KARACHI: The Sindh wildlife department on Thursday ordered to confiscate four lions and two tigers, kept as pets by a resident of Karachi and seen roaming freely in a compound, a senior official said on Wednesday.
Keeping wild cats as pets is not uncommon in Pakistan, where wealthy businessmen have been known to operate private zoos and sometimes parade the animals for the public.
Media reported panic and alarm among citizens of the port city’s Gulshan-e-Hadeed area on Tuesday night after they saw the animals uncaged and roaming freely within a compound.
“I have ordered to confiscate the animals and shift them to Karachi Zoo for 45 days. The owner of the animals may auction them during this period. If he doesn’t do it, however, they will become the property of the zoo,” Javed Ahmed Mahar, conservator of the Sindh Wildlife Department, told Arab News after passing the order in the capacity of a magistrate.
The order noted that the “act of possessing ‘Big Cats’ without the ‘Certificate of Lawful Possession’ was bad in the eyes of Law” and keeping dangerous animals in a residential area “could put lives of people at great risk.”
“As requested by the owner during the proceedings and keeping in view the financial aspect of this case and to save the owner from heavy financial losses, he has been provided with a chance during this period [of 45 days] to publish an advertisement in newspapers for the sale of lions through open auction,” the order read, adding that the owner would pay the feeding expenses to the Karachi Zoo, though the animal sanctuary would not take any rental or other charges.
Speaking to Arab News on Thursday, Mahar said the owner of the animals, Zuhaib Ali, had presented an expired license before the department this morning, adding that the license only gave permission to maintain a mini-zoo with birds and herbivores, not dangerous animals like lions and tigers. The license also did not apply to Ali’s area of residence, the conservator added.
Ali told Arab News one lion had come out of its cage when a janitor went in to clean it but was immediately put back in.
“These are my pet animals which I have adopted since these were two-months old, they cannot harm anyone,” Ali said, adding that he believed he had all necessary documentation allowing him to keep the animals in any area with thirty-feet high boundary walls.
“These are like my children,” Ali said. “If these are freed in the wild, they will die.”
In 2017, police in Pakistan arrested a man who took his pet lion for a night-time drive through the streets of the bustling city of Karachi after video of the incident went viral on social media.
In 2015, a pet lioness gave birth to five cubs in the central city of Multan, media said at the time.
Wildlife department confiscates pet lions, tigers from Karachi resident
https://arab.news/j2c7w
Wildlife department confiscates pet lions, tigers from Karachi resident
- Media reported panic among Gulshan-e-Hadeed residents on Tuesday after they saw the animals roaming freely within a compound
- Owner Zuhaib Ali says he has raised the imported pets since they were two months old, “they cannot harm anyone”
Under new World Bank threshold, over 44% Pakistanis now live below poverty line
- Over 107 million Pakistanis live below poverty line, earning less than Rs1,200 a day
- Over 39 million included in extreme poverty category, as per new poverty threshold
ISLAMABAD: Around 44.7% of Pakistan’s population is now considered to be living below the poverty line, according to the World Bank’s newly updated global poverty threshold set at $4.20 per person per day and released this week.
Christina Wieser, senior economist at the World Bank and Tobias Haque, lead country economist for World Bank Pakistan, told media on Thursday the Bank was updating its global poverty lines to reflect changes in the cost of living and consumption habits of people around the world based on newly available data.
As price levels and the cost of basic needs across the world and within income groups evolve, global poverty lines are periodically updated to allow for global comparisons, Wieser said.
The new poverty lines are $3 per person per day for low-income countries (LIC), $4.20 for lower-middle-income countries (LMIC) and $8.30 for upper-middle-income countries (UMIC.)
Pakistan, with a population of over 240 million, is considered a lower-middle-income nation.
“The revisions help position Pakistan’s poverty levels in a global context and underscore the importance of continued efforts to reduce vulnerability and improve resilience,” World Bank Country Director for Pakistan Najy Benhassine told media.
“The new figures reflect updated international thresholds and improved data from other countries, not a deterioration in living standards.”
As a lower-middle-income country, Pakistan’s new poverty statistics reveal that the extreme poverty line, now at $3 per person per day, applies to 16.5% of its population, a substantial increase from 4.9% under the previous $2.15 benchmark.
The upper-middle-income poverty line, established at $8.30 per person per day, applies to 88.4% of the country’s population.
As per the new poverty threshold, more than 107.95 million people in Pakistan are living below the poverty line, earning less than Rs1,200 a day, while more than 39.8 million people are included in the extreme poverty category.
The updated figures are part of the World Bank’s Global Poverty June Update 2025, an initiative aimed at enhancing the precision and relevance of global poverty assessments.
Pakistani PM to meet Saudi Crown Prince today to bolster bilateral ties, discuss regional security
- During his stay on June 5 and 6, Sharif will celebrate Eid Al-Adha, hold bilateral meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
- Discussions are expected to focus on enhancing cooperation in trade, investment and regional security, welfare of Muslim Ummah
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is on a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia this week where he will meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman today, Friday, and discuss trade and investment as well as regional security matters.
The Pakistani prime minister will celebrate Eid Al-Adha in the Kingdom and hold a bilateral meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince that is expected to focus on enhancing cooperation in trade, investment and regional security.
Sharif reached Jeddah on Thursday evening and departed for Makkah to perform Umrah, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
“The two leaders will discuss ways to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in various fields, including trade and investment, welfare of the Muslim Ummah, and regional peace and security,” PMO said about Sharif’s meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince later today, Friday.
Sharif is also expected to express gratitude to the Saudi leadership for their role in de-escalating recent tensions between Pakistan and India.
Last month, following the worst military confrontation between India and Pakistan in decades, Saudi Arabia, along with other Gulf nations, played a key role in mediating between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, helping to avert a potential war.
The visit also comes amid deepening economic ties between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. In recent months, the two countries have signed multiple agreements aimed at boosting bilateral trade and investment. Notably, Saudi Arabia has committed to a $5 billion investment package to support Pakistan’s economy, which has been grappling with a balance of payments crisis.
Last year, Saudi and Pakistani businessmen signed 34 memorandums of understanding worth $2.8 billion, covering sectors such as industry, technology, and agriculture. Additionally, Saudi Arabia’s Manara Minerals is in talks to acquire a 10-20 percent stake in Pakistan’s $9 billion Reko Diq copper and gold mining project, one of the largest of its kind globally.
Defense cooperation is also a key component of the bilateral relationship. The two nations have a history of military collaboration, with Saudi Arabia providing support to Pakistan during times of regional tension and Pakistan training Saudi forces.
Pakistan has a 2.7 million-strong diaspora in Saudi Arabia, which accounts for the highest remittance inflow, a crucial lifeline for the country’s economy.
Pakistan says India’s use of nuclear-capable missiles boosts risk in future conflict
- Bilawal Bhutto Zardari says India used supersonic missile with nuclear capabilities during latest confrontation
- India has not officially declared its BrahMos missile to be nuclear capable, has stated no-first-use nuclear policy
ISLAMABAD: The head of a delegation visiting Washington DC to present Islamabad’s position following a recent military standoff with New Delhi said on Thursday India’s use of a nuclear-capable missile during the conflict had made the situation more precarious.
India and Pakistan have dispatched delegations to world capitals to defend their positions following last month’s four-day conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbors. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a former foreign minister, is leading a Pakistani team of lawmakers and former diplomats to the US and will go onwards to London and Brussels. A separate Indian team led by Indian opposition lawmaker Shashi Tharoor is also in the US for official meetings.
The latest escalation between May 7-10 saw the two countries’ militaries trade missile, drones and artillery fire before a ceasefire was brokered by the US and other allies.
“Our concern for next time, heaven forbid, for next time round is that the threshold is low for a military conflict,” Bhutto Zardari said in an interview with Bloomberg News in Washington.
He said India’s use during the conflict of a supersonic missile with nuclear capabilities presented a new danger in future clashes.
“Now we then have about 30 seconds time to decide, off a grainy little image, this nuclear-capable missile — is it armed with a nuclear weapon? And how do we respond?”
In any future conflict, Bhutto Zardari added, both countries were likely to climb the “escalation ladder” too quickly for President Donald Trump or other leaders to intervene.
India has not officially declared its BrahMos missile to be nuclear capable and has a stated no-first-use nuclear policy. On Saturday, a top Indian military official said the conflict with Pakistan in May never came close to the point of nuclear war.
The latest conflict was sparked by an April attack by gunmen that killed 26 civilians — mostly Indian tourists — in Indian-administered Kashmir. India accused Pakistan of being behind the attack, which Islamabad denies.
After the conflict concluded with a ceasefire, which Trump said was brokered by the US, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India wouldn’t hesitate to use force against “terror camps” in Pakistan again, calling the response a “new normal” in relations.
India has denied the May 10 ceasefire was the result of US intervention.
“The new sort of normal, or we call it an abnormal, that the Modi government is trying to impose on the region is that if there’s a terrorist attack anywhere in India, mainland India and Indian-occupied Kashmir, you don’t have to provide a shred of evidence.” Bhutto Zardari said.
“You just need an accusation, and you launch into full-blown war with Pakistan. Therefore, from our perspective, it’s of the utmost importance that Pakistan and India engage in a comprehensive dialogue.”
India insists it attacked militant hideouts inside Pakistan during the latest conflict, marking the deepest breach into Pakistani territory since their 1971 war. Pakistan retaliated and shot down six Indian warplanes, using Chinese-made J-10C fighters to take down three French-made Rafales flown by India, said Bhutto Zardari.
India’s military has confirmed that it lost an unspecified number of fighter jets but said it was “absolutely incorrect” that Pakistan shot down six of its warplanes.
Pakistan has welcomed the US’s involvement in the dispute and called for an international investigation into its cause. India has historically rejected any third-party mediation with Pakistan.
“India will deal with Pakistan purely bilaterally,” India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told his German counterpart on May 23. “There should be no confusion in any quarter in that regard.”
Pakistan’s Sindh, Punjab provinces announce prison sentence remissions ahead of Eid
- Punjab grants 90-day sentence remission to 450 prisoners ahead of Eid Al-Adha
- Sindh chief minister approves special remission of 120 days for convicted prisoners
KARACHI: The provincial governments in Pakistan’s Sindh and Punjab provinces have announced remission in sentences for prisoners as a special concession on account of the upcoming Eid Al-Adha festival, official notifications released this week said.
Pakistani leaders traditionally announce sentence remissions for prisoners on religious festivals and other special occasions like the two Eid festivals and Independence Day. The remissions are intended as goodwill gestures to promote rehabilitation and allow selected inmates to reunite with their families during important national and religious holidays.
“Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha-1446 (2025), has approved a special remission of 120 days for convicted prisoners confined in various prisons and correctional facilities across Sindh Province,” the CM’s office said in a statement.
The special remission applies to all convicted prisoners “except for condemned prisoners and those convicted of serious offenses including murder, espionage, subversion, anti-state and terrorist activities, rape, kidnapping, robbery, dacoity, offenses, and financial embezzlement causing loss to the national exchequer.”
In Punjab, a special 90-day sentence remission was announced for 450 inmates.
The statement said 270 of the 450 prisoners would be released from Punjab’s jails and celebrate Eid with their families.
However, prisoners convicted of militancy, sectarianism, espionage, treason, anti-state activities, murder, rape, drug trafficking, robbery, kidnapping, financial embezzlement or causing loss to the national treasury, as well as those punished for violating jail rules within the past year, would not be eligible for the sentence remission.
Eid Al-Adha will be celebrated in Pakistan on Saturday, June 7.
School’s out: Climate change keeps Pakistan students home
- Pakistan’s children are losing weeks of education each year to school closures caused by extreme weather
- Searing heat, toxic smog, unusual cold snaps have all caused closures meant to reduce children’s health risks
LAHORE: Pakistan’s children are losing weeks of education each year to school closures caused by climate change-linked extreme weather, prompting calls for a radical rethink of learning schedules.
Searing heat, toxic smog and unusual cold snaps have all caused closures that are meant to spare children the health risks of learning in classrooms that are often overcrowded and lack basic cooling, heating or ventilation systems.
In May, a nationwide heatwave saw temperatures up to seven degrees Celsius above normal, hitting 45C (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in Punjab and prompting several provinces to cut school hours or start summer holidays early.
“The class becomes so hot that it feels like we are sitting in a brick kiln,” said 17-year-old Hafiz Ehtesham outside an inner city Lahore school.
“I don’t even want to come to school.”
Pakistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, with limited resources for adaptation, and extreme weather is compounding an existing education crisis caused mostly by access and poverty.
“Soon we will have major cognitive challenges because students are being impacted by extreme heat and extreme smog over long periods of time,” said Lahore-based education activist Baela Raza Jamil.
“The poorest are most vulnerable. But climate change is indeed a great leveller and the urban middle class is also affected.”
Pakistan’s summers historically began in June, when temperatures hit the high 40s. But in the last five years, May has been similarly hot, according to the Meteorological Department.
“During a power outage, I was sweating so much that the drops were falling off my forehead onto my desk,” 15-year-old Jannat, a student in Lahore, told AFP.
“A girl in my class had a nosebleed from the heat.”
Around a third of Pakistani school-age children — over 26 million — are out of school, according to government figures, one of the highest numbers in the world.
And 65 percent of children are unable to read age-appropriate material by age 10.
School closures affect almost every part of Pakistan, including the country’s most populous province Punjab, which has the highest rates of school attendance.
Classes closed for two weeks in November over air pollution, and another week in May because of heat. In the previous academic year, three weeks were lost in January to a cold snap and two weeks in May due to heat.
Political unrest and cricket matches that closed roads meant more lost days.
In Balochistan, Pakistan’s poorest province, May heatwaves have prompted early summer vacations for three years running, while in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, school hours are regularly slashed.
For authorities, the choice is often between sending children to school in potentially dangerous conditions or watching them fall behind.
In southern Sindh province, authorities have resisted heat-related closures despite growing demands from parents.
“It’s hard for parents to send their children to school in this kind of weather,” private school principal Sadiq Hussain told AFP in Karachi, adding that attendance drops by 25 percent in May.
“Their physical and mental health is being affected,” added Dost Mohammad Danish, general secretary of All Sindh Private Schools and Colleges Association.
“Don’t expect better scientists from Pakistan in the coming years.”
Schools in Pakistan are overseen by provincial authorities, whose closure notices apply to all schools in a region, even when they are hundreds of kilometers (miles) apart and may be experiencing different conditions, or have different resources to cope.
Teachers, parents and education experts want a rethink of school hours, exam timetables and vacations, with schools able to offer Saturday classes or split the school day to avoid the midday heat.
Izza Farrakh, a senior education specialist at the World Bank, said climate change-related impacts are affecting attendance and learning outcomes.
“Schools need to have flexibility in determining their academic calendar. It shouldn’t be centralized,” she said, adding that end-of-year exams usually taken in May could be replaced by regular assessments throughout the year.
Adapting school buildings is also crucial.
International development agencies have already equipped thousands of schools with solar panels, but many more of the country’s 250,000 schools need help.
Hundreds of climate-resilient schools funded by World Bank loans are being built in Sindh. They are elevated to withstand monsoon flooding, and fitted with solar panels for power and rooftop insulation to combat heat and cold.
But in Pakistan’s most impoverished villages, where education is a route out of generational poverty, parents still face tough choices.
In rural Sukkur, the local school was among 27,000 damaged or destroyed by unprecedented 2022 floods. Children learn outside their half-collapsed school building, unprotected from the elements.
“Our children are worried, and we are deeply concerned,” said parent Ali Gohar Gandhu, a daily wage laborer. “Everyone is suffering.”
