Voters across Russia’s 11 time zones headed on Friday to the polls to pick the country’s next president, with incumbent Vladimir Putin being all but certain to secure his fifth term, according to media reports. Putin on Thursday had urged Russians to back him in the face of a “difficult period” for the country, in More
Uneven development progress is leaving the poorest behind, exacerbating inequality and stoking political polarisation on a global scale, the UNDP said on Thursday. A new UNDP report said the result was a dangerous gridlock that must be urgently tackled through collective action. The 2023/24 Human Development Report (HDR) is titled “Breaking the Gridlock: Reimagining cooperation More
Pakistani lawmakers have elected Asif Ali Zardari as the country’s president for the second time. Zardari is the widower of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto and father of ex-foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Zardari secured 411 votes from national and provincial lawmakers. His opponent, Mehmood Khan Achakzai who was backed by the party of Imran More
Amid foolproof security, lawmakers on Saturday started casting ballots in the election for Pakistan’s 14th president. A joint session of parliament is ongoing Islamabad, where members of the National Assembly and the Senate are exercising their right to vote. Leading presidential candidate Asif Ali Zardari and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari were among the legislators who cast More
Supporters of Mahmood Khan Achakzai rallied against an alleged police raid on his residence in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province. Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) workers also announced a strike today (Tuesday) against the storming of their leader’s house. The raid was aimed to recover a piece of government-owned land that had More
CIVICUS Monitor puts Pakistan on its watch list over rapid decline in civic freedoms following the repression against the opposition, the censorship of journalists and attacks on peaceful protests, according to a statement on Monday. CIVICUS, comprised of over 20 organisation, in its statement said a crackdown on opposition voices was documented leading to February More
At least 36 people, mostly children, have been killed and 50 others injured following heavy rains in Pakistan during the past 48 hours, media reports say. The heavy rains caused houses to collapse and triggered landslides in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces since Thursday. At least 30 rain-related deaths were reported in various areas in More
Pakistani police have reportedly raided the residence of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Chairman Mahmood Khan Achakzai. But John Achakzai, former caretaker information minister of Balochistan, rejected the allegation, saying police acted to evict the illegal occupants from a piece of in front of Achakzai’s house. Addressing a press conference at the party’s central secretariat More
The Pakistani parliament on Sunday elected Shehbaz Sharif as the country’s 24th prime minister for a second term, three weeks after the Feb. 8 national elections. Shehbaz, the younger brother of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and president of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, received 201 votes from the lower house, 32 higher than More
At least 43 people have been killed after a fire broke out in a multi-storey building in Bangladesh, according to a media report on Friday. According to local media, the blaze began in a restaurant at around 22:00 local time on Thursday in the capital, Dhaka. Seventy-five people were rescued and dozens were brought to More
