Rawalpindi police on Saturday denied reports regarding the closure of markets across the city until further notice, terming them baseless.
A statement posted on the social media platform X quoted City Police Officer (CPO) Syed Khalid Mahmood Hamdani as saying that no directives had been issued by Rawalpindi police regarding the closure of markets.
He said that all markets and businesses were open as usual till 8pm as per the government’s policy.
He added that effective security arrangements were being ensured in view of the “movement of foreign delegations”. He said police teams were actively conducting search, sweep, and combing operations in different parts of the city to maintain law and order.
He said police were working day and night to ensure foolproof security at all times.
Separately, Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner Hassan Waqar Cheema also shared visuals regarding reports of hotels and markets being closed until further notice.
“This news is fake and not issued by the district administration. The public is advised not to pay attention to fake news. The district administration Rawalpindi will provide timely and authentic updates,” he said.
The development comes as strict security arrangements are being made in Islamabad and Rawalpindi amid an expected second round of talks between the United States and Iran amid the war in the Middle East.
Five people were killed in Kyiv on Saturday after a gunman opened fire and took hostages at a supermarket in the Ukrainian capital before being killed during an arrest attempt, officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that at least 10 people were hospitalised with wounds and trauma after the shooting, which took place in a residential district in the city’s south.
Footage posted by the UNIAN news agency, which AFP was unable to immediately verify, showed a man carrying a gun and shooting at a person from close range near a block of flats.
The suspect then entered a supermarket where gunshots were heard, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Four hostages from the supermarket “have been rescued”, Zelensky said later on social media.
“The attacker in Kyiv who opened fire on civilians has been eliminated,” Zelensky said, offering condolences to the families of the victims.
An AFP reporter saw the supermarket — which had blood stains on its shop window — cordoned off by a heavy security presence, with officers wearing bulletproof vests and crime investigators arriving at the scene.
The assailant’s motive was not immediately known.
40-minute standoff
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said the suspect was a 58-year-old man born in Moscow and that, according to initial reports, “he used an automatic weapon”.
An employee of the supermarket, Tetyana, told AFP that she had heard sounds “in the store, like champagne being popped or balloons bursting several times. Then the customers started shouting, ’Run!’
“There’s a spot where you can hide behind the refrigerators, and we ran there. I heard a man moaning,” she recounted, her voice trembling.
Zelensky urged “a swift investigation” into the shooting and said that all the circumstances of the incident were being established.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said the standoff between the assailant and police negotiators at the supermarket lasted around 40 minutes.
“We tried to persuade him. Realising that there was likely an injured person inside, we offered to bring in tourniquets to stop the bleeding … But he didn’t respond,” Klymenko told reporters at the scene.
“That’s why the order was given to eliminate him,” he added, saying that the gunman had killed one of the people taken hostage.
Ukraine, which has been fighting a more than four-year-long war with Russia, has seen sporadic shooting incidents but has a relatively low crime rate.
Last year, a man shot dead two people in a Kyiv suburb in a dispute over the sale of a firearm.
• Rules govt can limit trade with India, Israel on security, foreign policy grounds
• Declares ‘right to read’ fundamental to life under Constitution; warns curbs on knowledge risk intellectual, societal decline
• Notes digital access makes book bans increasingly ineffective
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) upheld the government decision regarding the ban on imports of books from certain countries based on national security and foreign policy grounds, while simultaneously affirming that a “right to read” is a fundamental right essential for life.
In a landmark decision, the court drew a careful line between a citizen’s fundamental right and the government’s broad authority over foreign trade and national security.
While the ruling strongly affirmed access to knowledge as a core constitutional liberty, it stopped short of striking down the government’s trade ban, preserving its power to block commerce with nations like India and Israel.
Headed by Justice Aamir Farooq, the three-judge bench, which also included Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Rozi Khan Barrech, set aside a Lahore High Court’s (LHC) specific directives to the government but upheld the substance of the import ban.
The FCC verdict, on an appeal filed by the commerce ministry against the January 2024 ruling of the LHC, was reserved on Jan 21.
Justice Farooq, in the judgment he authored, argued that the right to read was integral to a meaningful existence.
“This right bears an intrinsic nexus with life itself, remains anchored in our constitutional principles and is necessary for the preservation of our societal values,” he wrote.
“The right to read was embedded in our Constitution and for the meaningful fulfilment of the right to life under Article 9, it was essential that individuals were enabled to read and get educated.”
The controversy stemmed from Statutory Regulatory Orders (SROs Nos. 927 and 928(I)/2019), through which the federal government banned all imports from and exports to India and Israel, including law books and journals.
These SROs were challenged before the LHC, with petitioners arguing the ban was unlawful, or “ultra vires,” as it pertained to the import of books.
While the FCC overturned the specific directions issued by the LHC — which had instructed the federal government to appoint an officer to review the policy — the FCC explained that the government had acted within its executive authority.
Justice Farooq observed that the judiciary must respect the separation of powers, particularly in sensitive areas.
“Over the years, the courts have avoided interfering in matters pertaining to national security and foreign policy.
It is the exclusive prerogative of the government to determine with which countries it will establish trade relations,” he noted.
“If FCC is to direct that trade be conducted with one country and not another, it would breach the bounds of judicial authority and encroach upon the domain of the executive, in violation of Article 90 of the Constitution.”
Despite upholding the ban, the judgment extensively detailed the profound importance of access to knowledge.
Justice Farooq stated that restricting access to legal knowledge has consequences, suggesting that an uninformed society is vulnerable and easily misled.
He further emphasised that as law evolves, hindering access to legal texts or books threatens human intellect and national progress.
Justice Farooq linked the right to Pakistan’s constitutional and religious roots, highlighting the 1956 Constitution’s stress on education and the Quranic term “Iqra,” meaning “read”.
He stated that Islam, a religion of knowledge, encourages wisdom, which cannot be gained without reading.
In an additional note, Justice Najafi highlighted the practical challenges of banning books in the digital age, noting its limited effectiveness. He mentioned that professional knowledge is readily accessible online, often for free or nominal fees, making it difficult to justify a ban on law books that can easily be bypassed.
Justice Najafi also cautioned against the broad use of national security as a justification for restricting access to information.
“Certainly, patriotism and national security are the concepts of highest legal and moral grounds which can easily be used to prohibit anything into our country, but it should be applied with due care and caution so as to prepare a strong and intellectually competent nation to face the modern challenges,” he observed.
He concluded that knowledge fortifies society by challenging old ideas and reinforcing beliefs through critical analysis. “Knowledge frees minds that may be trapped by outdated ideas,” Justice Najafi said.
Myanmar has reduced the sentence of imprisoned ex-leader Aung San Suu Kyi, her lawyer told Reuters on Friday, as part of an amnesty by a new president who ousted her government in a coup five years ago.
Suu Kyi, 80, was serving a 27-year sentence for a litany of charges her allies said were politically motivated to keep her at bay, ranging from incitement and corruption to election fraud and violating a state secrets law.
The sentence has been cut by one-sixth, but it remains unclear whether the Nobel Peace Prize winner will be allowed to serve the rest of her sentence under house arrest, the lawyer said.
Suu Kyi, who had dismissed the charges against her as “absurd”, has not been seen in public since the end of her marathon trials, and her whereabouts have been unknown.
Earlier, state media reported that President Min Aung Hlaing approved an amnesty for 4,335 prisoners, the third such move in the past six months. Amnesties typically take place in Myanmar each year to mark Independence Day in January and the New Year in April.
Relatives wait outside Insein Prison for the release of prisoners as part of an amnesty to mark Myanmar’s new year in Yangon, Myanmar on April 17, 2026. — AFP
Among the prisoners freed was Suu Kyi ally Win Myint, who served as president from 2018 until the 2021 military coup. State broadcaster MRTV said he was “granted a pardon and the reduction of his remaining sentences under specified conditions.”
A spokesperson for the military-backed government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The United Nations said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “takes note” of the moves, while underscoring “the need for meaningful efforts to ensure the swift release of all those arbitrarily detained, including State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and to create conditions conducive to a credible political process”.
“A viable political solution must be founded on an immediate cessation of violence and a genuine commitment to inclusive dialogue. This requires an environment that allows the people of Myanmar to freely and peacefully exercise their political rights,” Guterres’ spokesperson said in response to media queries.
The 2021 coup against Win Myint and Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government was led by Min Aung Hlaing. It plunged the Southeast Asian country into a nationwide civil war that continues to rage.
Min Aung Hlaing was elected president on April 3 following polls in December and January during which the opposition was stifled and largely absent. Critics and Western governments dismissed the vote as a sham designed to entrench military rule behind a democratic facade.
• Duration nearly three times more than what was announced earlier
• Minister cites LNG import disruption, Middle East crisis as key factors
• Shortfall estimated at 3,400MW
• Demand spikes from 9,000MW to 20,000MW in days
• Nuclear plant maintenance postponed to boost supply
ISLAMABAD: Power Minister Awais Leghari on Thursday confirmed six to seven hours of load management — almost three times higher than the government’s public commitment — citing a sudden surge in demand, non-availability of imported gas and lower water discharges for irrigation.
Speaking at a news conference, the minister said power shortfalls had been caused by disruptions to LNG imports due to the Middle East crisis and by lower provincial irrigation water requirements, both of which he said were beyond the government’s control. However, he insisted that the government was making every possible effort to minimise both outages and potential tariff increases arising from the use of expensive alternative fuels.
In this regard, he said the government had even postponed maintenance of nuclear power plants for a few weeks, with no scheduled shutdowns until July. He added that all available resources had been mobilised, including diplomatic channels, to secure fuel supplies through alternative LNG sourcing and diversion of local gas, while ensuring adequate availability for fertiliser production.
The minister said the country also witnessed unusual fluctuations in demand this month due to weather conditions, with the lowest demand of 9,000MW on April 9 and a peak of 20,000MW six days later, on April 15.
He said the situation would slightly improve in a day as discharges from dams had been increased by 15,000 cusecs to 25,000 cusecs, which would help enhance hydropower generation.
On the other side of the equation, hydropower sources provided 3,200MW and 3,000MW from liquefied natural gas imports, leading to minuscule generation from furnace oil because it had a significant fuel-cost impact.
This year, however, all LNG-based plants with a capacity of 6,000MW remain mostly idle due to LNG import disruptions caused by the Middle East war. While LNG-based plants provide no more than 500MW and that too on local gas, hydropower supply also stood at 1,600MW, because of recent rains that replaced water discharges from dams for irrigation.
This meant, he claimed, that there would have been no power shortfall if LNG-based and hydropower plants had been operating, as the current shortfall was around 3,400MW.
“Every 500-600MW shortfall translates into one-hour load management and therefore the government was forced to have six to seven hours of average load management without any discrimination between urban and rural areas,” he said, adding that the load management schedule was equitable.
He claimed that there was no load management during the daytime, when demand generally remained low and there was sufficient generation capacity available. He appealed to consumers to conserve power to sail through an international crisis. He added that despite shortcomings at present, Pakistan’s diverse energy sources like coal, solar, wind, nuclear and others are also a strength, which provides resilience in times of crisis, otherwise, the situation would have been even worse than at present.
Mr Leghari said the early market closures enforced by the government had also helped shave about 1,200-1,400MW peak demand; otherwise, the load management would have been higher by another two hours.
The minister did not agree with a questioner that LNG from Qatar may not be available for the next three years and claimed that some supplies were possible by mid-May.
He said spot purchases were not possible at the moment because of the war’s impact and unaffordable prices, as imports of petrol and diesel were already facing foreign exchange constraints due to higher import prices.
He conceded that cheaper and greater generation capacity in the south could not be utilised in the north for some transmission constraints as well as system stability issues arising out of the non-availability of LNG-based generation capacity in the mid-country and that was why there was no load management in Karachi and Hyderabad power supply areas, except some economic load management by K-Electric in high-loss areas.
With these load management efforts, the minister said the positive fuel cost adjustment next month would be around Rs1.3 per unit, compared to Rs1.8 per unit a couple of months ago; otherwise, fuel costs would have risen significantly with full utilisation of furnace oil- and diesel-based plants.
He took responsibility for consumers’ suffering but said the challenges were caused by a war in the neighbourhood and lower water requirements for irrigation. “If the public is facing any inconveniences due to us not providing electricity at night and during peak hours, I am directly answerable and apologise,” he said, but insisted that the circumstances were beyond the government’s control.
The minister explained that power demand beyond 16,500MW required load management in the absence of gas availability. “A shortfall occurs when the demand goes beyond 16,500MW after the consumption of every fuel resource in Pakistan — imported coal, local coal, nuclear, hydropower and solar power. And then in the evening, the load shedding hours have to be increased as per the requirements,” he said.
HARIPUR: At least eight people, including children, were killed and 11 others were injured after a Sui Northern Gas supply line located near a factory burst and caught fire in the Hattar Industrial Estate of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Haripur district, officials said.
The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.
Dr Munawwar Afridi from Haripur district headquarters hospital (DHQ), who is also associated with the rural health centre (RHC) in the Kot Najibullah union council, told Dawn that three of the bodies were brought to the DHQ and five others to the RHC.
Haripur Deputy Commissioner (DC) Waseem Ahmed told Dawn it appeared that the deaths were mainly caused by suffocation.
He separately told the media that the fire had engulfed three to four nearby houses located within a radius of 200 kilometres of the factory had been affected by the fire.
Muhammad Amir, an official of the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL), told Dawn that the affected pipeline had a diameter of 16 inches and supplied gas to industrial estates up to Abbottabad towards the north. It was located near 400 residential quarters of Hattar Industrial Estate, he added.
Amir said while the cause of the fire was yet to be determined, area residents had informed the SNGPL about a “gas explosion and large fire” at around 6:30pm. He added that field teams rushed to the site of the incident upon receiving the information and found the pipeline on fire.
Amir said SNGPL teams, Rescue 1122 teams and personnel from other departments, including firefighters, participated in the operation to douse the blaze.
He said the SNGPL staff had cut off the gas supply to the pipeline, and yet dousing the blaze took at least two hours as rescue personnel faced difficulties due to the quantity of running gas in the supply line.
While the fire was blazing, flames could be seen from kilometres away, he said.
Amir further said that the supply line was located near the industrial estate’s factories, and it was presumed that the godowns in those units contained chemical material.
“Their leakage could have caused the fire,” he estimated, reiterating that the exact cause of the fire was yet to be determined.
DC Ahmed, who supervised the firefighting and rescue operation alongside Haripur District Police Officer (DPO) Shafiullah Khan, told Dawn that the fire was controlled after three hours of efforts.
Rescue personnel had also searched the site to ensure that there were no other casualties and no one was trapped at the site of the incident.
DPO Khan told Dawn that while the exact cause of the fire would be determined after investigation, circumstantial evidence showed that gas pressure could have caused an explosion in the supply line.
This is a developing story that is being updated as the situation evolves. Initial reports in the media can sometimes be inaccurate. We will strive to ensure timeliness and accuracy by relying on credible sources, such as concerned, qualified authorities and our staff reporters.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Thursday his country was “ready” for a possible US attack on the communist island following months of mounting pressure from President Donald Trump.
“We don’t want that (confrontation) but it is our duty to be ready to avoid it, and if it were unavoidable, to win it,” Diaz-Canel told thousands of people attending a rally in Havana to mark the 65th anniversary of the failed US invasion of the island at the Bay of Pigs.
Cuba has been bracing for a possible attack following repeated warnings from Trump that Cuba is “next” after he toppled Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro and went to war against Iran.
Washington and Havana have held talks on de-escalating tensions, but the discussions between the arch-foes have failed to make significant headway, according to US media reports.
Mariela Castro, daughter of late president Raul Castro, said Cubans “want dialogue” with Washington but “without putting our political system up for debate”.
She said her 94-year-old father — who oversaw a historic 2015 rapprochement with the United States under Barack Obama that Trump later reversed — was indirectly involved in the talks.
Raul’s grandson, Raul Rodriguez Castro, a colonel, is reportedly among the negotiators.
Diaz-Canel admitted that the current moment was “very grave” but stressed Cuba’s “socialist” nature, as proclaimed by Fidel Castro on April 16, 1961.
The 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion was launched two years after Castro’s revolutionaries took control of the island and began nationalising US-owned properties and businesses.
Between April 15 and 19, around 1,400 anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami, trained and financed by the CIA, landed at the Bay of Pigs, about 250 kilometres south of Havana. Cuban forces repelled the invaders, inflicting a humiliating defeat on the Americans.
Six decades later, Washington now has Cuba again in its sights.
After Maduro’s capture in Caracas, Trump imposed an oil blockade of Cuba, aggravating the impoverished island’s worst economic and energy crisis in decades.
Diaz-Canel rejected what he referred to as a US portrayal of Cuba as a “failed state.”
Havana largely blames its woes on a US trade embargo imposed shortly after Castro’s arrival to power, still in place today, and the more recent oil blockade.
“Cuba is not a failed state, it’s a besieged state,” he said.
Maria Reguiero, an 82-year-old attending the rally, said that, like in 1961, Cubans were “ready to defend their sovereignty, whatever the price”.
