Pakistan town blames deadly cholera outbreak on government neglect

Residents of Pir Koh say poor water provision and a dirty water tank led to 26 deaths, the majority among children under seven

Two weeks ago, Ruqiyya Bibi fell sick. The two-year-old was vomiting constantly; her father, Mohammed Iqbal, took her to a basic health unit in Pir Koh, a impoverished town with a population of 40,000 in the mountains of Balochistan, south-western Pakistan.

Iqbal was told at first that his daughter had malaria but when treatment did not help, he took her to another doctor who said she had a blood condition.

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Pakistan: former human rights minister arrested over land grabbing allegation

Shireen Mazari’s daughter tweeted that her mother was beaten and taken away by police near her Islamabad home on Saturday

Pakistan’s former human rights minister was arrested on Saturday in the capital over a decades-old land grabbing allegation, her daughter and another former minister said.

Shireen Mazari, who served in the cabinet-level position under former prime minister Imran Khan, was detained by police near her Islamabad home, daughter Imaan Mazari said in a tweet.

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Baloch women fear crackdown after Karachi suicide attack

Pakistan’s first female suicide bombing marks shift in nature of Baloch militancy

On 26 April, Pakistan’s first female suicide bomber killed three Chinese teachers and the driver of the minibus they were travelling in as she blew herself up in front of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi.

The impacts have been felt far and wide. Chinese teachers working at the cultural and educational institutions have now left Pakistan, and in the restive province of Balochistan female activists are facing greater pressures, with three reported abductions this week.

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Climate crisis makes extreme Indian heatwaves 100 times more likely – study

Latest analysis adds to evidence that the impacts of human-caused global heating are already damaging many lives around the world

Record-breaking heatwaves in north-west India and Pakistan have been made 100 times more likely by the climate crisis, according to scientists. The analysis means scorching weather once expected every three centuries is now likely to happen every three years.

The region is currently suffering intense heat, with the Indian capital New Delhi setting a new record on Sunday above 49C and the peak temperature in Pakistan reaching 51C. Millions of people are suffering from crop losses, and water and power outages.

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Global hit Pasoori opens doors for Pakistani pop

Song has more than 111m views on YouTube and has been heralded for transcending boundaries

From radio stations in Islamabad to the nightclubs of Delhi and house parties in Kathmandu, it is a song that in recent months has been impossible to avoid. As soon as the distinctive opening claps of Pasoori, by the Pakistani singer Ali Sethi and his collaborator Shae Gill, are heard, it is often greeted with a roar of approval.

And it is not just in south Asia: since it was released in February, the song, which draws on traditional and modern musical influences, has gone on to become a global phenomenon and one of Pakistan’s most popular musical exports for years. It has more than 111m views on YouTube, it was the first Pakistani song to top Spotify’s global viral charts, and the first Pakistani song to enter its official global songs chart.

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From India’s highs to Thailand’s lows, Asia’s weather is hitting extremes

Analysis: As the heatwave in India and Pakistan starts to intensify again, Thailand and China are recording strangely cold May days

The final days of April saw further unbearable temperatures recorded in India and Pakistan. Temperatures peaked at 49C in Jacobabad, Pakistan on 30 April, with a high of 47.2C observed in Banda, India. The Indian Meteorological Department confirmed that average temperatures in April were the highest for northern and central parts of the country since records began over 100 years ago.

Heatwaves are a common occurrence at this time of year in India and Pakistan, but scientists believe the intensity, duration and arrival time of the conditions witnessed so far this year are caused by rising global temperatures. Despite a slight respite in the extreme heat over the past few days, temperatures are set to intensify once more this weekend and into next week with maximum temperatures expected to approach 50C in parts of north-west India and Pakistan.

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‘We are living in hell’: Pakistan and India suffer extreme spring heatwaves

April temperatures at unprecedented levels have led to critical water and electricity shortages

For the past few weeks, Nazeer Ahmed has been living in one of the hottest places on Earth. As a brutal heatwave has swept across India and Pakistan, his home in Turbat, in Pakistan’s Balochistan region, has been suffering through weeks of temperatures that have repeatedly hit almost 50C (122F), unprecedented for this time of year. Locals have been driven into their homes, unable to work except during the cooler night hours, and are facing critical shortages of water and power.

Ahmed fears that things are only about to get worse. It was here, in 2021, that the world’s highest temperature for May was recorded, a staggering 54C. This year, he said, feels even hotter. “Last week was insanely hot in Turbat. It did not feel like April,” he said.

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Gunmen steal 200 Eid outfits from Pakistani tailor in Islamabad

Muhammad Razzaq says two armed men tied up and beat his staff and made off with 240 shalwar kameez

Gunmen have stolen more than 200 outfits made for the customers of a Pakistani tailor for the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.

Muhammad Razzaq said two armed men barged into his store in the capital, Islamabad, tied up and beat his staff, before making off with 240 completed or near-finished traditional shalwar kameez outfits.

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Four killed by female suicide bomber near China institute in Pakistan

Baloch Liberation Army claims responsibility saying it was the first such attach by a female assailant

A suicide bomber from a Pakistani separatist group has killed four people, including three Chinese nationals, in an attack on a minibus carrying staff from the Confucius Institute at Karachi University.

The Baloch Liberation Army – one of several groups fighting for independence in Pakistan’s biggest province – claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s bombing, saying it was the first suicide attack by a female assailant.

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Spectre of polio returns to haunt Pakistan as baby boy is left paralysed

First case in a year sparks fears of new outbreak despite success of national programme to wipe out the disease

Pakistan has confirmed its first case of polio after more than a year, damaging the country’s hopes of eradicating the virus. Health officials have announced that a baby boy in North Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan, is paralysed after contracting polio.

Dr Shahzad Baig, a coordinator with the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, confirmed the “deeply saddening” case.

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Pakistan ‘inches away’ from civil unrest after ousting of Imran Khan

Former PM is accused of creating wave of public anger that could prove difficult to control

On Tuesday, two days after Imran Khan had been ousted as Pakistan’s prime minister in a dramatic no-confidence vote, Noor Alam Khan – a politician and former member of Khan’s party – was eating dinner at a restaurant when he was confronted by another diner.

The man began shouting “traitor”, “American agent” and “turncoat” and then lunged over to punch Khan, who had been attempting to ignore him. In the middle of the restaurant, the politician and the angry voter began to brawl, with food and tables going flying.

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Imran Khan threatened to impose martial law, documents suggests

Pakistan’s now ousted PM appeared to give opposition ultimatum: agree to fresh elections or I’ll bring in army

Imran Khan, who was ousted as Pakistan’s prime minister on Saturday, threatened to implement martial law rather than hand over power to the opposition, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

According to security officials and opposition figures, he attempted several moves to hold on to power in the days and hours leading up to the no-confidence vote. However, he failed to stop it happening, and in the final minutes before midnight on Saturday, he was ousted from office.

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Pakistan parliament ousts Imran Khan in last-minute vote

Pakistan’s prime minister found to have broken the law by attempting to stop vote going ahead

Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has lost a no-confidence vote in parliament after a dramatic week in which he violated the constitution in an attempt to stop the move going ahead.

Khan, the former premier cricketer turned pious Islamist politician, has been fighting for his political life for weeks, after losing his parliamentary majority.

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‘Fake’ US federal agent claimed ties to Pakistani intelligence, prosecutors say

Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, accused of posing as homeland security officials and cultivating Secret Service access

One of two American men arrested in Washington for posing as US federal security officials and cultivating access to the Secret Service, which protects Joe Biden, claimed ties to Pakistani intelligence, a federal prosecutor told a judge.

Justice department assistant attorney Joshua Rothstein asked a judge not to release Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, the men arrested on Wednesday for posing as Department of Homeland Security investigators.

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Pakistan court orders Imran Khan confidence vote to go ahead

Supreme court rules PM acted unconstitutionally in dissolving parliament before confidence vote

Pakistan’s supreme court has dealt a devastating blow to the prime minister, Imran Khan, by ruling that he acted unconstitutionally in dissolving parliament prior to a confidence vote he was expected to lose, and ordering the vote to go ahead this weekend.

In the conclusion to a hearing that has gripped Pakistan for the past four days, the chief justice of Pakistan, Umar Ata Bandial, said Khan had violated the law in his attempt to stop the vote, which was widely expected to oust him.

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Pakistan’s supreme court delays verdict on fate of Imran Khan

Country remains in political turmoil as it awaits ruling on PM’s move to dissolve parliament and call election

Pakistan remains without a government and engulfed in political turmoil after the supreme court delayed its verdict on whether the prime minister, Imran Khan, had violated the constitution by dissolving parliament rather than face a no-confidence vote.

Khan’s decision to call for parliament to be dissolved on Sunday, rather than allow a no-confidence vote on his premiership that was expected to oust him, had been justified by him on the basis that it was an alleged “foreign conspiracy” led by the west against his government.

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Imran Khan appears to want to keep power in Pakistan at any cost

Prime minister cuts an increasingly isolated figure – and his dramatic dissolution of parliament is a very risky move

Imran Khan’s dramatic move to dissolve Pakistan’s parliament on Sunday morning, ahead of a vote that almost certainly would have removed him from office, reads to many like the desperate actions of a prime minister who will try to hold on to power at any cost.

While his repeated allegations of a “foreign conspiracy” and pressure from the US being behind the no-confidence vote has played well to his diehard supporters, most of whom are vehemently opposed to the west, it is still a very risky move for Khan.

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Pakistan’s PM calls for early election after vote of no confidence thrown out

Imran Khan alleges ‘foreign conspiracy’ to topple his government as US denies involvement

Pakistan is on the brink of a constitutional crisis and the prime minister, Imran Khan, is facing accusations of treason after he dissolved parliament and called fresh elections in order to block a no-confidence vote that was expected to remove him from power.

The former superstar cricketer turned politician stunned the country after he took the dramatic action of dissolving the legislature prior to a parliamentary vote that could have stripped him of his prime ministership.

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Pakistan’s transgender women protest against rising tide of violence

Rally and vigil held in Islamabad to highlight discrimination and attacks on community, including murders of five trans women in March

Mano had gone to meet her boyfriend at a printing press in Peshawar’s Qissa Khwani bazaar to get back some money he had borrowed.

“But he refused to pay,” her friend Farzana Riaz said. “Mano insisted and refused to leave without money. When Mano kept resisting, her boyfriend Sanaullah shot her.”

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Imran Khan claims US threatened him and wants him ousted as Pakistan PM

Khan makes claims in live televised address as no-confidence vote debate begins in parliament

Pakistan’s embattled prime minister, Imran Khan, has claimed that the US “threatened” him and is seeking his removal from office as he faces a no-confidence vote in the coming days that could mean the end of his premiership.

Khan, who opposition parties accuse of bad governance and economic incompetence, had claimed at a rally on Sunday he had a letter that showed a foreign country was conspiring against him and his political opponents working at its behest.

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