Category: 1. Pakistan

RICHFIELD: Just hours after a shooter opened fire through the windows of a Catholic church in Minneapolis, killing two children and wounding 17 people, hundreds crowded inside a nearby school’s gym, clutching one another and wiping away tears during a vigil alongside Gov. Tim Walz and clergy members.

Speaking to a silent crowd crammed shoulder-to-shoulder Wednesday night, while hundreds more waited outside, Archbishop Bernard Hebda described the students trying to shield their classmates as the gunfire erupted.

“In the midst of that there was courage, there was bravery, but most especially there was love,” he said at the Academy of Holy Angels, about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) south of the shooting, in the suburb of Richfield.

Armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol, 23-year-old Robin Westman shot dozens of rounds Wednesday morning toward the children sitting in the pews during Mass at the Annunciation Catholic School, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at news conferences. The shooter then died by suicide, he said.

The children who died were 8 and 10. Fourteen other kids and three octogenarian parishioners were wounded but expected to survive, the chief said.

Rev. Dennis Zehren, who was inside the church with the nearly 200 children, said they were almost to the end of the Responsorial Psalm, which speaks about light in the darkness. That’s when he heard someone yell, “Down down, everybody down,” and the gunshots started.

Fifth-grader Weston Halsne told reporters he ducked for the pews, covering his head, shielded by a friend who was lying on top of him. His friend was hit, he said.

“I was super scared for him, but I think now he’s OK,” the 10-year-old said.

Police investigate motive for the shooting

FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the shooting is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics.

O’Hara said police hadn’t yet found any relationship between the shooter and the church, nor determined a motive for the bloodshed. The chief said, however, that investigators were examining a social media post that appeared to show the shooter at the scene.

O’Hara, who gave the wounded youngsters’ ages as 6 to 15, said a wooden plank was placed to barricade some of the side doors, and that authorities found a smoke bomb at the scene.

On a YouTube channel titled Robin W, the alleged shooter released at least two videos before the channel was taken down Wednesday. In one, the alleged shooter shows a cache of weapons and ammunition, some with such phrases as “kill Donald Trump” and “Where is your God?” written on them.

A second video shows the alleged shooter pointing to two outside windows in what appears to be a drawing of the church, and then stabbing it with a long knife.

Westman’s uncle, former Kentucky state lawmaker Bob Heleringer, said he did not know the accused shooter well and was confounded by the “unspeakable tragedy.”

The police chief said Westman did not have an extensive known criminal history and is believed to have acted alone.

Federal officials referred to Westman as transgender, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey decried hatred being directed at “our transgender community.” Westman’s gender identity wasn’t clear. In 2020, a judge approved a petition, signed by Westman’s mother, asking for a name change from Robert to Robin, saying the petitioner “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”

Police chief says officers rescued children who hid

The police chief said officers immediately responded to reports of the shooting, entered the church, rendered first aid and rescued some of the children.

Annunciation’s principal Matt DeBoer said teachers and children, too, responded heroically.

“Children were ducked down. Adults were protecting children. Older children were protecting younger children,” he said.

Vincent Francoual said his 11-year-old daughter, Chloe, survived the shooting by running downstairs to hide in a room with a table pressed against the door. But he still isn’t sure exactly how she escaped because she is struggling to communicate clearly about the traumatizing scene.

“She told us today that she thought she was going to die,” he said.

Walz lamented that children just starting the school year “were met with evil and horror and death.” He and President Donald Trump ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff on state and federal buildings, respectively, and the White House said the two men spoke. The governor was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in last year’s election against Trump’s running mate, now Vice President JD Vance, a Republican.

From the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV sent a telegram of condolences. The Chicago-born Leo, history’s first American pope, said he was praying for relatives of the dead.

Monday had been the first day of the school year at Annunciation, a 102-year-old school in a leafy residential and commercial neighborhood about 5 miles (8 kilometers) south of downtown Minneapolis.

Karin Cebulla, who said she had worked as a learning specialist at Annuciation and sent her two now-college-aged daughters there, described the school as an accepting, caring community.

The Supreme Court on Thursday acquitted a man who was jailed for 12 years over allegations of raping his daughter, citing contradictions in the prosecution’s evidence.

In a court order dated Aug 26, seen by Dawn.com, Justice Ali Baqar Najafi said that the prosecution’s evidence was discarded, noting it was “deficient of trustworthiness”.

“The sentence and conviction of the appellant is set aside. He be released forthwith if not required in any other case,” the order read.

In 2010, the suspect’s minor daughter informed her mother and maternal uncle that “her own father had committed rape with her”, according to the order.

It stated that on October 2, 2010, the victim, aged six or seven, went to her mother in tears and disclosed that her father, the appellant, had committed a “wrong act” with her, after which she felt severe pain.

Subsequently, the father was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment under Section 376(1) of the Pakistan Penal Code and a fine of Rs35,000. The sentence was upheld by the Lahore High Court in 2013.

The suspect had approached the SC against the LHC’s decision. The case was heard by a three-member bench today.

The order noted that the mother’s case was that the daughter was “subjected to rape by the appellant at 2:00pm”, but the victim’s statement “creates doubt about her credibility and, therefore, requires strong corroboration”.

It further read, “According to the complainant (mother), the victim was brought to the hospital where she was examined in her presence.

“However, the doctor’s opinion is self-contradictory as in her examination in chief she stated that the victim was subjected to rape but in the cross-examination she categorically stated that on the basis of chemical examiner’s report, no rape was found to have been committed with her.”

Justice Najafi stated, “This leaves the court to a serious question on the credibility of the statement of the victim and the possibility of false implication of the appellant. Why such serious allegations were levelled against the appellant, may be due to the fact came on record that there was a dispute between the complainant and the appellant …”

The judge also mentioned that the trial court did not put the Rationality Test to the victim before recording her statement, stating, “… a child is a competent witness if he/she passes a standard of sufficient maturity of understanding about the facts which were to be narrated by her”.

“A note/observation by the court, based on the relevant questions and their answers would make such statement credible,” the order read, noting that the victim’s statement “needs strong corroboration”.

Despite the presence of anti-rape laws — with punishment for rape either resulting in the death penalty or imprisonment of between 10 and 25 years — cases continue to prevail in the country.

Last year, data gathered by Sahil, an NGO working on cases of child sexual abuse, revealed that the overwhelming majority of abusers are acquaintances or neighbours in communities or family members.

In March, four suspects who raped and killed an 11-year-old girl in Bahawalpur were traced as the victim’s relatives, with two of them being maternal uncles.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a $1 million donation to assist Pakistan in tackling the ongoing monsoon floods. The funds will be provided through the World Health Organization (WHO) to strengthen preparedness and emergency response across the country.

According to the WHO, the support will focus on 33 high-risk and severely affected districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan. The initiative is expected to meet urgent health needs for more than 465,000 people.

The contribution will also help national and provincial authorities ensure the continuity of life-saving health services in flood-affected areas, where access to treatment and medical care has been severely disrupted.

Pakistan is currently grappling with one of the most severe flood emergencies in recent years. Heavy monsoon rains have triggered widespread flooding in multiple provinces, submerging villages, destroying homes, and washing away thousands of acres of farmland. Rivers such as the Sutlej, Ravi, and Chenab have crossed dangerous levels, displacing thousands of families and leaving many communities cut off.

The government has declared emergencies in several districts, while the army has been deployed for rescue and relief efforts. In addition to loss of life, health risks such as waterborne diseases are rising in flood-hit areas, making international assistance critical.

Hadiqa Kiani has appealed to communities living along the Ravi, Sutlej and Chenab river belts to prioritise safety and evacuate immediately as the country grapples with catastrophic flooding.

Taking to Instagram, Kiani shared a heartfelt video message in which she asked people in vulnerable settlements not to take the situation lightly.

“As you know, Pakistan is going through a difficult time, floods are ravaging the country, KPK, Sindh and Punjab are on high alert. Settlements near the Ravi, Sutlej, and Chenab are most vulnerable. It’s constantly raining, and water levels are constantly rising,“ she said.

“My request for the people living in these settlements is that they take these alerts seriously and try to move from there. Take your valuables and try to find shelter elsewhere so your life, and the lives of your loved ones, aren’t at stake,” added Kiani.

Her message comes as the government issues urgent evacuation orders, calling on citizens near the three rivers to relocate to safer areas “in view of the unprecedented flood situation”. Relief efforts are being ramped up with the army deployed in eight districts, including Lahore, Kasur, Narowal and Faisalabad, as thousands scramble to escape the rising waters.

Large parts of Punjab have been submerged, with floodwaters displacing hundreds of thousands of people, sweeping away livestock and devastating agricultural land. Officials say the crisis has been worsened by torrential rains and excess water released from Indian dams flowing into Pakistan’s river system.

So far, over 150,000 people and 35,000 livestock have been moved to safe zones, with rescue teams operating around the clock. According to UN-OCHA, this year’s monsoon death toll in Pakistan is already nearly three times higher than the same period last year.

Kiani has often used her platform to raise awareness during natural disasters and humanitarian crises. In 2022, her Vaseela campaign stepped up to help people affected by the Balochistan floods. That year, the floods inundated several villages and claimed approximately 225 lives and damaged over 26,000 homes, according to PDMA Balochistan.

In case you wish to play your part, we made a list of organisations working towards flood relief in Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that will most likely be collecting donations for Punjab too.

Two men arrested for torturing two brothers in a Rs30 dispute with street vendors in Raiwind were killed in an “encounter” with the Crimes Control Department (CCD), the victims’ lawyer said on Thursday.

The incident came to light after a video clip showing street vendors subjecting both brothers to torture went viral on social media. The suspected attackers were spotted holding clubs in their hands and beating the victims at a public place in Raiwind. One brother died of severe torture marks at the spot, while the other succumbed to his injuries on Sunday.

Ali Ahmed Awan, the lawyer representing the victims’ father, told Dawn.com a day prior that a total of six suspects were named in the case, out of which three — including the main suspect — had been arrested.

“Two of the suspects, Owais and Shahzad, were killed in a police encounter after their accomplices attempted to attack the police,” Awan said today. “The CCD is still searching for the rest of the suspects.”

No case has been registered regarding the police encounter yet, he said.

On August 22, a first information report (FIR) was filed on the complaint of the victims’ father at the Raiwind City Police Station under Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly) and 302 (murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

According to the FIR, the incident occurred on August 21 at 5:45pm when the brothers were returning home and stopped to buy some fruit.

“Due to a dispute over money, the owner of the fruit cart … and his brother … began beating my sons and called some other people,” the complainant said.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar received a phone call on Wednesday night from German Foreign Minister Dr Johann Wadephul, the Foreign Office said on Thursday. 

The two leaders reiterated their commitment to further strengthen “mutually beneficial cooperation, and understood the importance of high-level contacts”.

The two leaders also discussed their views on regional issues.

The German foreign ministry had announced earlier this week that it would be lifting its ban on entry of Afghan nationals after growing legal pressure at home and a deportation push by Pakistan.

Around 2,000 Afghans were approved for relocation to Germany under a programme for individuals considered at risk under Taliban rule. These 2,000 individuals have been stranded in Pakistan for months, after Berlin halted the initiative amid a pledge to limit migration.

The decision to resume migration came after several lawsuits were filed by groups and affected Afghan individuals, questioning the freeze.

This decision cames amid Pakistan’s move to expel Afghan refugees ahead of the September 1 deadline, which includes those part of Germany’s relocation programme.

The Constitution of Pakistan, 1973, is more than a legal document—it is the collective promise of how the nation chooses to resolve its biggest challenges that affect its stability and growth. Article 160, which created the National Finance Commission (NFC), was crafted with statescraft foresight. It was not meant to be simply an accounting exercise, but a meaningful political settlement of competing interests and a blueprint for fiscal fairness and equalisation—designed to balance the needs of both larger and smaller provinces, tax-rich and tax-poor regions alike. At its heart, the NFC is meant to correct the vertical and horizontal imbalances of tax and expenditure assignments and achieve a robust fiscal federalism. Its formula is not just about dividing money; it is about creating fairness, spurring growth, and ensuring resources reach the villages and towns where people actually live, beyond just the well-understood urban centres of the country.

In a nod to its farsightedness, the framers of the Constitution ensured that the formula could evolve, adapt, and respond to the country’s changing needs. Both good intentions and well-written preambles or articles in our foundational document are unfortunately not always enough. What we have seen in recent years is a slow drift into stasis of the NFC, despite it being a robust enough mechanism to move things forward. Commissions are formed but seldom meet; formulas remain frozen while realities on the ground change. The Tenth NFC, which expired in July 2025, stands out as a particularly stark example: it met once in five years and achieved nothing of substance. Like its predecessor, it left untouched the Seventh NFC Award of 2009—a formula that was long overdue for revision. For sixteen years we have not let our NFC work as intended. During this time our GDP doubled and the population increased by 40%, but the number of new NFC Awards went down to 0%.

This stagnation has real consequences. After the 2018 merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the NFC was constitutionally required to update its formula to include the 5.5 million new citizens of Pakistan on an immediate basis. But that never happened. For seven years, KP has been underfunded by an estimated PKR 1,370 billion, money that should have gone into schools, hospitals, roads, and local governance in the Merged Districts to start correcting the neglect of the FATA of historic proportions. Instead, a major share of these funds flowed to the larger and tax-rich provinces under an outdated formula that no longer even complies with the Constitution. The deprivation is stark.

The NFC is not just about numbers; it is the keystone of Pakistan’s federal architecture. If it continues to fail, the promise of equal citizenship under the Constitution remains hollow for millions

In the decade under the Seventh Award, per capita public expenditure in FATA was barely half of what citizens of Balochistan received—PKR 25,571 per capita in FATA compared with PKR 44,236 per capita in Balochistan. Since the merger, the gap has widened, fuelling feelings of neglect in a region where peace and development depend heavily on visible state investments in rapid order. The special fiscal tool created by KP—the Accelerated Implementation Plan—has tried to fill the gap, but has itself been starved of funds: only PKR 168 billion received from the Federal Government out of a planned PKR 600 billion. That’s 72% less than intended. Imagine the feelings of disenchantment when a promise slowly diminishes into a low-activity farce.

This is not a debate about abstractions. It is about constitutional fidelity, about whether Pakistan’s fiscal federalism still serves all its citizens equally. Whether those resident on the peripheries of the periphery have equivalent rights, or some citizens are more equal than others. When the NFC remains frozen, it does not just paralyse priority programmes like consolidating peace and building up of FATA; it risks eroding the political settlements that underpin the federation itself.

The Seventh NFC Award was once hailed for broadening the formula beyond population, adding expenditure needs and other fairness criteria. But even its innovations were blunted by counter-equalisation measures that favoured tax-base-rich provinces. Today, those weaknesses are magnified by the failure to include all of KP in the formula. Seven extensions of the old award since 2018, through Presidential Orders, have only deepened the perception that fiscal federalism is being run on autopilot with partial regard to the constitutional provisions woven into the intent and great hope of Article 160.

In 2018, the whole country celebrated Pakistan righting a historical wrong by writing into the Constitution that the people of former FATA were the same as everyone else as they merged into KP. But in the seven years since, the NFC Award has not acknowledged the change in the Constitution by recognising these new citizens of KP. Seven years of silence have turned a moment of national pride into a case study in neglect. The merger was written into law, but the NFC’s continued omission in the formula has written exclusion into practice. The 11th NFC now carries an immense responsibility. Its first task is not just technical; it is constitutional. It must immediately revise the formula to bring KP and its Merged Districts fully into the fold. Doing so will not only correct a glaring constitutional violation; it will restore faith in the NFC as a living, functioning institution capable of adapting to Pakistan’s evolving realities.

The stakes could not be higher. The NFC is not just about numbers; it is the keystone of Pakistan’s federal architecture. If it continues to fail, the promise of equal citizenship under the Constitution remains hollow for millions. But if it succeeds, it can unlock new investments, renew trust, and demonstrate that Pakistan’s institutions are capable of delivering fairness where it matters most: in the lives of its people.

The NFC must correct this injustice without further stasis, or risk undermining Pakistan’s federal covenant. Pakistan has incredible external security challenges, which all of us experienced this year; in securing our borders, we would do well to strengthen our internal. It is very valuable to continually emphasise the esoteric provisions of the Constitution. Even more important is finally getting to a stage where the constitutional mechanisms are seen by the people to work for the promise for which they were enshrined in the foundational law.

Punjab Education Secretary Khalid Nazir Watoo on Wednesday dismissed social media rumors claiming that school holidays in the province had been extended until September 5. Punjab Education Secretary Khalid Nazir Watoo on Wednesday dismissed social media rumors claiming that school holidays in the province had been extended until September 5.

In a statement, Watoo clarified that the notification being circulated online is fake and has no connection to the department. “No such notification has been issued by the Education Department regarding additional holidays,” he said, urging the public to rely only on official sources for updates.

He advised parents, teachers, and students to follow the verified Facebook page of the School Education Department for authentic announcements.

The clarification comes as Punjab continues to battle severe flooding triggered by heavy inflows from India’s release of water into eastern rivers. Rising water levels in the Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej have raised concerns over community safety.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), more than 210,000 people have been evacuated from vulnerable districts in Punjab, with the Pakistan Army actively engaged in rescue and relief operations. Despite the scale of the crisis, no casualties have been reported so far.