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Annamalai Announces New Political Outfit, Triggers Mass Resignations From Tamil Nadu BJP | Top Points
Annamalai said his political ambitions extended beyond the framework of BJP and required a broader platform.
"FRAMEWORK" · 총 368건
필터 보기현재 지수
50.3
0 = 부정 우세
50 = 중립
100 = 긍정 우세
최근 7일 기준 87,326건을 분석한 결과, 뉴스 심리지수는 50.2(균형)입니다. 긍정 4,360건(5.0%)·중립 80,821건(92.6%)·부정 2,145건(2.5%)이며, 중립 비중이 뚜렷하게 높습니다. 성향 지수는 종합 14.7(중도 균형)입니다.
Annamalai said his political ambitions extended beyond the framework of BJP and required a broader platform.
Officials in Florida decided a viable unborn child has legal standing worthy of state protection. Legally, however, that creates a dangerous framework, because it transforms the pregnant woman’s autonomy into something conditional. And what gets lost in all of this is the mother herself.
According to that framework, the U.S. had agreed to reduce tariffs on India to 18% from 50%. It had removed the 25% tariffs on Indian goods for buying Russian oil and was to cut the remaining 25% to 18% under the pact
A team of Chinese researchers has claimed a breakthrough in training robots in real-world home environments, tackling a long-standing data bottleneck in the field and potentially accelerating the adoption of robots at home. Kairos-HomeWorld was the world’s first unified framework capable of generating coherent, accurate and simulation-ready home environments using simple text prompts, according to researchers from Ace Robotics, a start-up backed by Hong Kong-listed artificial intelligence...
Thailand said on Friday it will join a UN arbitration process chosen by Cambodia to resolve a festering maritime boundary dispute, but put on hold for now other two-way efforts to settle their contested borders. This week Cambodia launched a compulsory conciliation process under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), after Bangkok decided last month to unilaterally end a 2001 framework pact for talks on a disputed maritime belt. For more than 25 years, both have claimed...
Rafael Grossi refused to comment on media leaks that Western countries are working on a new anti-Iranian resolution and called for settling the issue diplomatically
ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Friday reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to the “Shanghai spirit” and called for a joint strategy among SCO member states to counter terrorism, organised crime, drug trafficking, cybercrime and terror financing. Naqvi said this at a special meeting of the Ministers of Interior and Public Security of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. He said the region faced “serious and complex security challenges” that were interconnected, noting that criminal and terrorist networks were rapidly adapting to technological advancements, exploiting artificial intelligence, digital platforms, online networks and cryptocurrency transactions to expand their activities. The interior minister emphasised the importance of modernising institutional coordination and enhancing intelligence-sharing mechanisms across the region to tackle these threats. Shared threats demanded shared solutions, Naqvi told the delegates, further calling for a comprehensive regional strategy to tackle transnational crime and emerging security risks. Highlighting Pakistan’s commitment to the principles of the SCO, he said: “Pakistan fully adheres to the principles of the Shanghai Spirit, which is based on mutual trust, equality, cooperation, and respect for sovereignty.” Naqvi further stated that Pakistan had rendered “unparalleled sacrifices” against terrorism and continued to strengthen its security architecture to address evolving threats. Under the National Action Plan, he said, Pakistan had strengthened intelligence coordination, border management and anti-money laundering measures. “These initiatives have significantly strengthened the country’s capacity to combat terrorism and organised crime.” He called for more effective cooperation under SCO’s Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) for intelligence sharing, joint threat analysis and countering online radicalisation and extremist propaganda. Pakistan, he said, fully supported workshops and expert exchange programmes building collective capabilities. Turning his attention to cybersecurity, he said cyber intelligence and digital forensics cooperation were “the need of the hour” and noted that technological advances had created new opportunities for criminal organisations and terrorist groups. On the issue of narcotics trafficking, he warned that the illegal drug trade remained a major source of terror financing. He called for a coordinated joint strategy against drug trafficking networks, online criminal operations and illicit financial flows facilitated through digital currencies. Pakistan’s Anti-Narcotics Force, he said, remained actively engaged in SCO-led counter-narcotics initiatives and stood ready to deepen cooperation with partner countries. He said border security was key to regional peace and stability and stressed greater cooperation on preventing the use of forged documents for travelling, watch-list coordination and human smuggling. He also said that stopping terror financing was among Pakistan’s key priorities, adding that the country had reformed its anti-money laundering (AML) regime and that the country’s enhanced financial monitoring framework was playing “an active role” in detecting and preventing illicit financial activities. Moreover, strong regional cooperation was indispensable for dismantling terror financing networks, he said, emphasising that no country could effectively confront transnational threats in isolation. “Our challenges are common, so our efforts must also be collective and coordinated,” Naqvi said. “The common goal of our joint efforts is a peaceful and secure SCO region.” Concluding his address, Naqvi said that Pakistan looked forward to welcoming participants at the SCO summit to be held in Islamabad in 2027. A day earlier, Naqvi met his Iranian counterpart, Eskandar Momeni, on sidelines of the SCO moot and the two discussed bilateral relations and the current regional situation. Both ministers also exchanged views on Pakistan-Iran relations and the latest regional situation.
Cambodia had launched compulsory conciliation under UNCLOS after Thailand unilaterally ended a 2001 agreement that provided a framework for talks on a disputed maritime area.
The Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) has launched a sweeping overhaul of Nigeria’s textbook approval process, directing publishers and other stakeholders to submit school textbooks for a fresh round of assessment, re-assessment, and ranking under a newly introduced quality assurance framework. The post FG introduces new textbook ranking system, mandates fresh assessment nationwide appeared first on Vanguard News.
The digital landscape is becoming increasingly dangerous for vulnerable groups. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence is a growing epidemic that most legal frameworks fail to address adequately.
[Capital FM] NAIROBI, Kenya, June 5-The Ministry of Health has initiated a fresh push to tighten Kenya's tobacco control framework with proposed rules that would completely ban shisha smoking and all waterpipe tobacco products, citing emerging public health risks and new product variations that have outpaced existing regulations.
CBSE’s post-result grievance portal has received over 70,000 applications for verification and re-evaluation within days of launch, even as it faced repeated cyberattack attempts. The Board reported 7,314 verification and 63,119 re-evaluation requests. Despite a DDoS attack and millions of access requests, security systems including WAF and DDoS mitigation kept the portal functional. The facility supports Class 12 students reviewing scanned answer books under the new On-Screen Marking system and post-result process rollout framework structure.
Official figures and project clearances indicate that nearly 1,91,922 hectares of forest have been chopped off in the last 11 years, he claimed
By Ediri Ejoh Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has approved special compensation for eligible ‘Band A’ customers affected by grid generation constraints. In a statement yesterday, the commission said the compensation framework is designed to mitigate the financial burden on consumers who suffer from prolonged outages despite their premium status. According to the statement, “NERC hereby […] The post NERC approves compensation for eligible ‘Band A’ electricity customers appeared first on Vanguard News.
[World Bank] Kampala -- The World Bank Group (WBG) Board of Executive Directors today endorsed a new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Uganda, a 10-year strategy (2026-2035) designed to accelerate a private sector-led economic transformation and expand opportunities for the country's rapidly growing population.
EVERY June, Pakistan’s budget season follows a familiar pattern: business groups repeat their proposals for relief, the government defends its targets, and taxpayers prepare for additional burdens. Yet a more fundamental question is rarely asked — what is the budget ultimately meant to achieve, and does it reflect a clear long-term national purpose? In principle, the budget is the state’s main instrument for promoting growth, improving public services, reducing poverty and raising living standards. In Pakistan, however, it has increasingly come to resemble an accounting exercise: mobilise sufficient revenue to finance a growing state and meet fiscal benchmarks agreed with the IMF. The result is a lopsided process that remains focused on extracting more from those already within the tax net, while paying insufficient attention to the quality of public spending, the need to broaden the base, or the incentives required for investment, employment and productivity. The Tax Policy Office was expected to introduce a longer-term perspective to this debate, but that wider vision is still not evident. The burden continues to fall, predictably, on the formal economy. Corporations, salaried employees, entrepreneurs, exporters, documented businesses and investors remain the most visible and therefore the most easily taxed. What receives much less scrutiny is whether public spending is yielding meaningful improvements in citizens’ lives, particularly in a country where a large share of the population remains below the poverty line. Pakistan has absorbed much of the fiscal cost of devolution without fully realising its potential efficiency gains. This distortion has become more pronounced since the 18th Constitutional Amendment altered Pakistan’s fiscal structure. Health, education, labour welfare and other social services were devolved to the provinces, which now receive a substantial share of national revenues through the National Finance Commission Award. The logic was straightforward: provinces, being closer to citizens, would deliver services more effectively, while the federal government would gradually withdraw from devolved functions and reduce its own size and cost. That second part of the arrangement, however, remains largely unfulfilled. More than a decade later, successive governments have shown limited willingness to undertake the constitutional, administrative and institutional reforms required to right-size the federation. Pakistan has, therefore, absorbed much of the fiscal cost of devolution without fully realising its potential efficiency gains. The results are plain: weak learning, poor healthcare access, child malnutrition, low productivity, millions of children out of school, under-equipped hospitals, inadequate skills training and persistently low female labour-force participation. Yet, even against this backdrop, the provinces are expected to post a combined budget surplus of roughly Rs1.6 trillion. This surplus forms part of the consolidated fiscal framework that enables Pakistan to meet primary surplus targets under the IMF programme. Fiscal discipline is necessary; Pakistan’s record on deficits and debt leaves little room for complacency. But every rupee retained as surplus is also a rupee not directed towards schools, hospitals, technical training and local services. The balance appears to have shifted too far towards meeting accounting targets and too little towards building human capital. The irony is that while existing taxpayers are repeatedly told there is little room for relief, substantial untapped capacity exists elsewhere. Agriculture contributes nearly a quarter of GDP but remains lightly taxed, while property taxation is among the weakest in the region. Large agricultural and urban wealth holdings generate limited recurring revenue because assessment remains weak, enforcement uneven and valuations often disconnected from market reality. Since provinces have constitutional authority over agricultural income and property taxes, meaningful reform in these areas could broaden the base, improve fairness and reduce the state’s dependence on taxing the same formal businesses and individuals year after year. It would also help strengthen the sense that the fiscal burden is being shared more equitably. The next budget should therefore reset fiscal priorities. Rather than treating compliant taxpayers as an inexhaustible source of revenue, policymakers should present a credible path towards relief for documented economic activity: lower excessive tax rates on salaried employees, entrepreneurs and businesses, phase out the Super Tax, remove distortionary levies, reduce cascading taxation and bring greater predictability to policy. Better incentives would support investment, exports, formalisation and job creation — the key objectives of fiscal policy. But relief must be matched by credible efforts to broaden the tax base, improve spending efficiency and mobilise provincial revenues from agriculture and property. Fiscal sustainability cannot rest indefinitely on squeezing a shrinking pool of compliant taxpayers. Provinces, meanwhile, should be judged less by the size of their surpluses than by measurable gains in education, healthcare, skills, productivity and poverty reduction. Pakistan’s fiscal debate remains confined to the narrow question of how to raise more revenue. The more important issue is how public finances can create opportunity, improve living standards and support durable growth. A budget should be more than a balancing exercise between revenue and expenditure; it should also reflect a willingness to reform the structure of the state itself. Unless Pakistan completes the unfinished agenda of devolution, broadens the tax base and channels provincial resources towards human development, it may strive to meet fiscal targets without delivering the broader prosperity its citizens are entitled to expect. The writer is a former CEO of Unilever Pakistan and of the Pakistan Business Council Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2026
ISLAMABAD: More than five years after the passage of a landmark child protection law, key provisions of the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act, 2020 — including the agency meant to issue rapid alerts for missing children — remain unimplemented, the Islamabad High Court was told on Thursday. During the hearing of a writ petition filed by Sanila Khurram against the Federation of Pakistan and others, the court took notice of data submitted by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration, according to which 562 criminal cases relating to missing children and child abuse were registered in the federal capital between 2022 and 2025. The court noted that the Zainab Alert Act was enacted to protect children’s rights, including the right to life and protection from violence, abuse, neglect, abduction and exploitation, in line with Pakistan’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir observed that a careful reading of the preamble of the act showed the law’s clear intent, yet its enforcement remained elusive. The Act envisages the establishment of the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Agency under Section 3, with its powers and functions enumerated in Section 5. The court directed the Ministry of Human Rights to submit a comprehensive report addressing at least 11 specific areas of concern. These include whether the agency has been established; what standard operating procedures or rules exist for issuing alerts; what technological framework has been developed for the Zainab Alert Act database; whether real-time information is being shared by law enforcement agencies; what penal action has been taken against delinquent officials under Section 9; and whether rules have been framed under Section 18 of the Act. Sources indicated that the rules have still not been notified. The court also sought details on legal aid mechanisms for victims, the constitution of the ICT Child Protection Advisory Board and the integration of the Zainab Alert Act database with the ICT Police. The court demanded a centralised record of cases tried under the act, including the number of cases referred for prosecution, pending trial and concluded, as well as the average time taken for trial, particularly whether trials concluded within the period stipulated under Section 15 of the Act. The Ministry of Human Rights was directed to send an officer well conversant with the facts, while the director general of the authority — if such an authority exists in operation — was ordered to appear in person before the court. The ICT Police was also directed to submit its response. Justice Tahir adjourned the case until July 1, 2026. Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2026
• Field officers to lose powers to issue notices, conduct audits • Reforms aim to curb collusion, harassment • Phased rollout planned from October ISLAMABAD: The government has approved in principle a plan to introduce a centralised digital tax operating model, under which audits and assessments would be handled by “faceless” wings in Islamabad to reduce official discretion and direct contact between tax officials and taxpayers. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved Pakistan’s New Tax Operating Model on Thursday and commended the tax officials who developed the plan. The model is scheduled for a three-phase rollout beginning in October this year. The centralised and faceless tax model is similar to systems used in the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Singapore and India. It is designed to eliminate physical contact between tax authorities and taxpayers to prevent corruption. The reforms have been driven by systemic leakages and widespread under-reporting detected by Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL). Officials said the reforms were not only about curbing collusion or corruption but also about improving weak enforcement. FBR data revealed a major discrepancy in tax compliance: 8,697 individuals holding a combined Rs750 billion in bank deposits officially reported zero income in their tax returns. The same pattern was found across the financial sector, where 98.9 per cent of high-deposit individuals were found to have materially under-reported their bank flows. The real estate sector also showed similar evasion patterns. Despite maintaining active filer status, 80pc of top property purchasers were found to have systematically under-declared their transaction values to avoid their actual fiscal obligations. At present, a single tax official within a Regional Tax Office, Large Taxpayers Office or Corporate Tax Office handles the entire tax cycle — from identification and notice issuance to assessment and recovery. Officials said this concentration of duties granted immense discretionary powers, creating opportunities for taxpayer harassment, under-assessment and compromised recoveries. To address this, the new model introduces separate audit and assessment wings, both operating virtually and facelessly from a centralised hub in Islamabad. Under the proposed plan, Inland Revenue operations will be restructured into three functionally separate wings, each operating with a defined mandate, distinct statutory powers and non-overlapping responsibilities. The new framework will apply uniformly across income tax, sales tax and federal excise duty. The National Faceless Audit Wing (NFAW) will be established in Islamabad and operate from an undisclosed location. This centralised, fully digital and anonymous wing will conduct risk-based audits and continuous monitoring of withholding and advance taxes through a Central Data Hub. Case allocation will be algorithmic, and the wing will have no powers to issue demands or execute recoveries. It will be able to handle any taxpayer across the country. Taxpayers will not be allowed to visit the NFAW or submit manual documents. The National Assessment Wing (NAW), also based in Islamabad, will handle quasi-judicial functions. The anonymous and digital NAW will process assessment orders, show-cause notices, zero-rating refund approvals and exemptions, but will have no mandate for audits or field enforcement. Hearings will be held online, while dedicated hearing rooms will be established at tax offices across the country. The third wing, the Field Operation Wing, will serve as the enforcement arm of the system. It will be responsible for revenue recovery, prosecution, taxpayer registration, field verification and expansion of the tax base, but will have no authority to assess, adjudicate or modify tax demands. Field officers will now focus on data verification, assigned information, taxpayer facilitation and registration. For the first two wings, the government will post around 200 officers strictly on merit, with market-based salaries and enhanced surveillance to ensure credibility, transparency and accountability. The proposed reform is expected to tighten the net around tax evaders while reducing the compliance burden on honest taxpayers. This will be achieved mainly by eliminating officer-dependent compliance, as all interactions will be digitally logged through an online portal, ending direct contact with tax officials. To simplify filing, taxpayers will receive pre-populated returns powered by the Central Data Hub, which will automatically pull salary, banking, property and vehicle data to reduce filing time from hours to minutes. A single integrated taxpayer account will consolidate all income tax, sales tax and federal excise duty obligations, credits and refunds into a unified IRIS view. The updated system will also introduce predictable, time-bound processing with auto-escalation features to give taxpayers certainty on contingent liabilities. The FBR will also retain the authority to independently transition tax appeals into a faceless, phased format. Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2026
• From penalising green technology to sidelining adaptation, the government’s spending choices seem to contradict its own climate commitments • Without new budget pillars, proper risk screening, end to ‘green taxes’, country’s fiscal plans will only deepen climate vulnerability FOR a country whose economic survival is tied to shoring up its climate-resilience, the government’s budgetary allocations have failed to reflect this pressing concern. Besides measures that discourage the adoption of solar energy and electric vehicles, the government continues to invest in mega-hydro projects despite adverse ecological impacts; proposes ‘false solutions’ such as carbon capture instead of reducing reliance on fossil fuels; and leaves the adaptation agenda by the wayside despite recurring floods. The upcoming budget, according to officials from the climate change ministry, features at least eight proposed projects focused on climate resilience, afforestation, green growth, biodiversity conservation, and environmental monitoring under the Public Sector Development Programme — with a total allocation of Rs2.78 billion. However, experts have repeatedly criticised the government’s seemingly “anti-climate policies”, particularly attempts to tax renewable energy, which they believe will undermine the climate-smart policy direction spurred by recent IMF and World Bank programs. The IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) requires Pakistan to revise its public investment framework so that at least 30 per cent of the project appraisal weighting for infrastructure projects reflects climate change adaptation and mitigation criteria. In the outgoing fiscal year, at least Rs86bn worth of PSDP projects were tagged as ‘climate adaptation’, and measures worth over Rs600bn classified as ‘climate mitigation’. “This year, these numbers will increase. However, the true essence of tagging must be followed — it should be inclusive, not just a box-ticking activity,” said SDPI Research Fellow Dr Khalid Waleed. Pakistan is no stranger to climate-induced disasters. From 1992 to 2021, it cost the country $29.3 billion, according to a State Bank of Pakistan report on climate change’s economic impact. The 2022 monsoon floods alone cost at least $28 billion. By 2050, Pakistan stands to lose up to 6.5 per cent of its GDP, with agriculture and industry bearing the brunt. Both the SBP and experts agree the country is unprepared unless it climate-proofs its fiscal plans. The approach, they stress, must be rooted in science, putting people at the centre and promoting climate-smart development models. All the tools Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, an Islamabad-based climate expert and former climate change advisor at the Planning Commission, argues that while the government has all the tools at its disposal, it doesn’t seem interested in using them. The government formally notified Pakistan’s Handbook on Climate Risk Screening for Policy Planning in June 2024. Yet, in the financial year that followed, none of the around 57 approved projects underwent “necessary risk screening, in violation of the approved policy”, said Mr Sheikh, who helped develop the handbook. “The budget exercise every year is basically the dialogue of the deaf,” he said, describing the process as devoid of climate-smart proposals. Failing to climate-proof PSDP projects “increases the cost of climate action and makes populations more vulnerable”, he warned. Dr Fahad Saeed, who runs the Weather and Climate Services think tank in Islamabad, regrets that scientific evidence is missing from Pakistan’s climate policymaking. The government allocates funds for climate action before even deciding whether they will be spent on mitigation, adaptation, or loss and damage. Without a cost-benefit analysis rooted in evidence, “decisions are not embedded in science,” he said, calling for an audit of climate-earmarked budgetary allocations. Climate-tagging development Last year, the government touted the budget as “climate-focused” and introduced “climate budget tagging” under the RSF to classify climate-sensitive expenditures in line with the National Climate Change Policy. Ammara Aslam at the Policy Research Institute for Equitable Development said that while the associated conditionalities and mandatory climate screening are “present on paper, climate-proofing the budget would require a robust implementation framework”. Every department and sector, she argued, needs to transition “from broad, unallocated budgetary statements to funding specific, verifiable, climate-resilient infrastructure projects”. Dr Shafqat Munir, who leads the resilience programme at SDPI, called tagging “a good step” but insufficient in the current scenario. “IMF and World Bank programmes are helping to open the door, but they are not yet transforming Pakistan’s fiscal model.” The RSF, he noted, “is still too reform-heavy and financing-light. It can improve systems, but it cannot close Pakistan’s adaptation financing gap”. New pillar Dr Munir argued that climate change should be embedded as a standalone pillar in development planning, with new budget heads for adaptation, climate-risk financing, and anticipatory action. “Let’s move beyond budget tagging,” he said, calling for poverty-proof and climate-risk-sensitive allocations for 2026-27. His five-point priority agenda: protection of people, livelihoods, infrastructure, fiscal stability, and growth — in that order. Experts also urged the government to promote rather than tax green technologies. “Taxing green technologies does not do any service to Pakistan’s renewable energy goals,” said Ms Aslam, calling for existing and proposed duties on solar panels, battery storage, and related components to be scrapped. Mr Sheikh agreed, warning such measures could undermine Pakistan’s climate-smart policy direction entirely. Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2026
• 22,320 parents refuse to let health workers administer drops • 18.6 million children vaccinated across 79 high-risk districts ISLAMABAD: Despite thousands of parental refusals, a recent sub-national polio vaccination campaign reached over 18.6 million children in 79 high-risk districts, achieving 98 per cent coverage, health authorities announced. The Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative reviewed the May 18-24 drive during a recent meeting, noting that while the national refusal rate remained low at 0.12pc, exactly 22,320 parents refused to let health workers administer the drops. The sub-national campaign was launched specifically in areas where the poliovirus had been detected in environmental samples, aiming to curb transmission risks. Approximately 163,000 frontline health workers went door-to-door to deliver the oral vaccine. According to campaign data, 404,417 children, which is about 2.1pc of the target demographic, were initially missed because they were not home during household visits. Through targeted follow-up efforts in the final days of the drive, vaccination teams successfully reached 88pc of those missed children to help close remaining immunity gaps. The campaign covered regions across the country, vaccinating 6.06 million children in Punjab, 5.74 million in Sindh, 4.39 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1.96 million in Balochistan and about 435,000 in the Islamabad Capital Territory. “The successful completion of this campaign reflects the dedication of our frontline workers and the continued support of parents, caregivers and communities across Pakistan,” Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Polio Eradication Ayesha Raza Farooq said in a statement. “Every missed child remains a risk, and we must continue working together until polio is eradicated from the country.” Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where wild poliovirus remains endemic. Given the ease of cross-border transmission, PEI officials recently joined Afghanistan’s polio programme at a Technical Advisory Group meeting to review epidemiological trends and strengthen regional coordination. At the national level, authorities are currently finalising the 2026 National Emergency Action Plan. The framework outlines priority actions to accelerate eradication efforts, strengthen outbreak responses and permanently close immunity gaps. Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2026