According to sources, the people were stopped while they were transporting their belongings in vehicles to leave the area.

The hostages were identified as four brothers, Rehmanullah, Farmanullah, Laiq and Sadiq; Mir Ali, Mohammad Raziq, Azim Khan and three brothers, including Sameen, Hamidullah and Rakhidullah. Three other individuals could not be identified.

Police have not issued an official statement regarding the incident. However, police sources confirmed the incident.

Meanwhile, a photograph purportedly showing the alleged hostages has also circulated on social media.

The photograph also appears to show Nasir alias Gidarh, a local commander of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. The photograph and the identities of those shown in it could not be independently verified.

Local sources said terrorists were allegedly trying to prevent residents from leaving the area and had imposed certain restrictions on those seeking to relocate.

According to the sources, some families who failed to comply with the conditions allegedly had their houses demolished. These claims, however, could not be officially confirmed.

The deteriorating security situation in Hathikhel and adjoining mountainous areas has continued to cause difficulties for residents, with several families reportedly moving to safer locations.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2026

The then SHOs of Shah Latif Town and Sachal police, Amanullah Marwat and Shaikh Muhammad Shoaib alias Shooter; assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Gada Hussain; head constables Sadaqat Ali and Mohsin Abbasi; and constables Raja Shamim and Rana Riaz Ahmed were facing trial for allegedly killing Naseemullah, better known as Naqeebullah Mehsud, Mohammad Sabir, Nazar Jan and Mohammad Ishaq in an alleged staged encounter in January 2018.

After examining the witnesses and hearing concluding arguments from both sides, the judge of ATC-VI exonerated the accused persons for lack of evidence.

Prosecutor Anila Malik argued that the prosecution examined over 40 witnesses, including star witnesses and they linked the accused persons with the commission of offences and documentary evidence also corroborated their testimonies.

Former SSP Rao Anwar was acquitted in the same case in 2023

She also contended that the prosecution established its case against all the accused persons beyond a shadow of reasonable doubt and pleaded for conviction.

However, defence lawyer Farzana Mateen submitted that all accused persons facing trial were framed with mala fide intention and that out of 40, not a single witness directly implicated any of the accused in the case.

She also maintained that there were glaring contradictions in the evidence of prosecution witnesses while two star witnesses about the abduction of Hazrat Ali and Muhammad Qasim did not associate the present accused persons in their statements recorded under Section 164 CrPC by a judicial magistrate and had also not identified these accused persons as the culprits during their evidence before the trial court.

The defence lawyer further argued that there was no allegation of abduction of the deceased against the accused persons and the prosecution has also failed to prove their participation in the alleged encounter.

She maintained that many accused persons, including a former senior superintendent of police, had already been exonerated by the trial court in the first round of litigation for want of evidence and she pleaded for acquittal of the present accused persons as well.

Initially, the then SSP Malir Rao Anwar, along with his around two dozen subordinates, had been booked for allegedly murdering Naqeebullah and others in an alleged staged encounter in a Malir locality and dubbing them as militants.

According to the prosecution, Naqeebullah was picked up with his two friends allegedly by eight to nine subordinates of Rao Anwar in civvies. Later, the other two detainees were set free while the whereabouts of Mehsud remained unknown and his mobile phone was also found powered off, as the former SSP allegedly kept him in wrongful detention.

It further stated that on Jan 17, the captive’s relatives came to know through the media that Rao Anwar and his associates allegedly killed Mehsud and three others in a staged encounter in a Shah Latif Town area on Jan 13 and dubbed them as Taliban militants.

The provincial police officer had constituted a three-member inquiry committee that found Rao Anwar and his associates involved in the case, it added.

However, in January 2023, the trial court acquitted the former SSP and 17 members of his team by extending the benefit of doubt. As the state had opted not to impugn the acquittal order, a brother of Naqeeb had filed an appeal before the Sindh High Court against their acquittal.

The present accused persons were absconders during the first trial, and after the exoneration of SSP and others, they had surrendered before the court to face the trial, and all of them were set free on bail in April this year.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2026

The SCBA elections are scheduled for Oct 29, with the Independent Group, also known as the Asma Jahangir Group, fielding Syed Amjad Ali Shah as its presidential candidate, while the Professional Group, led by Hamid Khan, has nominated Sardar Aman Khan for the slot.

Meanwhile, Mr Safdar has announced the formation of his own group, the Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah Group, and invited lawyers to join it.

He said his group also intended to contest the SCBA elections.

Talking to media persons, Mr Safdar alleged that the law degree of one of the candidates for the SCBA presidency was fake and demanded its verification.

He also called for verification of the degrees of prominent lawyers, including Ahsan Bhoon, a close associate of Federal Law and Justice Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar.

Mr Bhoon, a former SCBA president, is currently a member of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan and heads the Independent Group.

Mr Safdar further alleged that some prominent lawyers charged their clients on a “done basis”, a term used for arrangements in which lawyers allegedly demand hefty fees while assuring clients of a 100pc favourable court decision.

He said such practices needed to be stopped and lawyers with dubious credentials should be removed from the legal profession.

Pakistan Bar Council member Shafqat Chohan, who belongs to the Professional Group, endorsed Mr Safdar’s demand, saying those seeking to hold office in the SCBA should possess valid law degrees.

Senior lawyer Muhammad Siddique Awan, a prominent member of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Lawyers Forum, also called for verification of the degrees of candidates contesting the SCBA elections from both groups.

He said the SCBA had around 5,000 members and suggested that the degrees of all its members should eventually be verified.

Mr Awan pointed out that several lawyers had previously been found to possess invalid or fake degrees.

He also referred to the recent removal of Islamabad High Court judge Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri over an issue concerning the validity of his law degree.

However, Independent Group presidential candidate Syed Amjad Ali Shah described Mr Safdar’s allegations as stemming from a personal grudge.

Mr Shah alleged that Mr Safdar had wanted him to represent a party in a property dispute in Mansehra involving the brother of a former Supreme Court judge. He said he declined to become counsel in the matter because he lived in the same area as Mr Safdar and the judge’s brother and did not want to become involved in a dispute between local parties.

According to Mr Shah, Mr Safdar interpreted his refusal as an act of disobedience and subsequently targeted him.

He said that if Mr Safdar genuinely wanted his law degree verified, he should have adopted the proper legal and institutional procedure instead of making allegations through the media.

Mr Shah also claimed that Mr Safdar’s alleged indifferent behaviour had caused resentment among local notables in Mansehra, adding that, in his view, this was among the factors that contributed to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s failure to win a National Assembly seat from the district.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2026

The waterway is key to the world’s energy supply and is now central to the conflict between Washington and Tehran, which was triggered nearly seven months ago with deadly strikes on Iran.

Iran’s plan called for a cessation of all hostilities in the Middle East, including in Lebanon, according to Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and fulfilling conditions in the ceasefire deal that fell apart months ago.

That agreement, which dissolved during fighting over Hormuz, called for the release of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil and an end to the US naval blockade.

“Our conditions are clear, and any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent upon these conditions being fulfilled. We will not back down from them,” Araghchi said on Sunday, state broadcaster IRIB reported.

“We have never closed the door to diplomacy or negotiations, but at the same time, we have never backed down from our rights.”

But Trump said on Saturday that he rejected the truce deal.

“They want to make a deal where they open the Strait immediately because they’re losing so badly,” he told reporters. “They want to make a deal and I think that’s fine. I like making a deal too.”

Araghchi said on Sunday that the Iranians “saw the first reaction from the US president, but so far, nothing has been conveyed to us by the mediators”.

“We are waiting for the mediators to convey the definitive positions to us, and we will make a decision based on them,” the foreign minister added.

‘Tool for pressure’

Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding in June that aimed to end the war, to reopen the strait and to launch talks on Iran’s nuclear programme.

But the deal broke down shortly afterwards when Iran fired on commercial ships in Hormuz that it accused of deviating from its approved route through the waterway.

Iran requires ships to obtain authorisation before passage, citing security and sovereignty reasons.

Ships that refuse to comply are regularly targeted, while the United States sporadically bombs Iranian coastal areas in retaliation.

At the UN, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan complained that the “international community has been absent” and is failing to live up to the responsibility to keep the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab open.

“The kingdom rejects any party’s use of these vital passages as a tool for pressure, threat, or harm to the interests of states,” he said, stressing the waterways’ importance to global energy security.

His Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, told member states that “Russia, together with other responsible states, stands ready to constructively contribute to stabilising this strategically important region.”

In New York, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, according to his office, and said: “Iran has not walked away from the negotiating table but, given past experiences, it no longer trusts the United States.”

Araghchi said at the UN: “Iran has conveyed to the United States, through Qatar, a concrete seven-day plan. If the necessary conditions are met, the strait can be reopened, and normal maritime passage restored within seven days.”

“The choice now rests with the United States. Iran does not accept coercion, threats or intimidation, and Iran will not surrender its sovereign rights under pressure,” he added.

Hossein Mohebi, a spokesman for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying: “We will not cease punishing the US until Iran’s seven conditions are met.”

Mohebi had told AFP in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that ending hostilities in Yemen was also among Tehran’s demands.

“They allegedly searched some patrons and took their cellphones before fleeing the scene in two unidentified motor vehicles,” police said, adding that the incident occurred at around 1930 GMT (12am PKT) on Saturday.

The victims included 13 males and four females, police said.

The motive for the shooting was still unknown, police said, adding that the suspects torched two vehicles before fleeing.

“Police have mobilised a team of detectives and other specialised units to trace and apprehend the suspects,” they said.

In a separate shooting at an entertainment venue in a township outside Cape Town early on Sunday, gunmen killed 10 people and wounded 11 more.

South Africa is awash with legal and illegal firearms, and shootings are common, often fuelled by gang rivalry and competition between informal businesses.

The country of around 62 million people has one of the world’s highest murder rates, with about 60 people killed each day.

In March, soldiers moved into violence hotspots in Johannesburg to support police efforts to tackle rampant crime, described by President Cyril Ramaphosa as one of the biggest threats facing the country.

Polling began at 8am and is expected to conclude at 5pm. Spokesperson for the Election Commission of Pakistan Huda Gohar told Dawn that voters present within the boundaries of the polling station will be allowed to cast their vote past 5pm as well.

The constituency fell vacant after the death of Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar in August, whose son is now the ruling party candidate.

According to data from the provincial Election Commissioner’s office, a total of 483,143 people are registered in the constituency, including 248,259 men and 234,614 women, with a total of 292 polling stations. At the polling stations, 307 presiding officers and 941 polling officers and assistant presiding officers have been deployed.

A day earlier, the Punjab home department requested the interior ministry for deployment of troops of the Pakistan Army and Rangers (Punjab) in the constituency for smooth, peaceful and secure conduct of the by-election.

Leading up to the election, on September 12, in an armed clash, three persons were injured at Baqirpur in connection with the election campaign of Cheema, who is the son of former PML-Q federal minister Tariq Bashir Cheema.

As per Rescue 1122 sources, during Cheema’s election rally, the clash occurred between the supporters of the rival candidates, and some of them resorted to firing, resulting in injuries to three people.

The pandas’ transfer had already been agreed, but the departure was announced on Thursday during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington.

The black and white mammals are immensely popular around the world, and China loans them out as part of a “panda diplomacy” programme to foster foreign ties.

Ping Ping and Fu Shuang departed from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport on a chartered flight at around 3:00 am on Sunday (12am PKT on Saturday), state news agency Xinhua reported.

Steamed corn buns, bamboo shoots and carrots have been prepared to keep the pandas nourished during their 15-hour flight, Chinese state-run media outlet the Global Times reported.

The Boeing 777 operated by FedEx was the top-tracked aircraft on aviation information platform FlightRadar24 as it neared Alaska, roughly halfway into its journey.

The pandas are headed to a zoo in Atlanta, Georgia, where they will be spending the next 10 years.

A farewell ceremony was held for the pair before their departure by the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

Experienced keepers were dispatched by the US side to accompany the duo on their flight, the Global Times reported.

In preparation for their arrival, Zoo Atlanta has renovated its panda facilities and assembled a team of animal caretakers.

It has also ensured a stable and long-term supply of bamboo, grown locally in Atlanta, which has a climate that is very similar to Chengdu.

Zoo Atlanta previously hosted pandas on loan from China for a quarter of a century starting in 1999, but it has not had any since 2024.

Both the expected arrivals were born in 2020. Ping Ping, a male, is now six years old, while Fu Shuang, a female, will turn six next month.

Pandas in captivity typically live for around 30 years.

The furry creatures have been sent across the globe for decades as soft-power ambassadors of Beijing’s diplomatic goodwill.

In 1972, China gifted a pair of pandas to Washington, following US President Richard Nixon’s historic visit.

Beijing recalled two of its pandas from Japan early this year, following a diplomatic spat that began when Japan’s prime minister hinted that Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of any attack on Taiwan.

According to the reports available with Dawn, the patients, including three women, who had been receiving dialysis at the hospital tested positive for the deadly virus after initial diagnosis.

The hospital administration has referred them to the Nishtar Hospital Multan for further medical evaluation and treatment and they are currently under treatment there.

The Mian Channu hospital officials told the media that more than 60 patients were receiving dialysis at the facility and HIV could not be transmitted through the dialysis process. They said that they were assessing the situation.

Infected patients, including three women, sent to Multan’s Nishtar Hospital

Sources, however, said that more dialysis patients might also have tested positive but the officials did not confirm more cases.

In recent years, several HIV cases were reported in the healthcare facilities in Punjab.

In November 2024, around 30 kidney patients at the Nishtar Hospital were reported to have contracted HIV during dialysis, while one patient died after developing complications. A Punjab government fact-finding committee subsequently confirmed an HIV/AIDS outbreak in the hospital’s nephrology unit and identified violations of dialysis guidelines and standard operating procedures.

A scientific study published in 2026, involving researchers from the Aga Khan University and the Punjab AIDS Control Programme, found that the Multan dialysis cases were closely linked and provided evidence that the infections originated within the healthcare setting. The Punjab government ordered proceedings under the PEEDA Act against senior officials and medical staff over alleged negligence and mismanagement related to the outbreak in Nishtar Hospital Multan in January 2025.

Another major HIV-related crisis had emerged in Taunsa where 106 children tested HIV positive and they were registered with the AIDS Control Programme in March 2025. The government had established a screening and treatment centre at the THQ hospital and ordered action against senior local health officials. Later, a joint mission involving WHO, Unicef, UNAIDS and other partners carried out door-to-door screening of around 50,000 people in the affected area. It also said auto-disable syringes were supplied to government hospitals and that hundreds of clinics allegedly being run by quacks were sealed.

The Punjab AIDS Control Programme says it provides free HIV testing, counselling, treatment, diagnostic services and follow-up care and treatment centres were established in districts, including Lahore, Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan, and more than 14,000 patients were receiving free treatment.

At the federal level, the National AIDS Control Programme says 84,421 HIV cases were registered in Pakistan by December 2025, of whom 60,785 were receiving antiretroviral therapy at 98 centres.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2026

The polling on the constituency is scheduled for Sept 27 in which sympathy following the death of sitting PML-N MNA Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar, demands for a separate province and the PTI’s decision to boycott the election have emerged as key features of the by-election. Whereas, the PPP had also withdrawn its candidate and announced support for Mr Channar, while other political and religious groups have also extended support to him.

PPP leader Syed Ali Haider Gillani, while addressing the media, said that they were supporting PML-N under the coalition agreement. He said that PML-N had also not fielded its candidate on the seat won by the PPP in the 2024 election. On the other hand, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan had said the party would not participate in any electoral process under the current circumstances. The decision has left the party without a candidate in the constituency despite its candidate Samiullah Chaudhry being the runner-up to the late Mr Channar in the 2024 general elections.

Independent candidate Wali Dad Cheema has been openly appealing to PTI supporters and sympathisers to vote for him. Addressing a gathering, Mr Cheema said he had entered the contest because of the PTI boycott, otherwise the PML-N candidate would have won without an election. He said that he needed PTI supporters’ backing to win the contest.

PTI has announced boycott of elections, while PPP has withdrawn its candidate in support of PML-N

However, PTI leaders from different areas of Punjab have subsequently posted videos on social media rejecting claims that the party or its supporters were backing the Cheema group. They have urged their supporters to abstain from voting. Several voters interviewed by Dawn said the death of Mr Channar has generated sympathy for his family and could translate into support for his son.

A voter, Mustafa Khan, said the Channar clan appeared united behind the PML-N candidate following the death of his father.

“Although the candidate was not very popular among the masses and his father had not given him a provincial assembly ticket, his position is still good,” he said.

Mr Khan said Mr Tariq Bashir Cheema had not contested an election for around 18 years in this constituency and could therefore find it difficult to mobilise substantial support. He also referred to controversies surrounding Wali Dad Cheema.

Another voter, Khadim Hussain, said the demand for a Seraiki province could benefit the Channar candidate because the Cheema camp was campaigning for the restoration of the Bahawalpur province. He said he would personally vote for a candidate who supported the demand for a Seraiki province.

Social activist Salman Bhadera also described Mr Channar’s position as favourable, saying PML-N local leaders and a group of around 15 MPAs were holding gatherings to mobilise support for the candidate.

He said people in Bahawalpur generally supported candidates who visited them and sought votes respectfully. He alleged that Mr Cheema and his supporters had adopted a confrontational approach and were issuing threats and challenging local political norms, which, he argued, could work against them. When asked about the possible disposition of PTI supporters, he said they were not fully prepared to support any particular candidate.

According to Mr Bhadera, PML-N was seeking to mobilise its workers while Mr Cheema was attempting to consolidate support through his personal contacts and political groups.

He said that only PTI was popular and the candidate who managed to get their support could win easily.

On the other hand, Wali Dad Cheema and his father have repeatedly campaigned for restoring the Bahawalpur province and have maintained that Bahawalpur should be made a province regardless of whether the government created other provinces.

The issue has gained significance because the PPP, while supporting the PML-N candidate, has also publicly expressed support for the creation of new provinces, including a Seraiki province. For voters, however, the campaign remains centred on a combination of local representation, political alliances, provincial status and constituency-level concerns.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2026