24-10-2025

Month: December 2023

Russia, Arab League demand UN ceasefire for Gaza

Russia and the Arab League called jointly on Wednesday for a UN ceasefire resolution for the Israel-Hamas war during the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum in Marrakesh, Morocco.

The forum, which usually focuses on diplomatic and economic ties, was dominated by the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

“We hope that the Security Council will raise its voice for a mature resolution (calling for a ceasefire),” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during the meeting. “We have agreed to continue coordination within the United Nations.”

The UN Security Council was set to vote later on Wednesday on a resolution calling for a pause in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, diplomatic sources told AFP.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 19,600 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.

On October 7, Hamas militants carried out an unprecedented attack against Israel from Gaza, killing about 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Chaired by Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, the meeting was attended by Lavrov and diplomats from the 22-member Arab League.

“We hope that the Security Council can adopt this resolution and that there will not be a veto from a permanent member, notably the United States,” said Hossam Zaki, assistant secretary general of the league.

“The Arab hope is that the United States understands that international patience is exhausted in the face of Israel’s practices.”

Speaking via videoconference, Arab League Chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit called for an “immediate ceasefire,” adding that “anyone who opposes an immediate ceasefire in Gaza has the blood of innocents on their hands”.

“The occupation is the heart of the problem and the origin of the cause,” Aboul Gheit said, advocating for a two-state solution and calling for the “creation as quickly as possible of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders”.

Lavrov also said it was “urgent to create a Palestinian state” and even “accelerate the process,” because “some sources say that our Western partners are trying to develop hidden projects to separate the West Bank from Gaza”.

On December 8, the US vetoed a ceasefire resolution.

Wednesday’s vote on a new resolution comes after two votes were delayed on Monday with members wrangling over wording, sources told AFP.

The text’s latest version calls for a “suspension” of the conflict, said the sources.

Netanyahu rules out Gaza ceasefire before ‘elimination’ of Hamas

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday there will be no ceasefire in Gaza until the “elimination” of Hamas, which is at war with Israeli forces in the Palestinian territory.

“We won’t stop fighting until we’ve achieved all the objectives we’ve set ourselves: the elimination of Hamas, the release of our hostages and the end of the threat from Gaza,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

PM Kakar conveys heartfelt condolences to new Kuwait Emir Sheikh Meshal

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Monday conveyed profound sympathies and condolences to new Kuwait Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah over the sad demise of Emir Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad passed away on Saturday (December 16) at the age of 86 after leading the Gulf nation for three years.

During his meeting with Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad, the prime minister offered his heartfelt condolences on behalf of the leadership, government and people of Pakistan.

He said the Pakistani nation stands united with our Kuwaiti brothers in this time of sorrow and grief.

“The state of Kuwait has lost a visionary leader, who transformed Kuwait into a prosperous state,” the premier said.

PM Kakar also said Nawaf Al-Ahmad would be remembered as a well-wisher and friend of Pakistan who made great contributions in advancing bilateral relations between the two brotherly states.

Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad expressed gratitude to the leadership, government and the people of Pakistan for standing with the people of Kuwait in this time of grief. He expressed full support for Pakistan-Kuwait relations and affirmed his commitment to further augment this relationship.

Gen Asim Munir, CENTOM chief Kurilla hold talks on regional security

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir, who is on an official visit to the US, visited Headquarters Central Command at Tampa Bay in Florida, and held a meeting with CENTCOM Commander General Michael Erik Kurilla, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on Tuesday.

During the meeting, the military’s media wing said matters of shared interests, particularly cooperation in regional security matters, came under discussion.

“Both sides discussed avenues of joint training and reiterated the need for enhancing training interactions between CENTCOM and Pakistan Army,” the ISPR said.

Gen Munir also visited the CENTCOM Joint Operations Center.

Gen Munir landed in the US last week on his maiden official visit to the country since assuming office in November last year.

Earlier, the army chief held meetings with top US officials including Secretary of State Antony J Blinken, Secretary of Defence General (retd) Llyod J Austin, Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Q Brown during the visit.

In the meetings, Pakistan and the US agreed to enhance cooperation on matters related to counter-terrorism and defence collaboration, according to ISPR’s statement.

Responding to a question related to General Munir’s ongoing visit to the US, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday that the army chief met a number of senior officials at the State Department and Pentagon.

“Pakistan is a major non-NATO ally of the United States and a NATO partner. We look forward to partnering with them on regional security and defence cooperation,” he added.

Indian opposition MPs suspended for demanding security breach statement

NEW DELHI: When Bertolt Brecht wrote his acid account of the subversion of democracies by autocratic regimes, he would have hardly had the Indian parliament in mind.

In a move that would make the legendary German playwright’s spirit squirm, the two houses of India’s parliament on Monday saw the suspension of a total of 78 opposition MPs taking the toll of suspended MPs from December 15 to 92.

While 33 MPs were suspended in the Lok Sabha, 45 were suspended in the Rajya Sabha. On December 14, a total of 14 MPs (13 in Lok Sabha and one in Rajya Sabha) were suspended.

The suspensions come as both houses of parliament saw repeated adjournments amid calls from opposition MPs for a statement from Union home minister Amit Shah on the security breach in parliament on December 13, when two men jumped from the public gallery into the Lok Sabha hall and opened smoke canisters.

Earlier on Monday, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla said that a high-level probe is already looking into the security breach and some of the suggestions given by opposition MPs have been implemented while others will also be looked into.

“It is sad that politics is being done on this. To enter the well of the house and do sloganeering and disrupt the proceedings is against the dignity of the house,” he said. When the house resumed proceedings in the afternoon, parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion to suspend 30 opposition MPs for “misconduct” and “utter disregard” to the chair.

Three other Congress MPs’ suspension has been referred to the Privileges Committee, The Wire news portal said.

In the Rajya Sabha leader of the house Piyush Goyal moved a motion to suspend 34 members of the opposition for “misconduct” and “continuously shouting slogans and even entered the well of the house during the course of the day thereby violating the rules of the house”.

Following the suspensions on Monday, opposition MPs have lashed out at the Modi government for being “autocratic”.

Rajya Sabha MP and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that “democratic norms are being thrown into the dustbin by an autocratic Modi Govt by suspending 47 MPs”.

“With an Opposition-less Parliament, the Modi Govt can now bulldoze important pending legislations, crush any dissent, without any debate,” he wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

 

He added that the opposition’s demands include a statement from Shah on the security breach and a discussion in both houses. After the suspensions in the Rajya Sabha, Congress’s Jairam Ramesh who was also suspended said that it was “a bloodbath in the Rajya Sabha with 45 INDIA party MPs getting suspended for demanding a statement by the Home Minister”. “Incidentally, I too figure in this Roll of Honour — for the first time in my parliamentary career of 19 years,” he wrote on X. “This is Murder of Democracy in India (MODI) at work!”

Gaurav Gogoi, one of the MPs suspended on Monday, accused the Modi government of depriving the rights of the people of the country.

“They are bulldozing the opposition and crushing the moral rights of people in the House. It makes evident that they don’t have the intention to run the House,” he told the news agency PTI. “In order to hide Shah’s failure in protecting parliament they are stooping to these measures.”

At least 118 dead in northwest China earthquake

Officials in impoverished Gansu province said the shallow tremor just before midnight had caused the deaths of at least 105 and injured almost 400 as of Tuesday morning.

A further 13 died, 182 were injured and 20 were missing in the city of Haidong in neighbouring Qinghai province, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

 

 

The quake brought homes crashing down and caused other significant damage, sending people running into the street for safety, state news agency Xinhua said.

“I was almost scared to death. Look at how my hands and legs are shaking,” said a woman of about 30 in a video posted to a social media account associated with the state-run People’s Daily newspaper.

“As soon as I ran out of the house, the earth on the mountain gave way, thudding on the roof,” she said as she sat swaddled in a blanket outside, cradling a baby.

Footage from CCTV showed family possessions visible among strewn masonry from a house that caved in during the quake.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar said he was deeply saddened at the loss of lives and extended sympathies to the victims.

 

 

The quake was China’s deadliest since at least 2014, when more than 600 people died in southwestern Yunnan province.

China’s western hinterland carries the scars of frequent seismic activity, and a huge quake in Sichuan province in 2008 left more than 87,000 people dead or missing, including 5,335 schoolchildren.

The US Geological Survey said Monday night’s magnitude-5.9 quake struck at a shallow depth at 11:59 pm local time (1559 GMT) with an epicentre around 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Gansu’s provincial capital, Lanzhou.

China’s state news agency Xinhua reported the magnitude as 6.2 and said the shaking was felt as far away as the major city of Xi’an, about 570 kilometres (350 miles) away.

Dozens of smaller aftershocks followed, and officials warned that tremors with a magnitude of more than 5.0 were possible in the next few days. A quake measured at magnitude 5.2 by USGS was detected further northwest in the Xinjiang region on Tuesday morning.

Freezing temperatures

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for “all-out efforts” as search and rescue work got under way early on Tuesday.

Temperatures are below freezing in the high-altitude area, and rescuers should be on guard for secondary disasters, he said, according to CCTV.

Provincial officials said at a press conference on Tuesday morning that nearly 5,000 homes had been damaged by the quake in Gansu.

 

 

State media reported that power and water supplies were disrupted in villages around the epicentre but that some electricity had later been restored.

Footage from one of the worst-hit places on CCTV showed residents warming themselves by a fire while emergency services set up tents.

CCTV said more than 1,400 firefighters and rescue personnel had been sent to the disaster zone, while another 1,600 remained “on standby”.

 

 

The broadcaster added that supplies including drinking water, blankets, stoves and instant noodles were also being sent to the affected area.

Footage showed emergency vehicles driving along snow-lined highways towards the scene with their lights flashing.

Rescue workers in overalls were pictured shoulder-to-shoulder in the trucks, while other images showed them lining up in ranks to receive instructions. Other clips showed emergency personnel going through debris by torchlight, unfolding orange stretchers for the casualties.

Hundreds of people have been evacuated in Gansu, officials said.

 

The earthquake struck at a shallow depth at 11:59 pm local time Monday (1559 GMT), according to the USGS, which revised the magnitude downwards after initially reporting it to be 6.0.

Earthquakes are not uncommon in China. In August, a shallow 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck the eastern part of the country, injuring 23 people and collapsing dozens of buildings.

In September 2022, a 6.6-magnitude quake hit Sichuan province leaving almost 100 dead.

And in 2010, a 6.9-magnitude quake in Qinghai left 3,000 people dead or missing.

Finance secretary Shona Robison must explain how she will fill an estimated £1.5bn hole in Scotland’s books when she delivers her £60bn budget later.

Options on the table include tax rises for higher earners, spending cuts for government departments, and public sector job losses.

“The priority,” Ms Robison told BBC News, “will be around funding public services.”

Visiting RAF Lossiemouth in Moray, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Scotland was “already the highest taxed part of the UK,” and “it would be very disappointing to see that tax burden continue to rise.”

 

Whatever decisions are taken, this is one of the most difficult budgets since broad powers over domestic affairs, such as health and education, were devolved from London to Edinburgh in 1999.

Since then more than half of the money available to Scotland’s devolved government, currently run by the SNP and the Scottish Green Party, has come directly from Westminster in a ‘block grant,’ which varies annually depending on UK government spending levels and priorities.

In 2016, the Scottish government also gained expanded tax-raising powers, which now include the ability to set income tax rates and bands; business rates; and the property purchase tax formerly known as stamp duty.

However the Scottish finance secretary has only limited powers to borrow, meaning she must present a balanced budget.

There are two parts to that budget: resource spending, which means the day-to-day running of public services, and capital, which involves investment in longer-term projects.

In a strategy document published in May, Ms Robison warned that Scotland’s financial situation was “amongst the most challenging since devolution”.

At that point, the SNP government in Edinburgh was facing an estimated shortfall in resource spending of £1bn and capital of £450m.

Although much has changed since then, the overall shortfall of around £1.5bn remains broadly the same, according to the Fraser of Allander Institute at Strathclyde University.

Why has the shortfall barely changed?

First, inflation has proved persistent, after a sharp rise in prices attributed, variously, to the war in Ukraine, the fallout from the Covid pandemic, and the UK’s exit from the European Union.

To a certain extent this has been positive for the Scottish government because it has helped to generate income taxes around £970m higher than forecast.

UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt also benefited from a higher-than-expected tax take.

But if Ms Robison was pinning her hopes on his investing the extra cash in public services, which would have led to an increase in her budget through the block grant, then she was disappointed.

In fact, with a general election in the offing, Mr Hunt used his autumn statement to prioritise two big UK-wide giveaways: cutting national insurance and making permanent a tax break for business investment in machinery and equipment.

While both apply in Scotland, neither makes any difference to the size of the Scottish budget.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the Autumn Statement in the House of Commons last month

There was, however, an additional £310m for Scotland as a result of the chancellor’s decision to provide tax relief to small businesses and to the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors south of the border.

As with the rest of the block grant, Ms Robison can chose whether to spend that cash on the same policies as the UK Conservative government or she can use it elsewhere.

So if the amount of money available to the Scottish government has risen dramatically since the Spring, why is there still a problem?

In part it is because inflation has forced up the costs of running public services but another part of the answer lies in a string of costly promises made by First Minister Humza Yousaf.

He has pushed up welfare payments to tackle poverty, with both the Scottish Child Payment and the Adult Disability Payment (which is replacing the Personal Independence Payment) incurring significant additional costs.

He has authorised pay deals with public sector workers in order to avoid strike action in Scotland. The Fraser of Allander Institute estimates this cost at £500m per year.

Mr Yousaf has pledged to spend an extra £100m per year over the next three years to cut NHS waiting lists.

And at the SNP’s autumn conference he stunned Scotland’s 32 local authorities by announcing that he was freezing the council tax nationwide.

That means Ms Robison must find funds to make up the shortfall, with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) looking for at least £300m.

Cosla’s resources spokesperson, Councillor Katie Hagmann, says without additional support from Edinburgh, around a quarter of the country’s 32 councils are facing the prospect of running out of money for core services.

“Clearly there has been a plethora of cuts already to our library services, to our community facilities,” she said, warning “difficult decisions may have to be taken if the budget isn’t favourable.”

“Every service has been cut in some way over the last decade,” agrees Chris Kane, the leader of Labour-run Stirling Council.

“It’s horrendous,” he said, “you can’t sugarcoat it.”

Councillor Kane warns that “it would be catastrophic if a council was to fail.”

So, where will the Scottish government find the money it needs?

It has a very limited ability to raise some money through borrowing, including potentially by issuing bonds but this would not put a serious dent in the budget.

New tax band

The finance secretary has also been studying proposals on tax made by the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC).

At present, according to the Fraser of Allander Institute’s pre-budget report, those earning up to £27,800 in Scotland “tend to pay a little less” than they would elsewhere in the UK while earners above that level “tend to pay significantly more”.

One option would be a new tax band for earnings between £75,000 and £125,140.

Prof Mairi Spowage, director of the Fraser of Allander Institute, said at 44 pence in the pound such a band would raise around £40m, rising to around £60m at 45p.

Clearly that would not come close to filling the estimated £1.5bn funding gap, leaving open the possibility of significant cuts to public services as well.

The finance secretary would not say where the axe might fall but she has defended the continued existence of universal benefits.

State-funded tuition alone cost an estimated £900m in 2022/23 according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The think tank warns that preserving it will be “increasingly difficult given the financial pressures facing the Scottish government as well as Scottish universities and students.”

One way to ease the pressure could be job cuts.

One in five workers in Scotland is employed by the state.

According to Audit Scotland, the devolved public sector workforce amounted to more than 450,000 full-time equivalent roles in 2021/22, costing more than £22bn that year.

Ms Robison has repeatedly warned of the need to bring that number down, although she has also promised to negotiate any cuts with the trade unions and to avoid compulsory redundancies.

Still, on the eve of the budget, the finance secretary was signalling that the expansion of the Scottish state might have peaked.

We must, said Ms Robison, “reduce the size of the public sector in an orderly way.”

Supreme Court shuts all doors to election delay

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that no objections can be raised on the delimitations after the announcement of the schedule for the upcoming general elections.

A three-member bench of the top court, headed by interim chief justice Sardar Tariq, took up an appeal filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against the Balochistan High Court’s (BHC) decision to change the delimitations carried out by the polls organising body.

The decision was announced on ECP’s appeal against the delimitation of two provincial seats in Quetta. The SC also nullified the BHC’s decision on delimitation.

The top court’s order has virtually closed all doors to election delay as courts across the country would not be able to entertain any petition challenging delimitation carried out by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) any more.

If the petitions against the delimitations were admitted, the lengthy litigation process could lead to delays in the elections.

The development comes days after the apex court nullified the Lahore High Court (LHC) order that halted the training of returning officers, raising prospects of polls delay in the country and paved way for the elections to take place on its scheduled time.

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa-led bench directed the electoral body to announce the election schedule, ending uncertainty surrounding the polls.

In its order on the ECP’s petition, the three-member SC bench ruled that the LHC would not hold further hearings on the petitions related to the appointment of polling officers and that any matter pertaining to the issue should be referred to the top court.

The LHC’s decision, which came on a plea filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawyer Umair Niazi, suspended ECP’s decision to appoint the ROs and DROs from the executive branch.

Following the top court’s decision, the electoral body issued the much-awaited schedule for the general polls.

A day earlier, the ECP also resumed the training for the ROs and DROs in line with the top court’s verdict.

Election conundrum

Upon the advice of then-prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, President Alvi dissolved the 15th National Assembly three days before the completion of its five-year term.

The former government prematurely dissolved the lower house to ensure that the polls were scheduled 90 days later — in line with the Constitution.

However, that did not seem to happen, as the commission had said that it could not follow up on the 90-day deadline as it had to work on fresh delimitation of constituencies after the Council of Common Interests (CCI) approved the results of the 2023 digital census

The ECP did that because Section 17(2) of the Elections Act states that “the commission shall delimit constituencies after every census is officially published” — which is in contrast with the constitutional deadline.

In October, the Raja-led ECP announced that the polls would be staged in January next year, but did not announce the exact date, and in return, received flak.

In response to the ECP’s decision to hold the polls later than the constitutional deadline, the PTI and several others filed a plea in the top court seeking timely polls. On the same plea, the SC ordered the ECP and the president to consult, which resulted in a consensus date of February 8.

But that did not seem to shut down the rumour mill and fears of the political parties who repeatedly voiced concerns that since the election schedule hasn’t been announced, the polls would be delayed.

Pakistan Peoples Party Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari had also said that a delay of “eight to 10 days” in the general elections would make no difference.

PM Kakar to visit Kuwait to convey condolences on demise of Emir Sheikh Nawaf

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar is set to undertake a one-day visit to Kuwait on Monday to offer his condolences over the sad demise of Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah.

A brief statement issued by the Foreign Office spokesperson said that the premier would convey sympathies and condolences to the royal family, the government and the people of the Arab state on behalf of the government and people of Pakistan.

Sheikh Nawaf passed away at the age of 86 on Saturday during the course of treatment at a hospital following a month-long ailment.

The Kuwaiti leader was laid to rest after his funeral prayer at the Bilal bin Rabah mosque this morning,

Following the passing away of the Emir, Kuwait announced a 40-day mourning period, which was supposed to kick off with absentee prayers across the country’s mosques at noon prayers, the Ministry of Endowments announced.

The Pakistani government also announced a one-day national mourning period on the demise of the Kuwaiti leader. During the mourning, the national flag will be flown at half-mast across the country, a notification issued by the Cabinet secretariat said.

Condolences poured in from around the world following news of the Emir’s death.

The United Arab Emirates and Oman also announced a three-day mourning period in their jurisdictions, Arab media reported.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia will be holding absentee funeral prayers in the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet’s mosque in Madinah.

PML-N asks ticket aspirants to submit nomination papers on Dec 20

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) has asked the party applicants, who are seeking the party’s tickets to contest the upcoming general elections, to submit their nomination papers before their respective returning officers on December 20 (Wednesday)

The parliamentary board that is reviewing the process of assessing the situation of every constituency separately could not complete its work in the last three weeks due to the large number of candidates for each constituency on a tentative deadline.

Highly placed sources in the PML-N told The News that the exercise for review would be completed tomorrow (Tuesday). After two days of leadership discussions, the final list of the ticket holders for both the echelons of the assemblies would be announced on Thursday and the tickets would be awarded the same day.

The sources added that the applicants, who would have filed their nomination papers, would be asked to withdraw as they would be accommodated subsequently in other distinguished slots including Senate and offices to be filled by the executive if they are not given the ticket.

PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and President Shahbaz Sharif will make public the list of ticket holders after having consultations with other senior leaders.

The parliamentary board had its 12 marathon sessions for reviewing the constituencies, which were jointly chaired by the Sharif brothers. The recommendations of the board were compiled upon the conclusion of every sitting.

The announcement about the ticket holders was withheld because seat adjustment and arrangements with like-minded parties had to be worked out, the sources said.

They further said the parties are keen to have an adjustment with the PML-N on a higher number of seats. The PML-N has made up its mind to make such adjustments comparatively at a higher scale in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh/Karachi and Balochistan. The party would be following a meticulous formula in the case of Punjab constituencies. It wouldn’t surpass seven to 10% of total seats in the province, viewed as a traditional stronghold of the PML-N, the sources said.

The party’s election manifesto committee convenor Senator Professor Irfan Siddiqui, who has choreographed the initial draft of the manifesto, has travelled to Lahore. He will be submitting the same to Nawaz Sharif and it is likely that right after the announcement of the list of ticket holders, the manifesto will be made public. The 40-member manifesto committee has included the issues of public interest but it has been articulated on a realistic basis after mustering massive input from the masses and party workers, the sources added.

The sources said in the meanwhile, a nine-point agenda based on the manifesto has been compiled which would broadly become a source for highlighting the PML-N’s future planning after winning the polls.

Moreover, the election campaign will also revolve around the agenda which includes massive reforms in the judicial system and the provision of justice for the common man. In addition, it would ensure the curtailing of governmental and administrative expenditures.

The income of the common man and national exchequer revenue would be increased, while the tax system would be reformed drastically. The steps for increasing exports would be taken on the fast track and without any delay. The tariff for information technology (IT), energy, electricity and gas would be slashed. The public sector organisations which are experiencing huge losses would undergo administrative scrutiny, the sources added.

The sources further said that under the nine-point agenda, the youth and women will be provided new income opportunities. The agriculture would be revolutionised through the use of sophisticated technology.

The sources pointed out that the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) that was set up by the Shahbaz-led government would continue to work. It was a facility to act as a “single window” to facilitate investors, establish cooperation among all government departments, and fast-track project development.

Senator Siddiqui had discussed the agenda with Nawaz and Shehbaz, the sources added.

Nine dead in Nagpur factory blast

The blast occurred early on Sunday morning at a factory run by Solar Industries India, the police officer surnamed Salve said. The factory manufactures industrial and military explosives, as well as propellants and warheads for India’s defence sector, according to Solar Industries’ website.

The injured were shifted to nearby hospitals, Salve said, adding that the number of casualties could increase. Salve was part of the team that went to the site of the explosion on Sunday morning.

Police were still investigating the cause of the blast, which occurred in the factory’s packing area.

Solar Industries India confirmed in a statement to the stock exchange that nine workers had been killed and said it was investigating the causes of the accident and what corrective and preventive actions needed to be implemented.

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