Overview
- Express News and Daily Pakistan, citing unnamed sources, report Pakistan has closed routes used for Afghan transit trade to curb smuggling and militancy, with claimed Afghan losses in the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars that remain uncorroborated by official statements.
- Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz ordered stricter governance checks, including secret monitoring teams, penalties and payment suspensions for underperforming cleanliness contractors, expanded green-belt work, and 24/7 CCTV monitoring to counter encroachments.
- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa approved establishing the police Special Branch as a separate cadre, creating 1,221 posts and allocating funds for infrastructure, vehicles and technology to strengthen intelligence and counterterror capabilities.
- By-elections proceeded under heavy security with CCTV at highly sensitive polling stations, and Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja attributed low public turnout to the fact that the contests would not change the parliamentary arithmetic.
- The Lahore High Court ruled that acquittals, discharges or canceled cases must not appear on police character certificates and ordered a corrected certificate issued within 10 days in the case before it.