a period of fifteen working days from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order, the Supreme Court said. It added that the trial court, after providing an opportunity for re-arguments, should decide the case within a period of 30 days, strictly in accordance with law and on its own merits.

Petitioner Umrani is a prosecution witness in the 2018 murder case, which was registered in Jacobabad under sections 302, 109 and 449 read with Section 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The trial of the case was pending before the first additional sessions judge, Hyderabad. With the permission of the trial court, the petitioner recorded her statement through a video link from Islamabad in the presence of a coordinate judge, while the trial court reduced her statement into writing at Hyderabad.

After recording her statement, the petitioner obtained a certified copy, wherein she noticed that her statement had not been recorded verbatim, as it contained certain inaccuracies, particularly with regard to the date of the incident, which was incorrectly recorded as May 30 instead of May 31, 2018.

Consequently, the petitioner filed an application under Section 360 before the trial court, but the same was dismissed. Her criminal revision petition before the Sindh High Court also met the same fate by means of the impugned judgement of March 1, 2024.

During the course of the hearing, the Supreme Court carefully examined the video statement of the petitioner, which was made available by the trial court and found certain discrepancies and inaccuracies in the testimony.

Justice Mandokhail said the procedure for recording evidence by the trial court mandates that where a witness completes his testimony, it should be read over to the witness in the presence of the accused or his counsel, and if necessary, be corrected.

Similarly, Section 360(2), on the other hand, enables a witness to object to the correctness of his/her statement, the judgement said. This provision also provides a procedure when a witness challenges the written record of the statement, mandating that the judge append a “memorandum” of the objection, setting out the judge’s own remarks regarding the objection, and recording the correct version.

The procedure serves a vital role in ensuring fairness in criminal trials and maintaining transparency in the recording of statements. Principally, the procedural framework under CrPC facilitates the observance of due process and the right to a fair trial, thereby securing fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 10-A of the Constitution, the judgement said, adding that a judge must not adopt a purely technical approach that frustrates the ends of justice; rather, the procedure must be employed as an instrument to promote justice, as intended by the legislature.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2026

The farmers say the origin story goes something like this. In the sixties, a handful of chilli seeds travelled south from Radha Ram in Punjab to Kunri in Sindh. Harvest after hot harvest proved so successful that within two decades the town shot to fame as the red chilli capital of Asia. The farmers put their fortune down to divine largesse but the scientific explanation is far more mundane: Kunri simply had exactly the right climate for a brief window of time—partially humid and partially dry—for its soils to produce one variety of chilli that cannot be grown anywhere else in the world.

That chilli is Dundicut or Longi, which when plucked comes off without the stem, hence the name dandi-cut. It grows in the crumbed soil of sun-cooked fields, which infuse the air with pepper mist. Rows of the dwarf plant are punctuated by figures at work in armfuls of ivory bangles and neon green cholis. This little fighter registers between 30,000 and 35,000 Scoville heat units which measure the concentration of natural capsaicin. That’s the kind of hot that will burn like chilli flakes on a pizza but won’t ruin your day.

Its aroma is so distinctive that it can be identified from afar by the breath-stopping kick it delivers to the top of the nose. But it has more bark than bite. Abbas Datwesh, a grower, picks a button-shaped one, pops it into his mouth and chews it as proof. “See,” he says, “it’s the flavour—not too spicy, not at all bitter.” This gustatory reputation was Pakistan’s calling card in international spice markets for decades and the reason it rules kitchens across Pakistan.

“This is what the world wants,” says grower and exporter Hamayoon Sattar. Kunri’s Mirch Mandi wholesale market trades over 100,000 tonnes of chillies every year. But Dundicut’s sales are collapsing. Its harvests have more than halved for two reasons: it doesn’t make enough money, and hybrid seeds do. Dundicut/Longi earns Rs100,000 in profit per acre, but the hybrid Sanam seed rakes in eight times that.

Nostalgic farmers keep growing Dundicut for their own kitchen but are finding it harder to justify the losses. As grower Abdul Jabbar puts it, “We haven’t abandoned our indigenous variety, our identity, Kunri’s identity. We are still very much waging this war with all the know-how and resources that we have.”

But the mood is more resigned at the Chilli Research Institute, where the fans do a bad job of fighting the 40-degree Celsius June heat. Growers like Sarwar Dars say they have reached the bitter conclusion that they have been fighting a losing battle on the climate front. But the real crisis is that the nation’s favourite chilli, that once made Pakistan the world’s fifth largest exporter, is poisoned.

The poison

Regardless of which chilli you grow, however, there is something in its powder that is reaching Pakistani kitchens that no one has told you about.

Aflatoxin B1 is a naturally occurring compound produced by the mold Aspergillus flavus that develops in decaying vegetation and soil. It is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen, the highest category of confirmed cancer-causing agents, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Long-term exposure to it is associated with hepatocellular carcinoma and liver cancer.

Aflatoxin B1 is one of the most potent naturally occurring poisons known to science, and it is present in Pakistan’s red chilli powder.

The European Union’s legal maximum limit for aflatoxin B1 in dried chillies is 5 micrograms per kilogram and 10 µg/kg for total aflatoxins. However, Pakistani ground and crushed chilli products routinely show concentrations exceeding 80–90µg/kg—eight to nine times the EU’s total aflatoxin limit.

The consequences of this contamination are well-documented, says Dr Mohammed Siddiqui of the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council. Pakistani shipments have been returned. Buyers in regulated markets such as Europe and parts of the Gulf just look elsewhere for supplies.

Research from Kunri’s fields found that 67 per cent of six hybrid chilli blends had Aflatoxin B1, before harvest. One variety hit 600 µg/kg which is 120 times the European limit. Another study found that every single sample from 11 fields across Umerkot and Kunri taken over two contrasting years exceeded limits as well.

There is a detail in local packaging for certain branded chilli powder products that once you know, you cannot unsee. Their labels say: intended only for consumption within Pakistan. They can’t be sold abroad because they fail international safety standards. We, on the other hand, have no limits for aflatoxin in chillies at all.

How the poison spreads

Contamination begins in the field. After the harvest, the chillies spend days drying on the bare ground or soil. The air is rarely clean because a fine haze of rait rides in on the wind from Thar to settle on everything in sight.

In the day, the chillies absorb dust and heat. At night, they absorb humidity. If they are packed in plastic bags to be transported to mandi, fungus develops when their moisture mixes with the carbon dioxide that is released by a freshly picked chilli. According to PARC’s Dr Siddiqui, their quality starts deteriorating from thereon.

Farmers sometimes cause more damage when they stand on top of the chillies as they transport them to market in carts. “I often tell them,” Dr Siddiqui says, “that if chillies could speak, they would curse you.”

The solutions

An effort has been made to reduce contamination by ending open-ground drying. One experiment was with a solar tunnel dryer made of steel rods, sheets, a solar plate, battery, exhaust fan, and 100 drying trays. Traditional drying takes up to two weeks but the solar tunnel does it in five days, in controlled conditions. Aflatoxin levels fall. Quality rises. Prices improve.

The farmers saw it work. The dust accumulated visibly on the outer sheets of the tunnels instead of directly onto the drying chillies. PARC offered farmers 34 solar tunnel dryers, with a condition: farmers would contribute 20 per cent of the cost.

Fifty to sixty farmers showed up at the Export Development Fund seminar. When it came to the commitment, the majority walked away. Twenty-two remained. The government’s own processes did the rest. By the time tenders were approved and units were delivered, it was November. The season was over. Only two or three farmers used the dryers that year.

Before the solar tunnel dryers, there was a simpler solution. PARC had long advised farmers to keep freshly picked chillies under shade on a chattai, a mat of rushes that allows the carbon dioxide to escape, while reducing the heat that builds when chillies are packed together. There is also the method of tying a sheet a few feet above the ground to create a raised, ventilated surface that keeps the chilli off the soil entirely.

Hybrid seeds

In the Longi fields, farmers practice what international donor agencies would normally celebrate as an environmentally sustainable practice. When one particular plant shows extraordinary strength by standing taller than the rest, fruiting fuller, developing a deep vermillion red, the farmer will tie a strip of white cloth around its stem so it stands out in a sea of green. At harvest time, this plant’s seeds are separated from the rest, dried, and stored for next season when they go back in the ground.

“You watch the plant,” Jabbar says. “You know which one will give you something good.” Over generations, this technique has produced varieties finely tuned to their environment, soil, rainfall and temperature.

Hybrid seeds make this impossible because you have to keep buying new ones each season because they are cruelly engineered to produce inconsistent, lower-yielding offspring. Despite this, the more profitable Sanam crops persist as far as the eye can see in Kunri. Unlike the fat Dundicuts, these are long-fingered ruby pods that droop from short but upright stems. These hybrid seeds come from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Korea, and India (via Dubai) and farmers tend to prefer their Skyline 1, Skyline 2, Bayer 7864 F1, and Gold Star varieties.

“Their focus is on yield. Not on taste, not on aroma, but yield,“ says Dr Shahan Aziz, a food scientist at the University of Karachi. Breeders select two genetically distinct parent plants with the traits they want, and cross-pollinate them under controlled conditions (i.e. cover the female flower with a cap to prevent unwanted pollination, then manually introduce pollen from the chosen male plant). The flavour profile—the capsaicin, the aroma compounds, the particular heat that made the Dundicut famous—is not part of the breeding brief. The resulting generation, called F1, carries the dominant characteristics of both parents such as higher yield, more uniform fruiting and yes, greater disease resistance, but doesn’t taste the same.

However, a hybrid chilli bred in controlled conditions for Thai or Korean climates cannot perform as designed in Pakistan. Not only will it not be able to handle our climate change and rain patterns, but it will be resistant to disease in its countries of origin, not Pakistani fields. These foreign seeds thus carry no memory of Kunri’s soil or its seasons like the Dundicut, which has resilience encoded into its genetics after generations of selection. In fact, a 2017 study found that native seeds, including the Kunri type and Drooping type, showed resistance to bugs while commercial varieties such as Nagina were highly susceptible. The full picture, across all varieties, remains understudied.

Meanwhile, farmers like Malik Rizwan in Badin, who switched from native to hybrid seeds several seasons ago to make better profits, are beginning to struggle. “Now we pray it doesn’t rain,” he says because the foreign seed plants begin to die as soon as it does. Chillies have to be transplanted onto ridges to keep their roots above standing water. But if rainfall overwhelms drainage, disease is sure to follow. The post-rain moisture opens the door to safaid keera, a sucking pest, which infects plant after plant as a mosquito carries malaria.

At the Kunri mandi in June, bag after bag of dried chillies are stacked against the walls of the godowns. One of the sacks is ripped so a handful of dried chillies can be coaxed out. They are a mature red, but covered in blisters that look like cigarette burns. It is Sanam, the hybrid. The sacks of Longi mirch, on the other hand, are locked away inside the godowns, like treasure, for the few who know its value.

Header art by Mohsin Alam