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Using NASA’s Perseverance rover, scientists are getting a greater understanding of the nature of some of the organic carbon — the molecular backbone for all known ​living organisms — detected on Mars as they explore the question of whether Earth’s planetary neighbour ever harboured life.

New research describes the structure of the organic carbon ‌found last year by the rover in sedimentary rock that contained a potential biosignature — a possible sign of past microbial life. This mudstone formed perhaps between 3.2 and 3.8 billion years ago beneath a now-vanished body of water in Jezero Crater in the Martian northern hemisphere.

Organic carbon can be a clue as to whether Mars ever harboured life because it serves as the chemical underpinning for the molecules that build DNA, cells ​and proteins. But its presence is not proof of life because it also can arise in nonbiological processes such as chemical interaction between rock and water.

The detection of ​organic carbon in two rocks in Jezero Crater — given the names Cheyava Falls and Walhalla Glades — was disclosed last year when the researchers ⁠announced the discovery of a potential biosignature in one of them.

The two rocks were sampled by the rover at locations about 330 feet (100 meters) apart, according to planetary scientist Ashley ​Murphy of the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, co-leader of the new research published in the journal Science Advances

Following last year’s discovery, NASA released an image of the Cheyava Falls rock showing a ​very fine-grained and rusty-red-colored mudstone bearing ring-shaped features resembling leopard spots as well as dark marks resembling poppy seeds.

Such features on Earth can be associated with microbial activity. A potential biosignature is defined as a substance or structure that may have a biological origin but needs more data or further study before a conclusion can be made about the absence or presence of life.

A closer look for signs of life

Using ​Perseverance’s SHERLOC instrument, the researchers in the new study took a closer look at the complex carbon, called macromolecular carbon, present in the two rocks. They said this carbon bears ​similarities to carbon formed either through biotic or abiotic processes on Earth and to carbon formed through abiotic processes found in meteorites.

This marks the first instance of macromolecular carbon being discovered in mudstones in ‌Jezero Crater, ⁠where Perseverance landed in 2021. NASA’s other rover operating on Mars, called Curiosity, previously found macromolecular carbon at another site called Gale Crater, located about 2,300 miles (3,700 km) away.

“These findings indicate that the habitability of Mars and the availability of organic materials may have been widespread across the planet billions of years ago,” said planetary scientist Kyle Uckert of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and a co-leader of the study.

“This strengthens evidence that ancient Mars had chemical ingredients and environmental conditions that could have supported life, but does not provide proof of life, nor ​does it push the needle any further towards ​biotic or abiotic origins,” Uckert said.

The ⁠rover’s instruments do not have the capability to determine whether this carbon arose through biological processes possibly involving microbial activity.

“We need the return of these samples to Earth for more rigorous testing with higher sensitivity and higher resolution laboratory instruments,” Uckert said.

Now cold and desolate, Mars, during ​perhaps the first third of its existence, possessed a thicker atmosphere and warmer climate, allowing for liquid water on its surface. ​Like Earth and the solar ⁠system’s other planets, Mars formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago.

Water is considered a key ingredient for life — an important reason why Perseverance has been exploring Jezero Crater since 2021. This area of Mars once was flooded with water and home to an ancient lake basin. Scientists believe river channels spilt over the crater wall and created a lake. These bodies of water potentially could have ⁠been habitats for ​microbes.

“The only place in the universe where we know life has emerged is Earth,” Uckert said. “If life is ​discovered on Mars, it could indicate that the emergence of life is not restricted to Earth, assuming the right conditions and ingredients are available, which would be a profound discovery.”

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LAHORE: A sessions court on Monday acquitted a man accused of desecrating the Holy Quran, ruling that the prosecution had completely failed to establish any direct connection between the accused and the alleged act of blasphemy.

Police had registered First Information Report (FIR) No. 701 on April 27, 2024, under Sections 295-A and 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The complainant claimed that he was standing near Shadman Chowk when he saw a man near an auto-rickshaw who had removed his shoes and placed papers containing sacred verses beneath his feet. He further alleged that more sacred pages were scattered across the road. Police arrived at the scene and nominated the accused in the case.

The trial formally commenced on Jan 16, 2025, during which the accused pleaded not guilty, maintained his innocence and denied being present at the scene.

The additional district and sessions judge announced the verdict after concluding that the prosecution’s case was severely compromised by “unreliable witness testimonies, missing evidence, and unverified digital proof”.

The judge granted the accused the benefit of the doubt as a matter of right and ordered his immediate release.

In his 10-page judgement, the judge observed that the prosecution’s case fell apart primarily because its principal witnesses failed to legally connect the accused to the crime scene.

The judge noted that the complainant, while deposing on oath, narrated the incident in court but completely failed to identify the accused as the individual he claimed to have seen desecrating the pages at the scene.

He added that cross-examination revealed that the complainant had not even drafted the application himself.

Another key private witness testified that he had seen a crowd apprehending a person but also failed to identify the accused in open court as that individual.

The judge further noted that the prosecution decided to give up a secondary eyewitness — a security guard who had allegedly helped apprehend the culprit at the scene.

The judge ruled that withholding such a vital independent witness deprived the case of natural corroboration.

The prosecution had relied heavily on a CD containing CCTV footage obtained from the Punjab Safe Cities Authority to prove the occurrence.

However, the judge found the digital evidence to be legally inadmissible.

He noted that the prosecution never played the video in court, never approached a forensic expert or Punjab Safe Cities Authority official to verify its authenticity, and failed to send the video to a laboratory to rule out tampering.

Citing Supreme Court precedents, the judge ruled that the mere recovery of a CD did not amount to proof of its contents.

The judge added that police claimed the rickshaw found at the scene belonged to the accused, but the investigating officer admitted he had failed to produce or verify any official vehicle registration or ownership documents linking it to the accused.

Furthermore, the judge observed that a forensic report from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) only confirmed that the torn pages came from the same source, but provided no forensic evidence linking the handling of those papers to the accused.

The judge observed that while the court was deeply mindful of the immense sanctity attached to the Holy Quran, the gravity of an accusation could not override the standard of legal proof.

Citing apex court rulings, including the Asia Bibi case, the judge reiterated that even a single circumstance creating reasonable doubt entitles an accused to an acquittal as a matter of right, not as a concession.

“In the present case, the doubts are not imaginary, artificial or far-fetched. They arise from the prosecution evidence itself,” the judge ruled.

The judge acquitted the accused of all blasphemy charges and directed that the case property — the sacred pages recovered from the scene — be handled and disposed of with due legal reverence.

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PAKISTAN has earned international appreciation and respect for its role in mediating between the US and Iran and helping them achieve a ceasefire and a memorandum of understanding that aims to pave the way for a lasting settlement. This kind of mediatory role finds no precedent in Pakistan’s diplomatic history. It has raised Pakistan’s global standing and boosted its international image.

The diplomatic achievement has sparked discussion in the country about the economic benefits Pakistan might gain. Certainly, economic opportunities that could open from these developments merit serious thinking and exploring. Also, if the war had not come to a negotiated end there would have been enormous pressure on Pakistan’s fragile economy from higher oil prices, disruption in energy supplies and uncertain remittances. This could have derailed its economic stabilisation efforts.

But there has also been a fair amount of wishful thinking about the economic dividends from Pakistan’s diplomacy. Some even compared the present moment to the situation after 9/11, when Pakistan became a front-line state in the war on terror and recipient of significant US financial and military assistance. This is a false parallel. There is no economic largesse on its way from Washington. Nor is there a rationale for one.

Yet old habits die hard. There is a long history of the country’s ruling elites seeking and earning geopolitical rents from its international alignments. This helped them keep the economy afloat while avoiding domestic economic reform and taxing themselves and their political base. It also encouraged an attitude that looked outside rather than within to address the country’s economic weaknesses. And it created an official mindset of relying on pay-offs, bailouts and other people’s money. This persists.

Pakistan’s destiny will be shaped by choices made at home, not by its external engagements.

Among exuberant statements from government officials, one that exemplifies unrealistic expectations is this. An official claimed “advancing stability abroad” had made Pakistan a “credible destination” for foreign investment. He didn’t explain why this was so when conditions in the country hadn’t changed. Another top minister declared that with diplomatic success the “sun of progress and prosperity” will soon rise over Pakistan. Trying to talk up confidence is one thing. But such hyperbolic statements are misplaced and misleading.

Instead of wishful talk about economic windfalls from diplomacy, energy is best spent on addressing the country’s political, economic and security challenges and fixing its structural problems. If the government can be a peacemaker abroad it should also make peace at home.

A peaceful political environment requires a truce between the government and opposition. Stability is not possible in a divided and polarised country. The principal opposition party represents a large section of society, governs a strategically important province and remains the most popular party in the country. Given Pakistan’s federal structure, inclusive governance is necessary. That means working with and not against opposition-run provinces. Repression, jailing opponents and handing down long prison sentences can neither eliminate the opposition nor create stability. Authoritarianism as a model for the hybrid government undermines democracy and impedes the country’s progress.

The internal security situation poses a serious threat despite sustained efforts by the army and law-enforcement personnel. The rise in militant violence across KP and Balochistan has not been contained. Last year was the deadliest in a decade for security forces. This demands a review of the government’s counter-insurgency strategy which still relies primarily on kinetic actions.

Balochistan presents a special case as the underlying sources of long-standing public disaffection have yet to be tackled. Insurgents must be isolated and the trust of the local community won. But in conflating terrorists with Baloch nationalists, branding every dissident group and leader as traitors and handing life sentences to dissidents, state policy contradicts the core principle of fighting militancy. That is not to multiply the number of adversaries. Law enforcement must be accompanied by efforts to win hearts and minds, not lose them. Seeking foreign investment becomes a fool’s errand when two provinces are insurgency-afflicted and the border with Afghanistan remains perpetually hot.

The most urgent task is the country’s economic recovery and revival. Without this, all else is in vain. IMF-backed stabilisation remains fragile. Stabilisation has also not transitioned to growth and investment. The country remains mired in a low-growth, low-investment, high-debt equilibrium trap. There is no escape from this unless structural issues are addressed. This means bold, wide-ranging reforms to deal with the sources of chronic internal and external financial imbalances, which trigger recurrent balance-of-payments crises and force Pakistan to become a serial borrower from the Fund. This is Pakistan’s 24th IMF programme.

Yet reforms to address the economy’s structural problems in the taxation system, expenditure outlays and energy sector are still not in place. Instead, the government continues to rely on bailouts and loan rollovers for economic management. That only meets debt liabilities. There are no net capital inflows.

Investment, including FDI, remains stagnant. The investment-to-GDP ratio is now lower than in previous years. Economic growth is stalled. Pakistan’s growth model isn’t working. Even the State Bank governor acknowledged this not long ago. The various stakeholders need to put their heads together to frame an economic plan to tackle, not postpone structural problems and evolve a new growth model.

What remains officially ignored are critical dimensions of human development and human welfare, whose indicators have deteriorated in recent years. The dismal state of literacy, education and healthcare as well as the rising level of poverty present a grim picture. That over 23 million school-age children have no access to school is a national scandal. The learning poverty rate is staggering at almost 80 per cent. This means children in school cannot read a simple sentence at age 10.

The prime minister has twice declared an education emergency but then done nothing. Literacy is stagnant with 37pc of our population still illiterate. No country can predicate economic progress on an illiterate base. The level of poverty at 30pc remains troubling. As do economic disparities, with real incomes of the bottom 70pc of people in steady decline since 2018.

Pakistan’s future hinges on fixing these econo­m­­ic and social issues. As well as its politics. The do­­­­m­estic agenda must take priority. The country’s destiny will be determined by choices made at home, not external factors or praise from abroad.

The writer is a former ambassador to the US, UK and UN.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2026

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ISLAMABAD: The National Highway Authority (NHA) has announced an increase in toll tax on the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway (M-2) by 7 per cent.

According to a notification issued on Saturday, the authority has raised its toll rates by 7pc for M-2 Motorway, and the revised toll rate shall be in effect till April 23, 2027.

The toll was raised under the concession agreement between NHA and Motorway Operations and Rehabilitation Engineering (Private) Limited (MORE), a subsidiary of Frontier Works Organisation (FWO). The organisation is responsible for the rehabilitation and modernisation of the M-2 Motorway.

The revised toll rates for vehicles travelling on the M-2 Motorway are as follows:

• Rs1,430 for cars, jeeps and taxis,
• Rs2,390 for wagons,
• Rs3,350 for coasters,
• Rs4,770 for buses,
• Rs6,210 for trucks (2- and 3-axle), and
• Rs7,980 for articulated trucks

The rates have been increased according to the per-kilometre charge.

On Friday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) suspended the operation of the NHA’s notification that imposed an additional 50pc toll on vehicles travelling on motorways without an M-Tag or with insufficient balance in their M-Tag accounts.

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Islamabad Inspector General (IG) Ali Nasir Rizvi on Sunday said that the suspect who allegedly shot dead a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) officer was arrested “within nine hours”.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the IG said the suspect was “arrested within nine hours” of the incident.

IG Rizvi noted that PAF Group Captain Asim Tariq tried to “save” a woman after witnessing an argument between her and the suspect, but the man opened fire, which struck the officer.

The IG highlighted that the group captain stopped the man when “he was trying to forcefully take the woman away with him”.

He hailed the martyred officer as a “true patriot and citizen of Pakistan”, who did what anyone else would have after witnessing such an incident with a woman.

IG Rizvi said the woman and the suspect used to work at a cash and carry outlet in G-6. The woman was a representative of a cosmetics company, while the man represented a brand of frozen food items.

The police chief said it was the third time that the suspect was giving the woman a ride to the store, adding that she was under the impression that he would take her to the same location.

“She did not know anything. She hadn’t even spent 10 days working there,” the IG said.

Narrating the turn of events, the IG said, “After picking her up today, Saad Abbasi wanted to take Nimrah to a park or some other location. The woman resisted, at which he had to stop the motorcycle […] at 9th Avenue.”

He added that an argument began between the two as the woman insisted on heading to her workplace for an inspection of her stall.

“The group captain was going for an official assignment towards Rawalpindi. When he was passing by there, he saw that a man was forcefully pulling a woman towards his bike,” he said.

The officer then took a U-turn, parked his vehicle next to the suspect’s vehicle, introduced himself and told the man to stay away from the woman.

IG Rizvi said the suspect moved his motorcycle forward but then “returned” and stopped “right next to the car”.

“He fired with the pistol he had, which hit the group captain and resulted in his martyrdom on the spot,” he said, recalling that the woman had already come to the left/passenger side of the vehicle.

The suspect then fled from the spot, the Islamabad IG said.

Tracing suspect ‘huge challenge’: IG

The police chief described the process of tracing the suspect as a “huge challenge” as the woman did not even know the suspect’s residential address.

He elaborated that 11 teams were constituted, including digital surveillance and Safe City camera teams.

IG Rizvi said the suspect was “so shrewd” that he changed his shirt, switched off his phone number and was trying to flee through the bus service.

“We observed 275 Safe City cameras and a number of private cameras and 137 CDRs (call detail records). We finally traced the suspect and came to know that the suspect had earlier done the same with another woman,” the IG said.

“Instead of coming to the police station, their families settled the matter mutually,” he stated about an incident when the suspect had taken a woman to Mianwali.

Noting that the suspect hailed from Abbottabad, he said 13 raids were carried out within Islamabad, while teams were also sent to Lahore, Dera Ismail Khan and other areas. He added that there were over 100 officers in the teams, who finally traced and apprehended the culprit.

The IG said Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi was supervising the entire operation and affirmed that all legal actions would be taken.

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LONDON: Britain’s outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned his probable successor, Andy Burnham, in an interview released on Saturday that he cannot ignore international turmoil and just concentrate on the country’s domestic problems.

In his first interview since announcing his resignation June 22, Starmer said his successor as leader of the ruling Labour Party could not spend less time on turbulent international affairs.

So far, Burnham, the former Manchester mayor, is the only candidate to take over the centre-left party. He could be in office by mid-July.

“Whoever’s my successor is going to face the same global conflict,” Starmer told the BBC. “We keep saying, and it’s true, we’re in a more dangerous and volatile world than we’ve been in for probably most of my lifetime. That’s not just a phrase; that’s reality.”

Burnham’s supporters have said he should put more focus on domestic issues, such as the cost of living and the decentralisation of government. But Starmer stressed that his successor would not be able to spend less time on dip­lo­­macy, noting the two areas are deeply connected.

“If you’re prime minister and you care what bills are going to be like in any household around the country, you have to care about finding a lasting solution to the situation in Ukraine; you have to care about what happens in the Strait of Hormuz,” Starmer said.

In a social media question-and-answer session on Friday, Burnham said he would “100pc” give the same support to Ukraine as Starmer.

Starmer, who led Lab­o­ur to a win in the 2024 election, said he will rem­ain in parliament until the next vote.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2026

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Mourners and leaders from around the world, including Pakistan, gathered at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla to pay tribute to Iran’s former Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated in a US-Israeli strike on Iran in February 2026.

The funeral ceremonies will pass through a series of locations — from the seat of power in Tehran to the holy cities of Qom, Karbala, Najaf and finally Mashhad — reflecting the religious, political and ideological pillars of the Islamic republic.

His funeral, initially delayed at the height of the Middle East war, is taking place as Iran and the US observe a fragile ceasefire following the signing of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding to halt the conflict.

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