Author: Niyoosha Sarbani

(9/3 – 125) Kazakhstan is gearing up for snap elections of the lower house of parliament on March 19, and there is a sense of anticipation in the air. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who came to power in 2019, called for snap elections in the wake of the deadly street protests in January 2022. The elections are part of the president’s ambitious reform agenda, Jana Kazakhstan (New Kazakhstan), which aims to usher in a new era of political liberalization. The parliamentary elections are stage two of Tokayev’s program, following his re-election winning 80 percent of the votes last November. The coming…

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday said his party was “exploring legal response” to allegations made by PTI Chairman Imran Khan a day ago that PPP co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari was plotting a “Plan C” with the aid of a terrorist outfit to assassinate Imran. In an explosive claim in a televised address on Friday, Imran said: “Now they have made a plan C and Zardari is behind it. He has unlimited corrupt money […] the money he loots from the Sindh government is used in elections, to buy MPAs […] whether it is the elections…

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has sought “serious” and “sincere” talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi for the resolution of the “burning” issues, including on Kashmir, and said the UAE could play an important role in facilitating the resumption of dialogue between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. Prime Minister Sharif made these comments during an interview with the Dubai-based Al Arabiya news channel on Monday. Also Read: Pakistan welcomes third-party mediation in resolution of outstanding issues with India Relations between India and Pakistan have been strained over the Kashmir issue and cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. India has previously rejected…

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) fears spread of new variant of Covid, which is driving a huge surge in China, in Pakistan as travel restrictions between the neighbouring countries have been relaxed. Authorities at the NCOC, the principal body governing the policies and implementation of the national Covid effort of Pakistan, said they had made preparations to tackle the spread of the Omicron sub-variant BF.7. They recalled that Pakistan had successfully controlled the spread of Covid variants in the past through effective implementation of the policies. They said 90 per cent of Pakistani population was fully vaccinated and it…