KARACHI: At least one Pakistani was wounded after Iranian forces opened fire on smugglers in an area on the border of Iran and Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, a local Pakistani official said on Wednesday.
The Associated Press reported that the shooting at the border left at least two dead and six wounded. It quoted Iranian officials as saying forces had shot at several fuel smugglers on the Pakistani side of the border near Saravan the day before.
Mohammad Hadi Marashi, deputy governor of the Sistan-Balochistan province, also accused Pakistani forces of opening fire at a gathering of fuel smugglers trying to cross back into Iran, killing one and wounding four.
Pakistan has set aside nearly $20 million to fence its 900-kilometer border with Iran, frequently used for trade and by minority Shia Muslims who travel from Pakistan to Iran for religious pilgrimages. But the border is also the entry point for cross-border militancy and for an illegal fuel trade that authorities have struggled to crackdown on for decades.
Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported that the shooting was part of a crackdown by Iranian authorities against smugglers of Iranian petrol.
“No Pakistani [has] died ... only one person from Kharan [was] injured with a leg bullet, who is stable now,” Abdul Razzaq Sasoli, deputy commissioner of Panjgur, a Pakistani district bordering Balochistan, told Arab News, denying reports that a Pakistani had been killed in the incidents.
One border official said on condition of anonymity that one Pakistan had been killed in the firing incident. Arab News could not verify that claim from Pakistan’s foreign office or the Balochistan home minister Mir Ziaullah Langove, who did not respond to repeated attempts for comment.
Sanaullah Baloch, a Pakistani lawmaker and leader of the Balochistan National Party, said the number of the deceased and injured was much higher than reported.
“We have reports that several dead and injured have been brought to Panjgur and other districts of Balochistan,” Baloch said. “I demand a trilateral commission comprising members of the Iranian and Pakistani foreign ministries and Baloch representatives and elders to probe this unfortunate incident and dig out the reasons for why fire was opened on innocent people.”
Iran has not officially confirmed or denied the incident yet.
An angry mob stormed a district governor’s office in southeastern Iran on Tuesday, footage widely circulating on social media showed, a day after shootings at the border. Violent clashes had also erupted Monday at a police station in Saravan. Iranian border guards opened fire at fuel smugglers trying to storm the station, wounding several, AP reported.
Pakistan says one local wounded in border firing by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
https://arab.news/gx4nr
Pakistan says one local wounded in border firing by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
- International media reported that the shootings at the border left at least two dead and six wounded
- Iranian official accuses Pakistani forces of opening fire at fuel smugglers trying to cross back into Iran
Pakistan seeks UN Human Rights Council seat, pledges consensus-based engagement
- Pakistan has previously served multiple terms on the Geneva-based Human Rights Council
- Dar reaffirms support for UN reforms, multilateral diplomacy during Security Council presidency
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has this week formally announced its candidacy for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2026–2028 term, vowing to pursue a platform based on tolerance, universality and consensus-building.
The announcement was made by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday during a reception hosted by Pakistan’s Mission in New York as the country assumed the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of July.
Pakistan has previously served multiple terms on the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, which is composed of 47 member states elected for staggered three-year terms by the UN General Assembly. The next round of elections is scheduled for late 2025.
“Pakistan has also presented its candidature for election to the Human Rights Council for the term 2026–2028. Our engagement with the Human Rights Council is guided by the idea of truth, tolerance, respect, universality, consensus-building and engagement,” Dar said at the dinner.
“Pakistan’s candidature is endorsed by the Asia-Pacific Group, and we hope to count on your valuable support.”
The announcement coincides with Pakistan’s broader push for UN reform, its active participation in Security Council deliberations this month and its ongoing diplomatic efforts to strengthen the UN system’s focus on peace, development, and rights.
Dar also used the reception to reaffirm Pakistan’s commitment to multilateral diplomacy and UN Charter principles, especially the peaceful resolution of disputes and the non-use of force.
As part of its Security Council presidency, Pakistan has prioritized three areas: the peaceful settlement of disputes, multilateralism and enhanced cooperation between the UN and regional bodies such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Dar explained.
“These same guiding principles continue to shape our contributions to the Council’s work, including in our presidency this month, both in deliberations and in action,” the deputy prime minister said, noting that Pakistan continues to support “reform of the United Nations to make this organization stronger, more effective, and more responsive to the interest and priorities of the general membership.”
Pakistan, he added, has “championed strengthening of the three pillars of the United Nations — peace and security, development and human rights,” including across the General Assembly, ECOSOC, and other multilateral platforms.
On Tuesday, under Pakistan’s presidency, the UNSC unanimously adopted a resolution calling on member states to use peaceful means to resolve disputes.
The resolution encourages states to make full use of existing mechanisms such as “negotiation, mediation, arbitration, judicial settlement or other peaceful means,” in accordance with the UN Charter.
Deadly monsoon rains kill 245 in Pakistan as flood, landslide warnings escalate
- Monsoon rains have injured more than 600 since late June
- Pakistan ranks among world’s most climate-vulnerable nations
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s disaster agency on Wednesday warned of continued torrential rains, flash floods and landslides in the country’s northern and central regions, as the nationwide death toll from this monsoon season climbed to 245, with over 600 people injured.
The alert follows weeks of heavy rains that have triggered house collapses, urban flooding and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), phenomena linked to rapid glacier melt, with children making up nearly half of all fatalities.
“Heavy rains may generate flash floods in local streams of Chitral, Dir, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra, Kohistan, Abbottabad, Buner, Charsadda, Nowshera, Swabi, Mardan, Murree, Galliyat, Islamabad and Rawalpindi,” the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said in a statement.
“Urban flooding is also likely in low-lying areas of major cities including Gujranwala, Lahore, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Nowshera and Peshawar.”
The PMD also warned that glacier lake outburst floods remained a growing threat in high-altitude areas, exacerbated by accelerated ice melt driven by global warming. It urged the public to avoid travel to mountainous regions, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir, and Murree, due to the heightened risk of landslides.
According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), this monsoon season which began in late June, at least 135 deaths have occurred in Punjab, including 63 children, followed by 59 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 24 in Sindh, 16 in Balochistan, six in Islamabad, three in Gilgit-Baltistan, and two in Azad Kashmir.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed authorities to accelerate relief operations in flood-hit regions.
Local media reported that search efforts were still underway for a father and daughter whose car was swept away in a flash flood in Islamabad’s upscale Defense Housing Authority (DHA) neighborhood.
Earlier this week, key travel routes such as the Karakoram Highway and Babusar Top were closed due to heavy landslides, blocking access to northern Pakistan.
The monsoon typically delivers 70–80 percent of South Asia’s annual rainfall between June and September. While crucial for agriculture, the seasonal rains also bring destruction in countries like Pakistan where infrastructure is weak, drainage systems are poor and climate resilience remains underfunded.
Pakistan, home to more than 7,000 glaciers, ranks among the most climate-vulnerable countries despite contributing less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. It has already experienced increasingly erratic weather in recent years, including record-breaking heatwaves, droughts, and severe storms.
In 2022, unprecedented monsoon rains combined with glacial melt submerged nearly a third of the country, killing more than 1,700 people and displacing over 8 million. The disaster inflicted $30 billion in damages and prompted global calls for climate reparations.
In May this year, at least 32 more people were killed during sudden rainfall and hailstorm incidents.
Pakistan tax-to-GDP ratio up 1.5 percentage points as PM orders stricter oversight of informal economy
- Officials say the tax-to-GDP ratio reached 10.6 percent by the end of June 2025, up from 9.1 percent the previous year
- PM Sharif instructs FBR to fast-track restructuring of its digital wing, consult stakeholders like businesses
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s tax-to-GDP ratio rose by 1.5 percentage points in fiscal year 2024–25 compared to the previous year, officials said on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called for stronger enforcement measures to bring the country’s vast informal economy into the tax net.
The tax-to-GDP ratio reached 10.6 percent by the end of June 2025, up from 9.1 percent the previous year, according to a briefing at a review meeting chaired by the prime minister in Islamabad.
The government aims to continue raising the ratio under a wider economic and structural reform efforts backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which includes digitization of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the country’s tax collection agency, to improve enforcement and expand the tax base.
“Digitization at the FBR has helped meet targets, but steps must now be taken to ensure the system becomes sustainable,” the prime minister was quoted as saying in a statement released by his office. “Enforcement must be strengthened further to curb the informal economy.”
The meeting was told that total tax revenue collected in FY2024–25 crossed Rs20.4 trillion ($71.4 billion), while the number of income tax return filers jumped from 4.5 million in 2024 to over 7.2 million by June 2025.
Officials credited the increase to enhanced enforcement, including reforms in the retail sector, integration of point-of-sale systems and an expanded digital footprint.
They said tax revenue from the retail sector alone rose by Rs455 billion ($1.6 billion) compared to the previous year.
The prime minister instructed FBR to fast-track the restructuring of its digital wing, set deadlines for implementation and consult with all stakeholders, including taxpayers and the business community, to ensure the reform process remains inclusive.
He also praised FBR officials and directed them to present actionable targets for the next phase of reforms within a week.
Balochistan says provincial action plan against separatists ready amid spike in violence
- Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti says ethnic insurgent groups are dragging the Baloch nation ‘into a futile war’
- He maintains security forces are operating in ‘grey zones’ where it is hard to distinguish between friend and foes
ISLAMABAD: Amid a renewed wave of separatist violence in Balochistan, Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti said Wednesday a provincial action plan for peace had been formulated, as he warned of the evolving and asymmetric nature of the security threat facing the province.
The statement came during the 16th National Workshop on Balochistan in Quetta, where Bugti addressed senior civil and military participants. His remarks followed a recent spike in attacks by ethnic Baloch insurgents, who have escalated their decades-long campaign by launching coordinated strikes on security forces, government officials and non-local workers.
The unrest continues despite repeated crackdowns and military operations, complicating stability efforts in a province critical to the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“A provincial action plan for peace in Balochistan has been formed,” Bugti was quoted in an official statement circulated after the event. “Our response mechanisms have been strengthened, and terrorists cannot hold even an inch of ground permanently.”
While acknowledging that the province has long suffered from misgovernance and uneven development, Bugti rejected that unemployment and underdevelopment alone were driving unrest.
“Those who fight the state do so not because of jobs or education but because they dream of a separate state based on Baloch identity,” he continued. “This is an intelligence-driven drone war against Pakistan.”
He added that the insurgents were attempting to push the Baloch people into an unwinnable conflict.
“The Baloch nation is being dragged into a futile war,” he said, warning that acts of violence, whether in the name of nationalism or religion, would be treated the same.
“We will embrace those disillusioned with the state and address their grievances, but those who kill innocents and want to break the country cannot be engaged outside the constitution,” he added.
The chief minister described the provincial security landscape as increasingly opaque, saying Pakistani forces were operating in “grey zones” where it was difficult “to distinguish between friend and foe.”
On the issue of enforced disappearances, a deeply contentious point in Balochistan’s political discourse, Bugti said that comprehensive legislation had already been passed.
Families of missing persons and human rights groups accuse state institutions of arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan.
Pakistani authorities have frequently rejected these claims, calling them “baseless allegations.”
Reiterating that the fight against separatist violence is not just the state’s burden but “a war that concerns every Pakistani,” Bugti said the state would remain firm against any attempt to destabilize the province.
Pakistani officials push for unified climate-health strategy under comprehensive national framework
- Stakeholders advocate One Health Pakistan initiative, linking human, animal and environmental health
- The meeting in Islamabad says pollution, biodiversity loss are accelerating zoonotic disease outbreaks
ISLAMABAD: Senior Pakistani officials on Tuesday urged stronger cross-sector coordination to address the country’s rising climate-linked health risks, as stakeholders gathered in Islamabad to reaffirm support for the One Health Pakistan initiative, a national framework linking human, animal and environmental health.
The meeting was held at COMSTECH and co-hosted by the Health Services Academy and the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination. It brought together officials from the health, environment and development sectors, along with representatives from the World Health Organization, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and World Wide Fund for Nature.
The session focused on building a climate-resilient health workforce and integrated response systems for pandemic preparedness.
“We must reaffirm our collective commitment to the One Health Pakistan initiative,” said Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Health Dr. Nelson Azeem. “The challenges we face are interlinked, and so must be our response.”
Other speakers warned that unchecked pollution, biodiversity loss and weak institutional coordination were accelerating zoonotic disease outbreaks and undermining early warning systems.
Participants proposed the creation of dedicated One Health Units within provincial and federal departments to streamline disease surveillance and climate-health response planning, potentially funded through Annual Development Plans, Public Sector Development Program or international pandemic preparedness programs.
Those present also agreed to turn dialogue into concrete action by strengthening inter-agency coordination, investing in integrated surveillance systems and scaling up climate-resilient health planning nationwide.
