ISLAMABAD: The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Saturday said that the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander of Miramshah, Umer was killed by security forces on the outskirts of Miramshah the previous night. In a statement issued today, the ISPR stated that the civilian population has been evacuated from North Waziristan where the Zarb-i-Azb operation is targeting local and foreign militants.

ISLAMABAD: Answering all four questions posed by Imran Khan a day earlier, Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Saturday said that he advised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to deliver a televised victory speech in the wake of May 11 polls. Speaking at a press conference, he said that he was the one who advised the PML-N chief to speak to the party workers on the night of the 2013 General Elections.

QUETTA: Chief Minister Balochistan Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has vowed to battle against the extremists and terrorists forcibly closing educational institutions in Panjgoor district of the troubled province. Politicians, educationists and members of civil society, at a seminar held here on Saturday, urged upon law enforcement agencies to protect teachers and educational institutions in Panjgoor, one of the most backward districts in Balochistan.

KARACHI: One new polio case has been detected in Karachi on Friday, taking the city’s total to seven and country’s reported total for this year to 84. The 22-month-old child, a resident of Karachi’s Landhi area is the latest victim of the debilitating polio virus in the city, where polio vaccinators have come under attack in recent years. The parents of the victim refused to allow vaccination for their child when the anti-polio campaign began in the area.

KARACHI: There is a handlebar-mustached thug in all of us – or so says local Android app developer Pawail Qaisar, the creator of a mindlessly addictive game centered around everyone’s current favourite, Shafeeq Gujjar aka Gullu Butt. “Everyone is frustrated in one way or another,” Pawail says, “There is a Gullu in all of us.”While we are hoping Pawail is wrong about there being a vandal in all of us, the 10,000 downloads of his game ‘Gullu’ trumpet the appeal of the Gullu Butt phenomenon.

PESHAWAR: At least two women were killed and a child went missing after a van travelling on Adezai bridge in Charsaddah’s Shabqadar tehsil plunged into the Kabul River. Sources said that the van, carrying 18 passengers, was enroute from Bajaur tribal region when it met with an accident. Emergency teams reached the spot and managed to rescue 15 passengers. The rescued passengers were shifted to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Beijing is exploring a trilateral security cooperation with its neighbouring countries India and Pakistan, said a report published on NDTV on Friday. Journalists representing the Global Times, an affiliate of the ruling Communist Party of China’s (CPC) People’s Daily publication group, paid a visit to Pakistan and sought views from scholars of Islamabad Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) on a likely India-China-Pakistan trilateral cooperation.

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal on Friday said that under the prevailing circumstances, the country needs an industrial revolution and long march for economic revival. He was addressing a round table conference on “Improved access to health services”, organised by the Young Development Fellows (YDF) of the Planning Commission . The minister stressed the need for strengthening and stabilising the democratic political system and also emphasised continuity in developmental policies to achieve the desired results of these policies and reforms.