ISLAMABAD: Senior leaders of the Afghan Taliban government on Friday contacted JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to express condolences over the killing of Sheikh Idris.
According to the JUI-F media cell, Afghan Defence Minister Mullah Yaqoob, Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid separately contacted Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
In the discussion with Maulana Fazl, the Afghan leadership expressed deep sorrow over the killing and prayed for the departed soul.
Maulana Idris, a senior member of JUI-F was shot dead by armed motorcyclists in the Utmanzai area of Charsadda on May 5, while he was traveling to a madressah. As the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) claimed responsibility for the killing the initial findings suggest the attack was planned in Afghanistan.
JUI-F protesters in Islamabad demand immediate arrest of culprits
They strongly condemned the assassination and said the people and leadership of Afghanistan equally share the grief of the Pakistani people over the killing.
The Afghan leaders also conveyed solidarity with JUI-F and its student wing, saying they fully understand and share the pain and suffering of the party and religious students. The contacts come amid strong reactions from political and religious circles following the killing of Sheikh Idris, which has triggered condemnation and protest calls from JUI leadership across the country.
Meanwhile, the JUI-F Islamabad chapter staged a protest demonstration against the killing. Led by JUI-F Islamabad emir Mufti Owais Aziz, a large number of party leaders and workers participated in the protest including JUI-F central spokesperson Aslam Ghauri, Sindh deputy chief Qari Usman, Punjab deputy secretary general Maulana Saeed Sarwar, emir Rawalpindi chapter Dr Ziaur Rehman and Mufti Abdullah.
The protesters demanded the immediate arrest of those involved in the killing. Addressing the demonstrators, Aslam Ghauri said that until the killers were arrested, the present government would be considered responsible for Sheikh Idris’ murder. He said JUI-F is a peaceful political party that has always advocated peace and stability.
He vowed that the blood of Sheikh Idris would not go in vain and alleged that no one’s life, property or honour is safe in Pakistan anymore. Criticising the authorities, Mr Ghauri said repeated failures of the security institutions had become unbearable.
The protest comes amid growing anger within JUI-F over the killing, with the party announcing demonstrations in different parts of the country.
Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2026
China’s Wu Yize is said to have shared a single bed with his father in a windowless flat as he sacrificed his home life to follow his snooker dreams.
Now, just a few years later, Wu is world champion after defeating Shaun Murphy 18-17 in the final at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre on Monday.
Wu, who is 22 but looks younger, follows in the footsteps of Zhao Xintong, who last year became the first Chinese player to win snooker’s most cherished prize.
“(Zhao’s success) definitely made me believe in myself more because he made history,” Wu has said.
Those in the know have long tipped Wu for the top.
In February, seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan said the Chinese ace would be world number one within three years.
O’Sullivan called him a “phenomenal player”.
In China Wu has earned the nicknames “Little Wu” and “Priest Wu”, the latter mainly because of a previous hairstyle which people said made him look like a priest.
Others still use it because it also reflects his composure and calm demeanour around the table.
Wu was born on October 14, 2003, in the city of Lanzhou, in Gansu province, in China’s rugged northwest.
Wu, whose idol is O’Sullivan, was taken by his father to a snooker hall for the first time when he was seven.
His talent was obvious and four years later his father, who ran an antique business, took him to train in Yushan on the other side of the country.
The International Billiards Academy is a talent factory for Chinese stars of the future and there is also the 4,000-seater Yushan Sports Center and a World Billiards Museum.
Then aged 16 came the move to Sheffield, the northern English city regarded as the home of snooker.
It was not easy, far away from home and having to master a language, culture and food that was totally new to him.
His father was with him, but money was tight.
“His dad gave up his job, I don’t think either of them could speak any English when they came over,” Rob Walker, broadcaster and master of ceremonies for World Snooker, told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN.
“They famously shared a single bed in a one-bedroom flat with no window for three years because they were determined that he would pursue this dream.”
Even now Wu’s mother remains in China and visits only occasionally.
Wu’s talent, diligence and commitment soon began to pay off, but he missed home and Chinese food, especially Lanzhou’s famous beef noodles.
In 2021 he turned professional and reached the last 32 of the UK Championship.
In 2022 he was named Rookie of the Year and in 2024 he reached his first ranking event final.
Last year came his big breakthrough when he beat the likes of Zhao, Judd Trump and John Higgins in the final to win his first ranking title, at the International Championship.
Even as he joins Zhao as world champions from China, Wu has not forgotten his roots.
He has set up a snooker hall under his own name in his hometown of Lanzhou and occasionally gives advice to budding young players.
Speaking previously to reporters in Sheffield, Wu said he would buy a house if he won the world title.
“In the beginning there was not a lot of prize money,” Wu said, according to the BBC.
“So there was definitely a lot of pressure and also there was a lot for myself to improve in terms of my game, so I was definitely feeling the pressure at the time.”
• Demands more than just ‘strongly worded statements’, warns against yielding international waters to Iran
• Trump weighs response to allies blocking base access
• Riyadh keeps bases open, prohibits their use for Hormuz operations
ROME: Secretary of State Marco Rubio questioned on Friday why US allies, including Italy, were not backing Washington’s efforts to confront Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, following a frank meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“I don’t understand why anybody would not be supportive,” Rubio told reporters, adding that countries needed “something more than just strongly worded statements” if they opposed Iran’s actions.
Rubio was wrapping up a short, two-day trip aimed at easing ties with Pope Leo after attacks on the pontiff by President Donald Trump, while also addressing Washington’s frustration over Italy’s refusal to support the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Meloni had been one of Trump’s firmest allies in Europe, cultivating close ties with him and presenting herself as a natural bridge between Washington and other EU states.
But that alignment has come under increasing strain in recent months, as the Iran war has forced her to balance loyalty to the United States against Italian public animosity to the war and the growing economic cost of the conflict.
Meloni and Rubio met for an hour and a half in what she later described to reporters in Milan as a “certainly frank” discussion between countries willing to defend their national interests while valuing the transatlantic partnership.
Rubio warned that Tehran’s claim to control access to Hormuz risked setting a dangerous precedent.
“The fundamental question every country, not just Italy, needs to ask themselves is, are you going to normalise a country claiming to control an international waterway?” he said. “Because if you normalise that, you’ve set a precedent that’s going to get repeated in a dozen other places.”
Italy and other European allies have said they would be willing to help keep the strait open once there was a lasting ceasefire or the conflict ends, but have refused to be drawn into direct confrontation with Iran.
Trump has yet to decide how to respond to some allies denying the US military the use of their bases in its war on Iran, Rubio said on Friday.
Trump has threatened to pull US troops from Italy and Spain due to their opposition to the Iran war, with Madrid notably refusing to allow the use of its bases.
“If one of the main reasons why the US is in Nato is the ability to have forces deployed in Europe that we could project to other contingencies, and now that’s no longer the case, at least when it comes to some Nato members, that’s a problem, and it has to be examined,” Rubio told reporters.
He said that “ultimately that’s a decision for the president to make”, adding: “He hasn’t made those decisions yet.”
Meanwhile, US forces have access to Saudi airspace and bases despite being told not to use them for the now-suspended operation to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, two Saudi sources said on Friday.
Earlier this week, Trump announced a pause in the two-day-old “Project Freedom” to guide ships through the Strait, after a flare-up with Iran strained a fragile ceasefire.
US media reports on Thursday said Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman talked directly to Trump and refused to let US forces use Saudi airspace and bases for the operation.
However, two Saudi sources said on Friday US access to its airspace and bases continues for other uses.
“Saudi Arabia was against the operation because it felt it would just escalate the situation and would not work,” one of them told reporters.
Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The newly created Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) has pushed the emoluments of its staff and officers to unprecedented levels as debate continues over the constitutional supremacy of FCC and Supreme Court.
The development comes amid an intensifying constitutional debate between the FCC and the SC over their respective jurisdictions and authority following the 27th Constitutional Amendment.
In a recent judgement, the SC ruled it is not subordinate to the FCC despite FCC’s repeated assertions that exclusive constitutional adjudication now rests with it after the amendment.
The ruling, authored by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, interpreted the amended constitutional framework as creating two co-equal apex courts with separate jurisdictions, rather than a hierarchical arrangement placing one above the other. The judgement diverged sharply from several FCC rulings declaring its decisions binding on all courts, including the SC.
Pay gap of up to Rs300,000 in some cases raises questions
In a number of judgements, the FCC maintained the SC no longer retained the authority to interpret the Constitution after the enactment of the 27th Amendment and that constitutional interpretation exclusively fell within FCC’s domain.
Against this backdrop, FCC officials have emerged as one of the most highly compensated segments of the public sector, with salary structures and benefits significantly exceeding those available to employees of the SC and high courts.
Official notifications issued by the FCC reveal an extensive package of salaries, allowances and financial incentives for employees ranging from lower-grade staff to senior officers, raising questions about the growing financial privileges being extended to the newly established institution.
According to a notification issued last week, judicial and utility allowances for FCC employees were fixed at 50pc each of the running basic pay. The decision effectively doubles employees’ basic salaries through additional benefits.
In an earlier office order, the court had also approved a special judicial allowance equivalent to three times the basic pay, substantially increasing the overall monthly emoluments of employees across various grades.
The benefits apply to employees from BPS-2 to BPS-22 under notifications and office orders issued between November 2025 and January 2026. During the same period, the Federal Constitutional Court also created dozens of new posts to expand its administrative structure.
Another notification granted transport monetisation to officers from BPS-17 to BPS-22, ranging from Rs60,000 to Rs250,000 per month. Under the arrangement, officers would receive cash payments in place of official transport facilities.
By comparison, transport monetisation available to SC officers starts at Rs65,000 for BS-17 officers and rises to Rs95,000 for BS-22 officers.
A senior court official said the widening disparity between the salaries and allowances of FCC and Supreme Court employees had increased the difference in monthly compensation to between Rs250,000 and Rs300,000 in certain cases.
Separate gazette notifications also showed the creation of more than 25 posts in the Federal Constitutional Court, including those of registrar, six additional registrars and the secretary to FCC chief justice, all carrying special pay scales substantially higher than those available to ordinary government servants.
According to the documents, the expenditures would be met from the FCC’s allocated budget for the fiscal year 2025-26. However, no public details have been released regarding the total financial implications of the new compensation structure or its long-term sustainability.
Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2026
• Marriage halls increase rates or avoid long-term pricing commitments due to economic uncertainty
• Govt austerity measures have led to stricter enforcement of wedding regulations, including the 10pm curfew and one-dish policy
KARACHI: With temperatures climbing, wedding invitations seem to have mercifully dwindled to a stop for those who dread the sweat of suits, heels, and layers of makeup. And not a day too soon, given how the ongoing war has impacted this wedding-obsessed country.
Amid surging fuel rates and inflation, pricing volatility has reached new highs. Several venues have raised rates by up to Rs500 per head, while others are refusing to commit to winter pricing altogether, citing uncertainty around oil and input costs, says Izzah Zaman, co-founder of wedding-tech startup Shadiyana.
Alongside this, the government’s austerity measures have led to stricter regulatory enforcement: a 10pm wedding cutoff, police intervention in cases of violations, and crackdowns on the one-dish policy, resulting in venue closures across Islamabad.
There are also operational challenges. Weddings in the capital, in particular, are increasingly vulnerable to external disruptions, whether due to security cordons near the Margalla Hills during peace talks or city-wide VIP protocols that delay guest arrivals without warning.
Media reports suggest that last winter’s wedding season in Karachi alone was worth around Rs33 billion, while Shadiyana estimates the nationwide market at approximately Rs900 million.
All of this is unfolding within an industry that has historically operated at enormous scale, albeit through a fragmented and informal economy. This disconnect is what Shadiyana aims to address.
The idea took shape in 2021, at the height of Pakistan’s startup boom, when funding was pouring into companies such as Airlift.
While much of that capital pursued models tested elsewhere, Izzah Zaman and her co-founder, Neelam Shoaib, chose a less-travelled path: weddings. “When we thought about weddings, we realised this isn’t something you can simply copy-paste from the West. It’s a very local problem,” she says.
Pakistan’s wedding economy has historically been structurally resistant to organisation. Entire neighbourhoods, such as North Nazimabad in Karachi, function as dense clusters of 60 to 70 wedding halls, where discovery remains largely physical and inefficient.
Finding a venue often means driving from one location to another, only to discover that most dates are already booked. Shadiyana’s proposition is to bring this chaos online and streamline it with just a few clicks.
In essence, Shadiyana is a wedding marketplace that connects users with vendors offering a wide range of services, from mehendi artists and photographers to its primary revenue driver: marriage halls.
The company began modestly in 2021 with $2,500 in funding from Ms Zaman’s alma mater, Carnegie Mellon. Since then, it has helped organise over 30,000 weddings across Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad, leading to an $800,000 raise from Indus Valley Capital.
Today, the platform, which includes both a website and a mobile app, reports more than half a million users and over 600 vendors listed on its platform.
The company’s business model is anchored primarily in commissions, which comprise roughly 80 per cent of revenue. This is supplemented by vendor subscriptions and marketing add-ons, including services such as a wedding-night workshop that educates brides on the religious and medical aspects of their first night together.
In practice, when a user books a venue through the platform, Shadiyana earns a percentage of the transaction, with rates varying by category. Photographers may generate commissions of around 10pc, while venues yield between 2pc and 10pc, depending on the size of the deal.
Yet, even as the platform formalises parts of the process, it remains exposed to the same pressures reshaping the wider industry.
Before the latest inflationary wave driven by the US-Iran conflict, the average wedding ticket size on Shadiyana stood at around Rs600,000. Through the platform, wedding budgets have ranged from as little as Rs20,000 to as much as Rs4.4 million.
However, the broader trend points towards contraction. A startup that began operations during the pandemic, then navigated the Russia-Ukraine conflict, domestic inflation, a near-default economic crisis, and now ongoing geopolitical tensions, has effectively grown alongside a series of economic shocks.
The impact is evident in consumer behaviour. Guest lists that once averaged 400 people have now shrunk to around 150. Budgets for venues, photography, and catering are also being reduced.
As the war continues and fiscal pressures tighten for ordinary people, weddings will still take place, albeit on significantly smaller budgets.
Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2026
© REUTERS
© AFP-JIJI
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