Dawn

• Marriage hall owners urge govt to reconsider decision; call restrictions ‘impractical, distressing and likely to cause confusion’
• Considering ground realities, it would be difficult for authorities to enforce ‘complete implementation’, remarks opposition leader Khurshidi

KARACHI: Digital payments have changed the landscape of banking transactions in the country as 92 per cent retail transactions were carried out through this mode during the second quarter of FY26, according to the State Bank of Pakistan.

QUETTA: Balochistan Inspector General of Police Muhammad Tahir has congratulated provincial police personnel for arresting 497 proclaimed offenders over the 40-day special campaign launched against criminals wanted by police for cases of murder, attempted murder, robberies and kidnapping for ransom.

QUETTA: Balochistan Gov­ernor Jaffar Khan Mandokhail said on Thursday that brain drain is seriously affecting higher education in public universities of the province as senior professors are migrating to other provinces due to lack of facilities and job insecurity in public sector universities of Balochistan.

Iran’s supreme leader, Mojataba Khamenei, denied on Friday Tehran’s role in recent attacks in Turkiye and Oman, claiming that it was a “false flag tactic” by Israel instead.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday that he had rejected recommendations for further increasing petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) prices, adding that, however, he had instructed relevant ministries to devise a mechanism to ensure that the “relief” was restricted to only the deserving and needy.

On the twenty-first day of the US-Israeli war on Iran, a sombre Nowruz and Eidul Fitr eve set the domestic mood in Iran, as fresh military developments and a shifting coalition posture pointed to an imminent widening of the war.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday discussed the ongoing hostilities in the Middle East in phone calls with leaders from several countries, with all calling for de-escalation in the region.

For Lebanese Muslims, there was little to celebrate on Friday during Eidul Fitr as a displacement crisis prompted by Israeli strikes and fears for the future cast a dark shadow over the end of Ramazan.