Category: National

Mobile phone owners in Karachi will soon get back their stolen devices worth Rs2.2 million through the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC).

KEDA President Muhammad Rizwan Irfan said police and CPLC recovered 145 mobile phones during joint efforts, which have now been given to CPLC. He added that another 150 phones will soon be handed over, after which CPLC will return them to their rightful owners.

According to Rizwan Irfan, the association has so far recovered stolen and snatched mobile phones worth Rs260 million from the market and returned them to citizens.

He said police, CPLC and the association are working under strict procedures to regulate the sale and purchase of new and used phones. Before buying or selling any device, dealers must verify the IMEI number and the seller’s ID card with CPLC.

Under the procedure, if a citizen brings a phone for sale and CPLC confirms that it was stolen or snatched, the association immediately hands the device over to CPLC.

The KEDA president said the procedure currently applies only in Karachi. He urged authorities to expand it across Sindh, which would help recover more stolen and snatched phones.

The Balochistan High Court (BHC) on Monday granted bail to tribal elder Sardar Sherbaz Khan Satakzai, who was arrested in July this year in the Degari honour killing case in which a couple was shot dead in the name of ‘honour’.

After hearing arguments from both sides, a single-judge bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kasi, granted bail to Satakzai against surety bonds of Rs500,000. He was released following the court’s approval of the bail application.

Sardar Satakzai had been arrested on the allegation that, as a tribal chief, he had endorsed through a jirga the killing of the woman and the man. 

Acting on the jirga’s order, the woman’s brother reportedly opened fire on his 40-year-old sister Bano Bibi in the presence of a large number of people from the area. At the same time, the man Ehsanullah was also killed at the same place.

The incident came to light after a video of the shooting went viral on social media over a month after the killings occurred. According to police surgeon Dr Ayesha, the woman was shot seven times and the man nine times.

Police subsequently launched an investigation and took several people into custody, including Sardar Sherbaz Khan Satakzai.

So far, police have arrested 17 people in connection with the case, including Bano Bibi’s mother and another brother. The mother was later released on bail. However, the main accused, who shot and killed his own sister, has yet to be arrested.

The United States of America has recommended that Pakistan place its defence and intelligence budgets under parliamentary or civilian oversight, saying this would improve fiscal accountability and transparency.

The suggestion was part of the US State Department’s 2025 Fiscal Transparency Report released on Friday. The annual review evaluates budget practices in 140 governments, examining how countries publish, audit, and disclose information about public spending.

In its section on Pakistan, the report noted that military and intelligence budgets were not subject to sufficient civilian or parliamentary review. It said Islamabad could improve fiscal openness by allowing such scrutiny and by publishing its executive budget proposal in a timely manner. According to the assessment, the government did not release the proposal within a reasonable period, limiting informed debate and parliamentary discussion.

The report also raised concerns about debt disclosure. It found that the government provided only limited information on its debt obligations, including those of major state-owned enterprises. It recommended making detailed data on public and state-owned enterprise debt available to the public.

At the same time, the State Department highlighted positive practices. It observed that Pakistan’s enacted budget and end-of-year reports were publicly accessible, including online, and were generally reliable. These documents were also subject to audit by the supreme audit institution, which the report said met international standards of independence. Audit findings were described as being released within a reasonable timeframe.

The review further noted that Pakistan had specified, in law and regulation, the criteria and procedures for awarding natural resource extraction contracts and licences, and that basic information on these awards was publicly available.

This year’s assessment repeated concerns from earlier reports, particularly on the lack of oversight of defence spending and gaps in debt transparency.

The release of the report coincides with Pakistan’s ongoing budgetary pressures. The government presented a Rs17.57 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2025-26. Of this, Rs9.7 trillion has been allocated for debt servicing, while Rs2.55 trillion is set aside for defence, an increase of nearly 20 percent compared to the previous year.

The Fiscal Transparency Report is intended as a global benchmark for financial disclosure and accountability. It evaluates whether governments publish executive budgets on time, disclose debt obligations, ensure the independence of audit institutions, and subject sensitive expenditures such as defence and intelligence to oversight