https://ift.tt/RperOv1

Pakistan has struck seven “terrorist camps and hideouts belonging to Pakistani Taliban of [Fitna al Khwarij] and its affiliates and [the Islamic State-Khorasan Province] at the border region of Pakistan Afghan border,” the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced in an post early Sunday on social media platform X.

The statement asserted that “Pakistan has always strived for maintaining peace and stability in the region, but at the same time, the safety and security of our citizens remains our top priority.”

The press release stated that the action against the seven camps and hideouts was “a retributive response”, carried out based on “intelligence-based selective targeting”.

More to follow.

from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/teka0DP

https://ift.tt/ozW059E

• With only one conviction in US, legislators accuse justice dept of dragging its feet
• Most Americans now find leaders ‘untrustworthy’
• Australian PM says referendums ‘hard to pass’ after Andrew’s arrest

WASHINGTON: The arrest of former prince Andrew has underlined the striking contrast bet­ween Europe, where high-profile, powerful people are being held to account over their links to Jeffrey Epstein, and the United States, where the fallout has been limited.

Only one person has been arrested or convicted in the United States in connection with the activities of the late sex offender — Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s ex-girlfriend and accomplice.

Epstein cultivated a global network of powerful politicians, business executives, academics and celebrities — many of whom have been tainted by their association with him.

A number of prominent Americans — from former president Bill Clinton to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates — have had their reputations damaged by their friendships with Epstein, but no one other than Maxwell has faced legal consequences.

A top US Justice Department official suggested recently that no prosecutions may be forthcoming. “I can’t talk about any investigations, but I will say the following, which is that in July, the Department of Justice said that we had reviewed the files, the Epstein files, and there was nothing in there that allowed us to prosecute anybody,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told CNN earlier this month.

That explanation has not satisfied many US lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, who accuse the Trump Justice Department of dragging its feet.

“The UK has officially done more to prosecute Epstein predators than our own government. Shameful,” Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, said on X.

Senator Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, blamed the lack of accountability in the US squarely on Trump, who also was a close friend of Epstein and moved in the same social circles in Florida and New York.

“Countries across the world are holding their Epstein class accountable,” Gallego said on X. “It isn’t happening in America because we have a pedo protector in the Oval Office running a government cover-up for him and his friends.”

A Reuters/Ipsos poll found 53 per cent Americans say the Epstein files “lowered their trust in the country’s political and business leaders”, while 69pc told pollsters the Epstein files “show that powerful people in the US are rarely held accountable for their actions”.

Republican lawmaker Thomas Massie welcomed prince Andrew’s arrest but said “now we need justice in the US”.

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pla­yed down the chance of a vote to remove the British monarch as Australia’s head of state following the arrest of former prince Andrew.

“I’m a republican but we had a referendum during the last term. Referendums are hard to pass in Australia,” Albanese said when asked in an interview with The Guardian whether Australia should reassess its ties with the monarchy.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2026

from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/orUePzW

https://ift.tt/UphI5TM

• President vows alternative ways to impose levies as court declared his tariff regime ‘illegal’
• Trump insists ‘India deal is on’
• Three liberal justices joined three conservatives in Friday’s ruling
• Canada hails ruling, UK, Germany cautious in their response
• Stocks rise, Treasury yields gain after the verdict

WASHINGTON: After the US Supreme Court struck down the President’s sweeping tariffs that he pursued under a law meant for use in national emergencies, Donald Trump announced on Friday he was imposing an extra global tariff of 10 per cent on US trade partners.

The conservative-majority court ruled the emergency powers law — International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — “does not authorise the President to impose tariffs”, marking Trump’s biggest defeat at the SC since returning to the White House last year.

While hard-hit Canada welcomed the ruling pointing out the levies were always “unjustified”, other US trading partners particularly European powers were cautious in their response, with the UK, Germany and EU stating that they were in contact with the Trump administration and analysing the court decision ‘carefully’.

Trump insisted he would impose tariffs “using alternative authorities” after rebuking certain members of the court for lacking the courage to do what’s right for the country.

He suggested that most trade deals negotiated under the threat of his tariffs remained valid, mentioning specifically India, despite the SC ruling those levies illegal. “The India deal is on,” Trump told reporters in response to a question, while suggesting tariffs under separate authorities would replace the ones overturned by the court. “All the deals — we’re just going to do it a different way.”

“In order to protect our country, a president can actually charge more tariffs than I was charging in the past,” the president asserted.

“The Supreme Court’s decision today made a president’s ability to both regulate trade and impose tariffs more powerful and more crystal clear, rather than less,” he claimed while speaking to reporters after the 6-3 ruling upheld a lower court’s decision that the Republican president’s use of the 1977 law “exceeded his authority”.

Trump has leveraged tariffs — taxes on imported goods — as a key economic and foreign policy tool. They have been central to a global trade war that Trump initiated after he began his second term as president, one that has alienated trading partners, affected financial markets and caused global economic uncertainty.

Trump’s tariffs were forecast to generate over the next decade trillions of dollars in revenue for the United States, which possesses the world’s largest economy.

However, Trump’s administration has not provided tariffs collection data since Dec 14, 2025.

Powers to issue taxes, tariffs

The Supreme Court reached its conclusion in a legal challenge by businesses affected by the tariffs and 12 US states, most of them Democratic-governed, against Trump’s unprecedented use of this law to unilaterally impose the import taxes.

The US Constitution grants Congress, not the president, the authority to issue taxes and tariffs. But Trump instead turned to a statutory authority by invoking IEEPA to impose the tariffs on nearly every US trading partner without the approval of Congress.

“Had Congress intended to convey the distinct and extraordinary power to impose tariffs” with IEEPA, “it would have done so expressly, as it consistently has in other tariff statutes,” the court noted

The SC’s three liberal justices joined three conservatives in Friday’s ruling, which upheld lower court decisions that tariffs Trump imposed under IEEPA were illegal.

Trump heaped praise on Brett Kavanaugh, the only justice he nominated who voted with him. Kavanaugh was joined in his dissent by fellow conservatives Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Chief Justice John Roberts, in delivering his opinion, said, “IEEPA contains no reference to tariffs or duties.”

Trump has imposed some additional tariffs under other laws that are not at issue in this case. Based on government data from October to mid-December, those represent about a third of the revenue from Trump-imposed tariffs.

IEEPA lets a president regulate commerce in a national emergency.

Trump became the first president to use IEEPA to impose tariffs, one of the many ways he has aggressively pushed the boundaries of executive authority since he returned to office in areas as varied as his crackdown on immigration, the firing of federal agency officials, domestic military deployments and military operations overseas.

He described the tariffs as vital for US economic security, predicting that the country would be defenseless and ruined without them.

Post-ruling strategy

In November, Trump told reporters that without his tariffs “the rest of the world would laugh at us because they’ve used tariffs against us for years and took advantage of us”. He said the United States was abused by other countries, including China, the second-largest economy.

After the SC heard arguments in the case in November, Trump said he would consider alternatives if it ruled against him on tariffs, telling reporters that “we’ll have to develop a ‘game two’ plan”.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other administration officials said the US would invoke other legal justifications to retain as many of Trump’s tariffs as possible.

Among others, these include a statutory provision that permits tariffs on imported goods that threaten US national security and another that allows retaliatory actions, including tariffs against trading partners that the Office of the US Trade Representative determines have used unfair trade practices against American exporters.

None of these alternatives offered the flexibility and blunt-force dynamics that IEEPA provided Trump, and may not be able to replicate the full scope of his tariffs in a timely fashion.

Trump’s ability to impose tariffs instantaneously on any trading partner’s goods under the aegis of some form of declared national emergency raised his leverage over other countries.

It brought world leaders scrambling to Washington to secure trade deals that often included pledges of billions of dollars in investments or other offers of enhanced market access for US companies.

But Trump’s use of tariffs as a cudgel in US foreign policy has succeeded in antagonising numerous countries, including those long considered among the closest US allies.

IEEPA historically had been used for imposing sanctions on enemies or freezing their assets, not to impose tariffs. The law does not specifically mention the word tariffs.

Estimates

Penn-Wharton Budget Model economists estimated that the amount collected in Trump’s tariffs based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act stood at more than $175 billion. And that amount likely would need to be refunded with a Supreme Court ruling against the IEEPA-based tariffs.

The Congressional Bud­get Office has estimated that if all current tariffs stay in place, including the IEEPA-based duties, they would generate about $300bn annually over the next decade.

Total US net customs duty receipts reached a record $195bn in fiscal 2025, which ended on Sept 30, according to US Trea­sury Department data.

In February and March of 2025, Trump invoked IEEPA to impose tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, citing the trafficking of the often-abused painkiller fentanyl and illicit drugs into the United States as a national emergency.

Trump has wielded his tariffs to extract concessions and renegotiate trade deals, and as a weapon to punish countries that draw his ire on non-trade political matters. These have ranged from Brazil’s prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro, India’s purchases of Russian oil that help fund Russia’s war in Ukraine, and an anti-tariffs ad by Canada’s Ontario province.

Reactions to ruling

The EU said on Friday that it was studying the US Supreme Court ruling. “We take note of the ruling … and are analysing it carefully,” EU trade spokesman Olof Gill said.

“We remain in close contact with the US Administration as we seek clarity on the steps they intend to take in response to this ruling,” he added.

“Businesses on both sides of the Atlantic depend on stability and predictability in the trading relationship”.

The British government spokesperson said Britain planned to work with the US to see how the overturning of Trump’s tariffs by the US Supreme Court would affect the trade deal between the two countries. “We will work with the administration to understand how the ruling will affect tariffs for the UK and the rest of the world,” the spokesperson said, adding that the UK expects its “privileged trading position with the US to continue”.

The Canadian minister responsible for US trade said the US Supreme Court’s ruling affirms that the levies were “unjustified”.

International Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc noted, however, that tariffs causing the most pain in Canada — sector-specific measures affecting the steel, aluminum and auto industries — remained in force despite the ruling, promising Ottawa would work with Washington to “create growth and opportunities on both sides of the border”.

After the ruling, stock markets rose in the United States and Europe, led by shares of affected companies, including Europe’s luxury brands from LVMH to Hermes and Italian luxury outerwear group Moncler, all of which rose after the ruling.

Stocks rise

US and European stocks advanced on Friday and Treasury yields rose as investors absorbed the Supreme Court ruling, while also parsing a weak GDP report and higher-than-expected inflation data.

All three major US stock indexes moved higher immediately following the Supreme Court’s decision. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are on track to notch weekly gains, while the blue-chip Dow is currently flat versus last Friday’s close.

Europe’s STOXX 600 index extended gains following the ruling while gold prices came off the day’s highs in the immediate aftermath.

US Treasury yields rose following the Supreme Court’s ruling. The yield on benchmark US 10-year notes added 1.9 basis points to 4.094pc, from 4.075pc late on Thursday.

The dollar turned lower after the top US court’s tariff decision, but was still on track for its biggest weekly gain since October.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2026

from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/X4pnkfa

https://ift.tt/pTxQHF8

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said on Friday that incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan would be taken to a hospital twice in the coming days and that he had to be administered an injection on February 25.

The ex-prime minister’s health has been garnering attention in recent days, with his family and party raising concerns since his eye ailment — right central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) — came to light in late January.

Meanwhile, the government and the opposition have also been engaged in a blame game, with the latter accusing the former of a lack of transparency on the matter, not ensuring appropriate treatment for Imran and not allowing his personal physicians to access him. The government denies these allegations.

The matter was raised again during ARY News programme ‘Sawal Yeh Hai’, where Chaudhry was asked what was the obstacle in the way of Imran’s personal physicians gaining access to him.

In his response, Chaudhry said: “Our top priority is to provide him the best treatment facilities. We previously took him to Pims as well, but in secrecy due to his security.”

He added that Imran was taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) in Islamabad on the advice of doctors who had examined the former prime minister in jail and suggested that he should be treated at a tertiary care hospital.

“We have to again take him to the hospital twice,” Chaudhry said, assuring that he would be provided best possible medical facilities.

He added that the government had invited the PTI leadership to be present during an examination of Imran at the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, where he is imprisoned, on February 15.

“But they could not decide which leadership to send,” he said, indicating a divide within the PTI. The minister also claimed that PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan’s name was proposed for the visit, but “objections were raised”.

“So they can decide. Imran Khan sahib has to be administered an injection on February 25, if they want to come, they are most welcome. There is no secrecy,” he added.

He also assured that since Imran was in jail presently, the responsibility of his health and treatment lay with the government and the state. “And realising this, we are providing him the best possible facilities.”

The minister again insisted that the government had invited Barrister Gohar in connection with Imran’s treatment and examination and claimed that his “party did not allow him to go”.

He reasserted that a member of Imran’s family, Barrister Gohar and Imran’s personal physician had been invited during his last examination.

“We will try to invite them this time as well during his treatment, but first, they need to decide who will come. Because we waited for around one and a half to two hours, but they did not come,” he added.

Asked if a request was made for Imran’s personal physicians Dr Faisal Sultan and Dr Aasim Yusuf be allowed access to him on February 25, would it be accepted, Chaudhry replied that the PTI had been insisting on allowing access to Dr Sultan, but he was not an ophthalmologist.

On January 24, it was revealed that the PTI founder had undergone a 20-minute medical procedure for his eye ailment at Pims, resulting in concerns being raised by the opposition and Imran’s family, who continue to face restrictions on meetings with the incarcerated former premier.

Subsequently, the Supreme Court’s intervention on February 10 allowed PTI lawyer Salman Safdar to meet Imran, with the ex-premier telling the counsel he had “15 per cent” vision left in his right eye.

A report prepared by a medical board formed by the government that visited Imran on February 15 at the Adiala jail stated that, unaided, the ex-premier’s right eye had 6/24 partial vision and 6/9 in the left. It said that with glasses, the ex-premier’s vision was 6/9 partial in the right and 6/6 in the left.

The opposition alliance Tehreek-i-Tahafuz-i-Ayin-i-Pakistan (TTAP), which had staged a six-day sit-in at Parliament House over Imran’s health, also doubled down on its earlier demands on Friday.

These included Imran’s “complete and confidential access” to his personal physicians Dr Yusuf and Dr Sultan and copies of his medical tests and diagnostic reports.

Dr Yusuf and Dr Sultan have previously said multiple times that the ex-premier needed a comprehensive medical check-up that could be provided at Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad.

from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/rhVZO8B

https://ift.tt/HslxFIC

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Railways continues to face a significant sustainability gap, with its immediate obligations more than 10 times higher than the current operational surplus, a National Assembly panel was told on Thursday.

“Against a current operational surplus of Rs2.4 billion, immediate obligations amount to Rs27.4 billion, highlighting a structural funding shortfall that requires strategic support and long-term financial restructuring to ensure sustainable operations,” Paki­stan Railways’ member of finance told the National Assembly’s Stan­ding Committee on Parli­amentary Affairs, which met here with Rana Iradat Sharif Khan, MNA, in the chair.

The secretary of parliamentary affairs briefed the committee on the status of complaints received about Pakistan Railways pensioners to the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit.

The member of finance told the committee that PR has undertaken active liability management to address longstanding emp­loyee obligations, disbursing Rs5.622bn tow­ards commutation payments (cleared up to 31 May, 2023) and Rs1.103bn towards leave encashment (cleared up to 31 March, 2024).

He said while these measures reflect improved financial discipline and commitment to institutional responsibility, the huge gap between available resources and the obligations warranted some action.

The representative from National Highway Authority (NHA) briefed the committee on the problems caused by traffic congestion on the Motorway Toll Plaza near Phoolnagar, Qasoor district.

The committee was informed that in compliance with the approval of NHA Executive Board for revenue enhancement a new toll plaza was established at Phoolnagar, located at KM 1215-1216 in March 2025.

Initially, a temporary structured toll plaza (3 × lanes on each side) was established on the existing road. Due to limited numbers of lanes, traffic congestion occurred frequently.

Due to establishment of new toll collection regime, the commuters’ response was very slow for toll payments, resulting in long queues of locals at toll booths. Currently, a new 12-lane (6x lanes each side) toll plaza is 90 per cent completed.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2026

from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/UjNMBQc

https://ift.tt/H1Ya2Ms

ISLAMABAD: To salvage government credibility, Power Minister Awais Leghari on Thursday decided to honour all applicants of net-metering solar connections till the change of regulations on Feb 8 and directed electricity distribution companies (Discos), including K-Electric, for its implementation.

At a meeting of the Power Division’s attached entities, the minister was informed that 5,165 consumers had applied for net-metered connections by the cut-off date of Feb 8 — the day the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) notified the Prosumers Regulations 2026, replacing the net-metering framework with net billing and negatively affecting rooftop solar economics for households and industry.

All these applications entailed a net-metering capacity addition of about 250.8 megawatts.

“All net metering applications minister on commerce and industry. He was later sworn in as the provincial minister for agriculture and cooperatives.

Meanwhile, Sardar Bhootani continued his legal fight and filed a petition against the ECP’s decision in the FCC. The court, after prolonged hearings, accepted the petition of Sardar Bhootani and reserved its verdict.

A day before the FCC was set to announce its verdict, Mr Zehri tendered his resignation. The next day, the FCC suspended Mr Zehri’s notification as the retu­r­ned candidate from the Bal­o­c­h­i­s­tan Assembly PB-21 constituency.

Later, the ECP issued a notification de-seating him as an MPA.

As a minister, he had differences with CM Bugti and, after resigning, accused the chief minister of interfering in his constituency.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2026

from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/EgqZ5Mo

https://ift.tt/QJb5TqZ

US President Donald Trump on Thursday promised $10 billion and Muslim-majority nations offered funding and troops for Gaza at the inaugural Board of Peace meeting in Washington.

Pakistan, however, was not named among the five nations who have committed troops for the International Stabilisation Force, which will be tas­k­ed with securing reconstruction zones and supporting a post-conflict governance arrangement in Gaza.

Trump brought together allies from around the world — many authoritarians, with few Western democrats who traditionally ally with the United States — to hail his peacemaking at the first Board of Peace meeting.

Presiding with a gavel over the meeting in the gleaming Washington building of the former US Institute of Peace, which has been gutted and renamed after the 79-year-old Republican, Trump hailed the “powerful people” who joined his board.

“We will help Gaza. We will straighten it out. We’ll make it successful,” Trump said, holding up a document with pledges before the disco beats of his adopted theme-song “YMCA” came on the speakers.

“We will make it peaceful, and we will do things like that in other spots. Spots will come up, things will happen,” Trump said.

Troops pledges

The Board of Peace came together after the Trump administration, teaming up with Qatar and Egypt, negotiated a ceasefire in October to halt two years of devastating Israeli onslaught in Gaza.

The plan’s second phase calls for the disarmament of Hamas.

In a first for an Arab country, Morocco announced it was ready to send police as well as officers to the nascent International Stabilisation Force.

The force’s American commander, Major General Jasper Jeffers, said that Albania, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Kosovo were also sending troops and announced that an Indonesian officer would serve as his deputy.

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, earlier said it was ready to send 8,000 troops — nearly half of the 20,000 sought.

Trump hailed Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who attended, calling the former military officer accused of human rights abuses in East Timor a “tough cookie.”

Nickolay Mladenov, a veteran Bulgarian diplomat named high representative for Gaza by the United States, also announced the beginning of recruitment for a post-Hamas police force in Gaza and said 2,000 people had applied in the first hours.

Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi was also asked about the ISF and Pakistan’s view on it during a weekly briefing in Islamabad today.

In response, he said: “We understand that a decision is awaited on the contours of the mandate of the International Stabilisation Force, and till such time, we’re not in a position to take any decision on this matter.

“We have identified our red lines quite explicitly. The deputy prime minister and the foreign minister has done so here from this platform, and elsewhere. Pakistan can be part of a peacekeeping mandate, but we would not be part of any disarming/ demilitarisation mandates. This discussion at [the Board of Peace meeting in] Washington might take place today. We will update you as and when these developments take place.”

For his part, Trump said during the moot in Washington that he hoped the use of force to disarm Hamas would not be necessary. He said Hamas had promised to disarm and it “looks like they’re going to be doing that, but we’ll have to find out.”

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, representing Israel at the meeting, demanded disarmament of Hamas and “a fundamental deradicalisation process” in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Israel that Hamas will be disarmed one way or the other. “Very soon, Hamas will face a dilemma - to disarm peacefully or disarmed forcefully,” he said.

In Gaza, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said any international force must “monitor the ceasefire and prevent the (Israeli) occupation from continuing its aggression”. Disarmament could be discussed, he said, without directly committing to it.

Gaza reconstruction

Trump, who has sharply curtailed foreign aid, said the United States would contribute $10bn to the Board of Peace. He also announced that contributing nations had raised $7bn as an initial down payment for Gaza reconstruction.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates each promised at least $1bn. White House Press Secretary said more than $6.5bn was pledged, presumably excluding Trump’s offer.

Trump also said FIFA will raise $75 million for soccer-related projects in Gaza and that the United Nations will chip in $2 billion for humanitarian assistance.

“Together we can achieve the dream of bringing lasting harmony to a region tortured by centuries of war, suffering,” said the realtor-turned-president, who has spoken improbably of building tourist resorts in Gaza.

Trump did not explain exactly where the money would go and whether Congress had approved the contribution he announced for the institution, which has drawn criticism for its opaque nature.

Trump will wield veto power over the Board of Peace and can remain its head even after leaving office, while countries that want to stay on permanently rather than enjoy a two-year stint will need to pay $1bn.

Critics say the Board of Peace remains vague, including how it would interact with existing institutions, including the United Nations, to which Trump has drastically cut support.

“It’s a confused mix of ambition and narcissism, unleavened by any effort at intellectual coherence,” said Bruce Jones, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

---

Initial input from Reuters

from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/fG0CdJi