Weather in most parts of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa became pleasant after it rained on both Eid days. It rained in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Azad Kashmir on Saturday. According to the Met Office, showers are expected in different parts of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday as well. Strong winds, thunder and lightning…

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal has not finalized the names of its candidates for the elections as the two main political parties in the religious parties’ alliance are at loggerheads with each other over the allotment of tickets. The JI and JUI-F−the two main political groups in the MMA−are divided over the allotment of election tickets. The…

Justice (retd) Dost Muhammad Khan took oath as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s caretaker chief minister on Wednesday. “The election will be free and transparent,” he said at the oath-taking ceremony. The Election Commission appointed him on Tuesday as the interim CM to oversee the province until the elections on July 25. A six-member parliamentary committee was unable to…

Election commission has appointed Justice (retired) Dost Muhammad Khan as caretaker Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to see the province through the elections scheduled for July 25. Election Commission announced it on Tuesday morning after a meeting wherein the election body finalised the name. Speaker KP Assembly had referred four names to the commission after…

Up until now, if people in Bayzai, Mohmand wanted their road repaired, they would have to hope that the all-powerful political agent would deign to help them. But now that ‘Fata’ has been merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, all of this is set to change. For one, democracy will come to the area. Local government elections…

President Mamnoon Hussain has signed a legislation that merges the country’s tribal regions with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Through the legislation, the government has granted some 5 million people in the regions the same rights as other Pakistanis. President Mamnoon Hussain signed the 31st Constitutional Amendment at a ceremony in Islamabad on Thursday. The President…

Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) here on Thursday issued an alert about intense heatwave during the next four to five days in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Deputy Commissioners were advised to take precautionary measures and remain alert during these days to avoid heatstroke, PDMA official sources told APP. People could contact the control room on phone…

The Islamabad High court has declared the delimitations in four districts of KP and Punjab provinces as null and void. The IHC has ordered the ECP to conduct fresh delimitations in the districts keeping in view the ratio of their population. Ten NA constituencies and 21 provincial constituencies in Jehlum, Toba Tek Singh, Jhang and…

JUI-F chief Moulana Fazl-ur-Rehman said the constitutional amendment to merge FATA with KP was approved without addressing the reservations of tribal people. “The FCR has been abolished in FATA without imposition of any alternate system,” Mr. Rehman said, while addressing a press conference in Islamabad. “They came to know after 70 years that Quaid-e-Azam made…

Women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa need no longer feel insecure when travelling to offices or educational institutes–14 buses exclusively for women and children below age 12 are operating in two districts of Pakistan.  The transport service has come about thanks to the Japanese government which has provided funds up to $1.7mn for the project. The Sakura…

Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa said the youth has a ‘great role to play’ in rooting out extremism and terrorism from the country. “The state is determined to root out extremism and terrorism for which the youth has a great role to play,” the Army chief told a delegation of FATA Youth Jirga. Youth…

Not all jirgas make decisions, some have post-militancy poems On a lonely highway that takes you from Dera Ismail Khan to Karak is a place called Paharkhel where men used to gather to read their verse out aloud. It is a wide open space where these street poets would spar, or inspire each other with…

Have a look at Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl’s objections over historic legislation about FATA-KP merger.

The KP government and opposition approved the name of the name of Manzoor Afridi for the caretaker chief minister. Manzoor Afridi is the brother of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Ayub Afridi. PTI Chairman Imran had endorsed Afridi’s name for the position. The official announcement will be made on May 27.

Pakistan People’s Party Senator Raza Rabbani said that that the decision to merge Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will not pave the way for the formation of new provinces. The former Senate chairman, addressing a session of the Parliament’s upper house on Friday, said that every province has its own rules depending…

People in Pakistan’s tribal areas celebrated FATA’s historic merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after National Assembly passed a unanimous bill paving way for the abolition of 100-year-old black laws of Frontier Crimes Regulation. But will it really end the issue of tribal people. Watch analysis by Samaa’s senior anchor Nadeem Malik.

The National Assembly on Thursday passed a constitutional amendment seeking the much-awaited merger of the FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the voting, 229 MNAs from PML-N, PPP, PTI, MQM-P and Jamat-e-Islami voted in favour of the bill while lawmakers of JUI-F and PkMAP opposed it while staging walkout.

Once the bill is passed and becomes a law, FATA will be merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. What’s in it for FATA, by the way? Once FATA merges with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the high court will function in the tribal areas as well. FATA will receive Rs24bn annually for development…

Folk music is alive on YouTube and on Facebook in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where singers have in many cases graduated on to the digital realm to preserve a tradition. Live music, especially with women folk singers, has mostly been silenced. A handful of singers took on the Pashto music scene and became popular but barely a…

PTI chief Imran Khan said that his party was fully prepared for the first time to contest elections.  Imran was speaking to attendees at an event in Islamabad where Asad Umar unveiled the PTI’s 100-day plan if it formed the government. “Pakistan is being run by the law of the jungle,” he said. “The powerful…

Report by: Mohammad Irfan Inspector Inayat aka Tiger is a living legend of Pakistani police. The brave hero has destroyed over 4,000kgs of explosives despite being injured six times. He heads the bomb disposal squad in DI Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. His right foot was blown off when he was defusing a bomb in 2014. He…