ISLAMABAD: A government team will brief the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) negotiating team on Tuesday regarding the petroleum levy and Independent Power Producers (IPPs), ARY News reported.

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The government has invited the JI delegation to Block A of the Federal Secretariat at 2:00 PM.

JI Vice-Chief Liaqat Baloch will lead the party’s team, assisted by Syed Farasat Shah, Nasrullah Randhawa, and Inayatullah Khan.

The JI delegation also includes Ziauddin Ansari and Naveed Ali Baig.

Officials from the Petroleum Department, Power Division, and other relevant ministries will brief the visiting delegation.

Meanwhile, formal talks between the government and Jamaat-e-Islami are scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

LAHORE  –   The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) on Monday unveiled its Women’s Football Strategy 2026-2030, introducing a national five-year roadmap designed to take women’s football from grassroots participation to the elite level while creating structured pathways for players, coaches, referees, administrators and future leaders. Launched in Islamabad under the theme “From Paper to the Pitch,” the strategy is built around five pillars: participation and competitions; player development and high performance; education and capacity development; visibility, engagement and growth; and governance and leadership.

The plan targets expanded school, club and academy participation, regular competitions and a tiered national, provincial and district league system. It also proposes a national talent-identification framework and comprehensive player-registration system to ensure promising players can progress through the system regardless of where they are discovered. PFF President Syed Mohsen Gilani described the initiative as a landmark moment, noting that Pakistan’s women’s team had recently participated in a FIFA event and was ranked above the men’s side. “Our women’s team has created history by participating in a FIFA event,” Gilani said, adding that the federation’s priority was to improve national-team performance, strengthen youth development and build a complete football ecosystem for women.

The strategy envisages Regional Training Centres, national youth programmes and a dedicated Women’s National Team High-Performance Framework. It also calls for regular international exposure for youth sides and at least 10 international matches annually for the senior women’s team.

Head of Women’s Football Mejzgaan Orakzai said the federation was building on existing foundations rather than starting from scratch. Pakistan currently has 62 registered clubs and academies, 673 registered female players and five certified women referees, while the last AFC “A” Licence coaching course for women was held in 2020. Under its education pillar, the strategy aims to train and certify at least 250 female coaches across four regions and increase registered female referees to 100. The federation also plans outreach programmes to engage at least 2,000 girls annually across the four regions, alongside stronger media partnerships, marketing, fan engagement and commercial development. PFF Technical Director Adeel Rizki stressed that youth development would be central to the strategy’s success, while Prime Minister’s Coordinator for Inter-Provincial Coordination Syeda Mehreen Sajid urged the federation to extend its programmes to smaller towns where considerable talent remains untapped.

By 2030, the PFF aims to establish a professional, inclusive and safe women’s football structure capable of consistently producing players for the national team while opening greater opportunities for women across all areas of the sport.

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to hold talks with the political parties and a farmers’ alliance, who have announced long marches to protest, sources said on Tuesday.

A government team will resume talks with Jamaat Islami (JI) today, which has given a call for long march on September 20, to protest against the Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) and skyrocketing fuel prices.

Sources said that the government has also engaged the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership, which has announced protest on September 27, with back-channel contacts. “The government communicating with the PTI leadership via the party’s chairman Barrister Gohar,” sources shared.

Moreover, the Kissan Ittehad (farmers’ alliance), has given a call of long march to Islamabad on Sept 25. “The government has decided to engage the Kissan Ittehad and directed the Punjab government to engage the alliance in talks,” sources said.

The government mulling over granting permission to the protesting parties and farmers on a specific venue, sources said.

“The government will take all necessary steps for maintenance of law and order, if the talks would fail,” sources added.

Attock  – The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Attock Circle arrested an Assistant Director (Administration and Finance) of the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) Attock on Saturday for allegedly demanding and receiving a Rs30,000 bribe for approving a new water supply connection, officials said.

The arrest was made during a trap operation conducted by Circle Officer ACE Jahanzeb Khan in the presence of Judicial Magistrate Ahmad Zia Chaudhry, following a complaint lodged by Bilal Ahmad, a resident of Attock.

According to ACE officials, Ahmad approached the department and alleged that Jameel Akhtar Shad, Assistant Director (Administration and Finance), WASA Attock, had demanded Rs30,000 in illegal gratification for issuing a new water connection for his house.

Acting on the complaint, ACE officials arranged a trap and arrested the suspect while he was allegedly receiving the money from the complainant. The bribe amount was recovered from the accused, officials said.

A case was subsequently registered against Shad under relevant provisions of the anti-corruption laws. ACE officials said the suspect had been taken into custody for further legal proceedings and that documentary evidence and the recovered money had been secured for presentation before the court.

Circle Officer Jahanzeb Khan said the department would continue action against officials accused of demanding bribes from citizens seeking public services.

“No one will be allowed to exploit citizens by demanding bribes for basic public services,” he said.

He said the presence of the judicial magistrate during the operation was intended to ensure that the trap was conducted in accordance with legal procedure and to maintain transparency.

ACE officials said the action was the latest in a series of anti-corruption cases registered in Attock this month. Two traffic police officials and an employee of the Agriculture Department had also been arrested in separate cases after complaints alleging demands for bribes, they said.

The officials said the recent operations formed part of the province-wide anti-corruption campaign launched on the directions of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.

The complainant, Bilal Ahmad, said the arrest should serve as a warning to officials who demanded illegal payments from citizens.

“We want public offices to work without corruption so that ordinary people do not suffer,” he said.

ACE officials urged citizens to report demands for bribes through the department’s designated complaint channels, saying the identity of complainants would be kept confidential in accordance with the applicable procedure.

Further investigation into the WASA case is under way to determine whether any other officials or employees were involved.

Rawalpindi  –  Deputy Commissioner Captain (Retd) Nadeem Nasir on Monday directed the authorities to ensure comprehensive security, transparent arrangements and uninterrupted facilities for the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT-2026), scheduled to be held in Rawalpindi on Sept 20.

The instructions were issued at a review meeting chaired by the deputy commissioner and attended by Additional Deputy Commissioner Social Services Fazaill Mudassar, Assistant Commissioner City Emaan Zafar and officials from the education department, Directorate of Colleges, police, City Traffic Police, Rescue 1122, NADRA and other relevant departments.

The meeting was informed that the University of Health Sciences (UHS) had established three examination centres in Rawalpindi: PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Government Post Graduate College and Siddique Public School.

A total of 6,240 candidates are scheduled to appear in the examination at the three centres. ADC Social Services Fazaill Mudassar has been designated as the focal person for coordination among the departments involved in the arrangements.

Addressing the meeting, Mr Nasir said the MDCAT was important for the academic future of thousands of students and directed the authorities to ensure merit, discipline and security throughout the examination process.

He ordered comprehensive security arrangements for examination material before and during the test and directed the relevant departments to ensure there were no administrative or security lapses.

The deputy commissioner also directed the authorities to arrange uninterrupted power supply, first-aid facilities, adequate parking, smooth traffic management and designated waiting areas for parents and accompanying persons.

He called for close coordination among all departments to ensure that candidates could reach and sit the examination without unnecessary difficulty and that the test was conducted in a secure and transparent environment.

Wall Street dipped on Monday, weighed down by losses in Nvidia and other chipmakers after top executives in ​U.S. artificial intelligence companies raised safety concerns and called for a slowdown in the development of ‌AI.

Investors were also jittery after the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield briefly surpassed 5% for the first time since 2023 ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting. The U.S. central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates.

AI-linked stocks plunged worldwide after the leaders of Anthropic, OpenAI and ​xAI warned of risks from rapid development, the starkest threat yet to the billions of dollars being poured ​into the industry that have driven markets to record highs.

Shares of Nvidia declined 2.6%, while ⁠Broadcom, Micron Technology, and Advanced Micro Devices each fell around 4%.

The PHLX chip index tumbled 5.4%, reducing its 2026 ​gain to 58%.

Brent crude futures advanced 1% to $106 as worries about energy supplies mounted following new strikes on Saudi Arabian ​energy infrastructure and attacks on ships in the Middle East.

High inflation, heavy corporate and government borrowing and concerns about the long-term U.S. fiscal trajectory have sent U.S. Treasury yields higher in the past month. The 5% mark that the 10-year yield hit on Monday is a ​threshold that analysts warned could ripple through the U.S. economy and threaten the bull market in stocks by denting ​the relative appeal of U.S. equities.

Traders are pricing in a 90% chance that the Fed will raise interest rates by 25 basis points ‌at its ⁠policy meeting on Wednesday to fight inflation related to high oil prices, according to CME’s FedWatch.

“The 10-year going above 5% is huge and speaks volumes, and it may pressure the Fed to do more than just one rate hike,” said Jake Dollarhide, CEO of Longbow Asset Management.

The S&P 500 was down 0.27% at 7,636.02 points.

The Nasdaq declined 0.10% to 26,306.65 ​points, while the Dow Jones ​Industrial Average was down 0.27% ⁠at 52,433.44 points.

ServiceNow, Adobe, and Workday rallied between 4% and 8%. Those and other software stocks have sold off in recent sessions over worries that competition from AI companies ​could hurt their margins.

The S&P 500’s recent decline, coupled with a strong earnings outlook, has ​the benchmark trading ⁠at 19 times expected earnings. That is its cheapest since April 2025, when U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcements threw global markets into a tailspin.

Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes declined, led lower by industrials down 1.59%, followed ⁠by a ​1.22% loss in utilities.

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 ​by a 1.1-to-one ratio.

The S&P 500 posted nine new highs and eight new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 41 new highs and 174 new lows.