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ISLAMABAD: The government has clarified that the 5G spectrum auction will proceed as scheduled on Tuesday (today), and mock exercises with all three participants — Jazz, Zong, and Ufone — have been completed.

During a background briefing held on Monday, Shaza Fatima, the Minister of IT and Telecom, stated that efforts have been made to ensure that all three stakeholders benefit from the spectrum auction.

Since most of the demands of the telecom companies have been accepted, they will benefit from a reduction in their financial burden. The government will receive revenue through the auction process, and consumers will enjoy fast and reliable internet across the country.

“Currently, only 274 megahertz (MHz) spectrum is running the whole system in the country, leading to network issues,” she said, adding that the priority of the government is to enhance the quality as well as the coverage area of 4G in the country. At the same time, the 5G coverage will also commence after the auction.

The government was offering approximately 600 MHz of spectrum, and four new bands have been introduced in the current auction process, while the telcos are required to acquire at least 100 MHz each.

Shaza Fatima says move will benefit telcos, govt and consumers

“With a minimum of 300 MHz to be acquired by the telecom companies, the availability of spectrum in the system will be doubled, and as a result, current issues faced by consumers will largely be resolved,” Ms Fatima added.

To ensure that all three telecom operators enter the 5G service, the spectrum auction policy has made it mandatory for participants to acquire the 3500 and 2600 MHz bands — as these are essential for operating the 5G service.

While the 700 MHz band has been offered for the first time, which is essential for long-distance coverage and will help provide basic telephony in scarcely populated areas.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman Hafeezur Rehman stated that the auction will be carried out through a technical process using digital methods, and the three telecoms have expressed their satisfaction with the auction procedure and the software in use.

He said there is no objection from any of the three telcos regarding the software, adding that a new telco is not needed to enter Pakistan and noting that several technical policies introduced by the PTA will help expand telecom services to localised areas.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2026

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US President Donald Trump indicated for the first time on Monday that US military operations in Iran could be coming to an end, saying the war was “very complete” and progressing ahead of schedule.

The war had sent stock markets slumping and oil prices soaring again on Monday as Tehran, under new leader Mojtaba Khamenei, fired a new barrage of missiles at its Gulf neighbours and signalled that the strategic Strait of Hormuz would likely remain closed.

But Wall Street vaulted into positive territory on Monday after Trump’s remarks, despite the lack of details on any solution to the conflict still raging in the Middle East.

“I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force,” Trump told CBS News by phone, repeating battle damage assessments that he has given in previous days.

Trump told the US broadcaster that the United States was “very far” ahead of his initially stated timeframe for the war of four or five weeks.

On the first day in power for the 56-year-old son of assasinated leader Ali Khamenei, Iranian troops mustered a fresh wave of missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Israel.

Another missile was also fired at Nato member Turkey, the second such incident in five days, with the alliance’s air defences intercepting it before it could hit its target.

With the Strait of Hormuz off Iran blocked for almost all oil tankers, the price of benchmark crude oil contracts rocketed past $100 a barrel on Monday — their highest levels since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — before edging back slightly.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that his country and its allies were working on a “purely defensive” mission to reopen the strait, through which nearly 20 percent of the world’s crude oil usually transits.

The mission would be aimed at escorting ships “after the end of the hottest phase of the conflict”, but experts say it would mean putting navy vessels at risk of incoming fire from the nearby Iranian coast.

Kamal Kharazi, a foreign policy adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, told CNN that Tehran was calculating that “the economic pressure will be beefed up to the extent that other countries intervene” to end the war.

Benchmark oil prices are up 40-50 per cent since the US and Israel launched their attack on Iran on February 28, while stock markets around the world are down, hitting pension funds and savings.

Inflation caused by a sustained oil shock would also push up the price of goods for consumers everywhere.

Queues at petrol stations have been seen as far afield as Vietnam and the Philippines as drivers anticipate higher prices, while Hungary and Croatia in the EU announced fuel price caps.

Rallies

Iran faced a fresh blitz of US and Israeli strikes after its Assembly of Experts, the top clerical body, appointed its first new supreme leader in 37 years.

Iranian state media carried images of tens of thousands of people celebrating Mojtaba Khamenei’s selection in central Tehran on Monday, many carrying his picture.

Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen and the Hezbollah group in Lebanon pledged allegiance, while Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday promised “unwavering support”.

Unconfirmed US media reports over the weekend said that Moscow has been providing targeting intelligence to the Islamic republic’s military.

Trump told the New York Post newspaper he was “not happy” about Khamenei’s appointment, while Israel’s foreign ministry called him a “tyrant”.

Ali Ansari, a professor of Iranian history at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, told AFP the new supreme leader was a hardliner who had “been involved in all the most violent repressions that have taken place over the last 15-16 years”.

Ali Vaez, of the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, said the appointment was intended to send a defiant message that Trump’s war “has only replaced one Khamenei with another”.

Oil risks

Oil traders, policymakers and central bankers are all watching the Middle East for news about Gulf energy infrastructure, which is crucial for the world economy.

About 10 vessels in or near the Strait of Hormuz have come under attack since Iran blocked the waterway in retaliation for the US-Israeli attack, shipping experts say.

Global shipping giant MSC announced that it was formally halting some export shipments from the Gulf, meaning goods sitting on ships would be unloaded.

Following strikes on Bahrain’s Al Ma’ameer oil facility that ignited a fire, the country’s state-owned energy company Bapco joined its counterparts in Qatar and Kuwait in declaring “force majeure” — a warning that events beyond its control may lead it to miss export targets.

The Saudi defence ministry said on Monday it had thwarted a drone attack targeting an oil field in the kingdom’s east, near the Emirati border.

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ISLAMABAD: Aurat March organisers, civil society members, and rights groups accused the authorities on Monday of manhandling and threatening women’s rights activists who had been detained the previous day in Islamabad.

The assertions were made at a press conference after police released all 44 activists detained ahead of an International Women’s Day rally on Sunday.

Police cited the imposition of Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code and the district administration not issuing a no-objection certificate (NoC) to the Aurat March for the rally as reasons for the arrests.

After the activists were released, they held a press conference at the National Press Club, demanding an investigation into the incident.

Aurat March’s Dr Farzana Bari said the organisers of the rally were aware that Section 144 was imposed in the federal capital, but “civil society does not accept any law that is in violation of basic rights”.

“You cannot take our right to protest. Similar protests were held across the globe, but we were stopped and told that there was a threat of a suicide bomber blowing themselves up,” she claimed.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Secretary General Harris Khalique said: “We don’t believe in violating laws, but with laws such as the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) in place, society cannot function”.

“Yesterday, females were manhandled and beaten,” he alleged, adding that they were detained and taken to Women Police Station.

“When their relatives and friends reached there, they were also locked up. Baton-charge was used against them, they were pulled from their hair, and they were forced to sign on fake affidavits,” he alleged.

Khalique said the HRCP demanded an investigation into the incident and departmental action against those found guilty of the accusations made by him.

PPP Human Rights Cell Information Secretary Tariq Mahmood Ghouri, who is also a part of the Aurat March, claimed while talking to Dawn that the relatives of the detained activists, who went to the police stations, were also detained.

“They were forced to sign an affidavit that said that they (activists) would not participate in such activities in the future. They had to sign it to get their daughters released,” he alleged.

It was also alleged during the press conference that even lawyers were not allowed to meet the detained activists and that male personnel body-searched female detainees.

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DUBAI: Iran’s Assembly of Experts has named Mojtaba Khamenei to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country’s new supreme leader, state media reported on Sunday.

Mojtaba, a mid-ranking cleric with close ties to the powerful Rev­o­lutionary Guards, had long been viewed by elements of Iran’s ruling establishment as a potential succe­ssor to his father, who was assassinated after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran.

Although Iran’s ruling ideology frowns on the principle of hereditary succession, he has a powerful following within the Guards and his dead father’s still-influential office.

A member of the council, Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari Alekasir, said in a video on Sunday that a candidate had been selected based on Khamenei’s guidance that Iran’s top leader should be “hated by the enemy”.

“Even the Great Satan (US) has mentioned his name,” Heidari Alekasir said of the chosen successor, days after US President Donald Trump said Mojtaba was an “unacceptable” choice for him.

Mojtaba amassed power under his father as a senior figure close to the security forces and the vast business empire they control. He has opposed reformers seeking to engage with the West as it tries to curb Iran’s nuclear programme.

His close ties with the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) give him added leverage across Iran’s political and security apparatus and he has built up influence behind the scenes as his father’s “gatekeeper”, sources familiar with the matter said.

Mojtaba was born in 1969 in Mashhad and grew up as his father was helping lead the opposition to the Shah. As a young man, he served in the Iran-Iraq war.

Mojtaba studied in the seminaries of Qom, Iran’s centre of theological learning, and has the clerical rank of Hojjatoleslam.

He has never held a formal position in the Islamic Republic’s government. He has appeared at loyalist rallies, but has rarely spoken in public.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2026

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MIRANSHAH: A child was killed and four people were left injured on Sunday after a mortar shell allegedly fired from the Afghan side landed in a residential area during an exchange of fire near the Pak-Afghan border in North Waziristan, police said.

According to police sources, the incident occurred at around 7:30pm when heavy firing erupted between both sides of the border in the Ghulam Khan area.

During the exchange of fire, a mortar shell fired from across the border fell in the nearby village of Golakhel and exploded in a residential locality, they added.

As a result of the explosion, they said a minor died on the spot while four other people sustained injuries.

Local residents immediately took the injured to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Miranshah, where they were being provided medical treatment.

Hospital sources said some of the injured were in critical condition, while doctors and medical staff remained engaged in emergency treatment.

Following the incident, Tehsildar Miranshah Ghani Wazir and Tehsildar Ghulam Khan Aziz Wazir reached the hospital’s emergency ward on the directives of North Waziristan Deputy Commissioner Yousaf Karim.

They directed doctors and hospital staff to ensure the provision of all necessary medical facilities to the injured.

Officials said the emergency department of the hospital had been put on high alert and treatment of the injured was continuing.

The Ghulam Khan border crossing in North Waziristan is an important route for trade and travel between Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, the crossing remains completely closed at present due to the prevailing security situation.

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A civilian was killed, and a police constable was injured when armed men on motorcycles opened fire on a police patrol in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district, officials said.

A police official confirmed that the attack occurred in the Serai Naurang town, adding that “a gun battle between the police and the assailants erupted after the firing attack.”

The official said the bodies of the civilian and the injured cop were taken to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in the Serai Naurang town.

The attack comes amid a worsening security situation in Lakki Marwat district, which has witnessed repeated militant assaults on police and security forces in recent years.

The area, along with neighbouring Bannu and North Waziristan, has experienced a surge in attacks attributed largely to the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), with patrols, checkpoints and police stations frequently targeted.

A day ago, two people were killed, and 10 were injured in a bomb explosion in the same area. Last month, terrorists martyred a police constable in the Darga forest area of Sarai Naurang.

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• Sale fast-tracks 12,000 thousand-pound bomb bodies in $152m deal
• Secretary of State Rubio cites ‘emergency’ to justify sidestepping lawmakers
• Democrat slams White House, calls it an ‘emergency of its own creation’

WASHINGTON: The US State Department said on Friday it has approved a sale worth $151.8 million to Israel for munitions and munitions support, without submitting it for congressional review.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that an emergency existed requiring an immediate sale to Israel, the State Department said. The announcement came a week after the U.S. and Israel began attacks on Iran.

Israel had requested 12,000 BLU-110A/B general purpose, 1,000-pound bomb bodies, the State Department said in a statement. The principal contractor will be Repkon USA, located in Texas, it said.

The State Department said Rubio determined that the sale is “in the national security interests of the United States”.

Democratic US Rep Gregory Meeks said Rubio’s decision to use emergency authority to bypass congressional review showed a lack of preparation for the war on Iran.

“The Trump administration has repeatedly insisted it was fully prepared for this war,” Meeks said in a statement. “Rushing to invoke emergency authority to circumvent Congress tells a different story. This is an emergency of the Trump administration’s own creation.”

The US and Israel launched an air assault on Iran on Feb. 28, and Iran responded with its own attacks in Israel and on regional countries with US bases.

In the last week, US and Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and thousands more have been wounded, according to Iran’s UN ambassador. Many top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have also been killed.

The US military has said six service members were killed in a strike on a Kuwait facility, while Israel has said at least 10 civilians have been killed across Israel so far.

Washington has maintained strong support for Israel under President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden during more than two years of Israeli wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

The Trump administration has also previously made military sales to Israel by skipping congressional reviews, as did the Biden administration when it was in power.

Washington’s military support has faced scrutiny from rights experts, particularly during Israel’s assault on Gaza that has killed tens of thousands, caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza’s entire population and led to assessments of genocide from scholars and a UN inquiry.

Israel calls its actions self-defence after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in an October 2023 attack.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2026

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