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Pakistan Tightens Festival Safety, Expands PPP Pipeline, Speeds Tax Cases as Security Operations Intensify

Officials frame the moves as efforts to steady public order, reassure investors, confront militant threats.

Overview

  • Lahore set a three‑day Safe Basant for February 6–8 with a strict pre‑event kite ban, mandatory motorcycle safety rods, and limited kite and string sales from February 1–8 inside district limits.
  • Punjab approved a broad public‑private partnership push, directing at least 30% of the 2026–27 development program to PPPs and advancing road upgrades, water projects, and on‑campus housing plans.
  • Chief Justice Yahya Afridi said the Supreme Court will prioritize rapid disposal of long‑pending, high‑value tax cases, with improved coordination with tax authorities to reduce economic uncertainty.
  • Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi ordered a robust crackdown on money laundering, hawala and human smuggling, seeking full money‑trail probes as FIA reported 20 agent arrests in four months and major seizures.
  • In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, CTD reported three wanted militants killed in Lakki Marwat, while a separate IED struck a cement‑factory vehicle near Beghokhel, killing one person and injuring eight.