Pakistan's English-language daily, flagship of the Dawn Media Group
Pakistan’s Foreign Media Facilitation Guidelines 2026 have been issued, requiring accreditation and travel clearance for reporting outside Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. Rights groups call the move a restriction on press freedom; the government says it provides a transparent framework for registration and reporting.
A fire has killed 14 newborn babies at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad. The blaze has started in the third-floor mother-and-child unit, where 15 infants were present; hospital staff rescued one. Authorities have launched inquiries, suspended senior health officials and ordered urgent safety reviews across hospitals.
A formal inquiry into the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences fire has found systemic and institutional failures that allowed a spark from an air-conditioning unit to become a catastrophe, with 14 newborns dying. The report cites locked or obstructed exits, absent nursery fire procedures, and delayed external rescue despite rapid frontline response.
Pakistan has sealed Islamabad with thousands of security personnel, more than 1,000 shipping containers and roadblocks as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) presses for a nationwide march demanding the release of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan. Authorities have detained Khan’s three sisters and dozens of PTI leaders; the party has delayed but kept pressure on the government.