ISLAMABAD: The Inte­rnational Atomic Energy Agency and Pakistan on Wednesday signed a safeguards agreement for the 1,200-megawatt Chashma-5 nuclear power plant to bolster the country’s energy security while ensuring international non-proliferation standards.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Raja Ali Raza Anwar signed the pact at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna. The signing took place on the sidelines of the 70th IAEA General Conference.

Shan Zhongde, chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority, witnessed the ceremony. The agreement, which governs the application of safeguards at Unit-5 of the Chashma plant, was unanimously approved by the IAEA Board of Governors in March.

According to a statement on the signing, the agreement marks a critical step toward implementing safeguards for the new facility.

Officials noted that it reflects the international community’s continued confidence in Pakistan’s commitment to the peaceful use of nuclear energy and its adherence to global non-proliferation obligations.

Construction of the Chashma-5 (C-5) facility is progressing rapidly, with early completion of the reactor’s dome placement among its recent milestones.

Scheduled for commissioning in 2028, the unit is expected to add a substantial source of low-carbon, low-cost electricity to Pakistan’s national grid to support climate objectives and sustainable economic growth.

Pakistan currently operates six nuclear power plants with a combined installed capacity of 3,530 megawatts. According to the Atomic Energy Commission, these plants have maintained an average capacity factor exceeding 90pc.

Officials highlighted that the country possesses more than 100 reactor-years of operational experience, maintaining a strong record of safe, secure and safeguarded operations under international standards.

Prior to the signing ceremony, Pakistani and Chinese delegations met to discuss ongoing and future cooperation in the peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology.

Anwar led the Pakistani delegation, while Zhongde headed the Chinese group. Mohammad Kamran Akhtar Malik, Pakistan’s ambassador to Austria and permanent representative to the IAEA, also participated in the bilateral discussions.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2026

Responding to queries, a spokesperson for the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) said that Madhubala suffered from “acute weakness and low immunity levels” following prolonged treatment for tuberculosis and that’s what caused her sudden fall.

“While all her laboratory tests are just fine, she is being given antibiotics as a precautionary measure on the advice of a senior local vet. No fracture has been detected in the X-ray,” KMC spokesperson Daniyal Alishan Siyal told Dawn, adding that all medical reports were emailed to Sri Lankan wildlife health specialist Dr Buddhika for final assessment.

When asked why she is being given antibiotics when no bacterial infection has been detected, he said, “I am told that she has elevated infection markers, though no specific cause has been detected.”

The African elephant is suffering from ‘acute weakness and low immunity levels’

Madhubala, he pointed out, could now stand on her feet and the supporting crate belt had been removed.

On the swelling on her right hind thigh, he claimed that, “It was caused by her fall.”

He rejected the information that Madhubala was acutely dehydrated on the day of her fall because there wasn’t sufficient water to keep her cool on hot days.

“There were no power breakdowns that could lead to water issues,” Mr Siyal said.

Foot abscess recovery?

Safari Park Director Amjad Zaidi two days ago stated that it’s apparently the swelling on her right thigh, which was preventing her from using her leg. He had also stated that Madhubala had “recovered” from a foot infection.

Sources stated Madhubala’s swelling on her right hind thigh might be indicating spread of abscess from the foot (on the same affected leg) that she had been fighting for some period.

“Elevated infection markers mean her body’s immune system is reacting to a problem, though her test results cannot tell the exact cause,” a senior vet shared.

Steady signs of improvement: KMC

The KMC released a press statement on Madhubala’s condition, stating that the elephant is showing steady signs of improvement and continues to receive round-the-clock veterinary care and close medical monitoring.

“The latest health assessments have revealed several encouraging signs of improvement. Madhubala is now able to stand independently without harness support, marking a positive development in her recovery. Her vital parameters remain stable, while she continues to maintain a good appetite and remains alert and responsive,” it says.

It further adds that Madhubala is undergoing daily health assessments and blood tests, while X-rays of her hind quarters are also being conducted regularly.

“These diagnostic procedures are being carried out with the support of the Sindh Institute of Animal Health, enabling veterinary experts to closely monitor her physical condition and evaluate her progress.

“Madhubala’s dedicated keeper team remains with her around the clock. The keepers, who have been closely involved in her daily care, are working in close coordination with the veterinary team to ensure that she receives appropriate nutrition, care, supervision and support throughout her recovery,” it adds.

Madhubala had been in solitary confinement at Karachi Zoo following the tragic death of her companion Noor Jehan who died in 2023 after a tragic fall in her enclosure.

Noor Jehan’s autopsy report released by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) showed that she died from a severe blood parasitic infection and internal trauma combined with a lack of proper medical care.

Left alone at the zoo, Madhubala was successfully relocated to Safari Park where she was reunited with her sisters, Sonia and Malika, in November 2024, under the supervision of Four Paws — an international animal welfare organisation that worked extensively with the KMC for elephant care.

The success story of her reunion faded soon as Sonia died a month later after collapsing in her Safari enclosure.

Lab reports later showed that she suffered from multiple chronic illnesses, affecting almost all vital organs, indicating prolonged neglect in her care and failure in timely diagnosis.

Successive deaths of captive elephants raised public outcry, forcing the KMC to set up an 18-member body to look after Madhubala and Malika, both of whom were diagnosed with tuberculosis.

The four female elephants were brought to Karachi from Tanzania in 2010 at a very young age under a controversial arrangement.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2026

The Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to raise rates to between 3.75 and 4.00 per cent, citing “elevated” inflation and adding that the rate hike would support a “timelier return” to its 2pc target for the metric.

Addressing a press conference after the rate decision, US Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh stre­ssed that the central bank’s decision to raise interest rates, the first since 2023, was not influenced by financial markets.

“We made this decision today based on our assessment of the situation,” Warsh told the press conference. “I’ll observe market prices and see what they have to say. But today was our decision.”

He said that the central bank’s independence comes from staying focused on its objectives, in comments that come amid political pressure for lower interest rates.

“Part of the independence of the Federal Reserve is we stay in our lane,” Warsh said. “We let people that do trade policy and fiscal policy stay in their lane too. That’s how we can stand up here and call them the way we see them.

“Our predominant focus is on the price stability side of our mandate. The plain fact is that inflation is too high, and has been for too long,” he told a press conference.

A majority of Fed policymakers expect at least one more rate hike to be necessary before the end of the year, according to the central bank’s Summary of Economic Projections, also published Wednesday.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2026

A big power is emerging to our west. Shackled by sanctions for decades, and threatened incessantly with war, Iran had been walled away from the rest of the world since 1979. But now that America has demonstrated its impotence by failing every military objective it had laid in the war since February, the country that was tied down behind a wall of sanctions is emerging as a big power in the region.

In that sense, what is happening with Iran today is similar to what happened with China following détente. That country, too, was tied down and shackled and shunned by the global community ever since its revolution in 1949. Détente was its negotiated re-entry into the community of nations, and since then, the reforms undertaken within China propelled it to becoming a global power.

Iran’s story differs from this in the sense that it is not going to be a global power. However, it is certainly going to emerge as a regional power in a very important region of the world. Second, Iran’s re-entry into the world community is going to be far more disorderly than that of China, mainly because it has had to fight its way out of the oblivion into which it was banished since the revolution of 1979.

Short of an attempt to destroy its infrastructure, Iran’s emergence as a big power in the region is unstoppable.

But emergence is now underway. It will be a very disorderly, and possibly violent, affair. A lot depends on which faction within Iran manages to rise to the top and take over decision-making. In China, an internal reckoning took place within the Communist Party first, before the reform-minded elements around Deng Xiaoping could rise to the top and take control of the post-opening up trajectory. That is a fraught history, from the Cultural Revolution and the purge of Deng in 1966, to the attempted coup by Lin Biao and his death in a plane crash in Mongolia in 1971, to the rise of Zhou Enlai and the so-called Gang of Four that was ranged against him and the eventual emergence of Deng as the successor, his second purge after Zhou Enlai’s death, and eventual restoration following Mao’s death in 1976.

That is when China firmly embarked on its reformist course and broke its moorings to Mao’s thought. What followed was a carefully calibrated set of measures designed to open the Chinese economy up to the outside world — slowly and experimentally. That trajectory eventually propelled China towards becoming a global power, even if the process took many decades to complete.

Iran is now at a similar point in its trajectory. Following the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and its victory in the war against the Zionist alliance of America and Israel, it now has to go through the internal process of wrangling between rival factions, who must decide whether to remain wedded to the past or break out into a new future. This process will take years to unfold; what makes the Iranian trajectory different from the Chinese one is that in Iran the process will unfold in the context of a war.

It is evident that within Iran there is a pragmatic faction that wants to see the war come to a close and the task of rebuilding the country to begin. But equally important, there is a faction that wants to press ahead with the fighting to deliver a humiliating defeat to the aggressors. This faction wants to do to the Americans in the Middle East what the Taliban, too, did to them in Afghanistan: force a hurried and disorderly flight from the region.

The real game begins after that. Once the Americans leave the region, the Iranian military machine will turn its attention towards the Gulf monarchs. There will be reparations to pay. The bill for the war has already been served. In July 2025, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the Financial Times that there could be no return to nuclear talks until Iran had been compensated for the damage caused by the June war. America scoffed at the demand. In March 2026, the demand was made again in the counter-offer that Iran made to the American proposal for talks. In April, they added an amount — $270 billion — while another figure of $300bn was written into the US-Iran MOU in June 2026.

Nobody should be scoffing at the demand now. In addition to retaining control of Hormuz, Iran will press this demand in the days to come and it is the Gulf monarchs who will be left to pay the bill once the US decides the conflict no longer serves any of its interests. And once the Gulf monarchs settle this amount, another will surface. And then another.

Iran’s emergence as a big power in the region is now unstoppable, short of an attempted catastrophic destruction of the entire country’s infrastructure by the Zionist alliance. This may be an unlikely outcome at this point in time, but it cannot be ruled out. The emergence as a big power is already underway. After consolidating their control on Hormuz, they will next turn their gaze to the riches of the Gulf monarchs. Those riches are now imperilled.

China’s story is instructive here because it tells us that a post-revolutionary polity can manage its affairs to secure its re-entry into the global system of trade, finance and diplomacy to procure maximum benefits for itself. Whether Iran manages this moment similarly, or whether they decide to press their military advantage to the hilt and use their newfound centrality to avenge the past rather than build a future, is the big question hanging over all of us today.

The writer is a business and economy journalist.

khurram.husain@gmail.com

X: @khurramhusain

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2026

Why new provinces? The interior minister, who announced the plan, hasn’t held forth on the reasoning or offered an acceptable justification for adopting such an extreme and hazardous course. However, he has mentioned bad governance, population implosion, and systemic failures as some of the causes. Nor are there any official authoritative studies proposing a close nexus between good governance and smaller administrative structures. In fact, the global landscape reveals a mixed pattern. Some countries have fewer or territorially larger constituent units, and yet they are stable, functional, even enviable. Others have multiple small units/ provinces, but are perennially afflicted with broken, inept and even failed political systems.

The factors that generally determine the performance and vitality of a state are the legitimacy and efficacy of its political system, the character and ability of its leadership, and the maturity and capacity of its institutions — not only to deliver better governance, but also to meet the continuing challenges thrown up by ever-changing societal and state imperatives. In revitalising the ‘failed’ political systems, we don’t know if the so-called plan contemplates these factors.

Who is demanding them? Interestingly, most of these ideas have originated outside regular political processes, whether as One Unit, Basic Democracy, ‘Islamisation’, enlightened moderation, or hybrid governance. People have always been on the receiving end of new-fangled ideas and their pernicious consequences. The call for a structural ‘reset’, too, appears to have similar origins. So far, none of the governments — federal, provincial or even local — or the mainstream political leaderships have called for restructuring the provinces. However, there is near-consensus across the political spectrum on creating provinces in south Punjab, and KP’s Hazara belt. In fact, the Punjab and KP assemblies passed resolutions for these provinces, but they went nowhere.

Instead of new units, the country needs softer options to heal societal wounds.

Reorganising the state structures would be an extremely risky exercise. India’s Congress party had included the ‘linguistic’ provinces in its manifesto as early as 1917. Yet, after Partition, both prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and home minister Vallabhbhai Patel were reluctant to reorganise the states, fearing balkanisation of the fledgling country. It was many months of intense political agitations across the country, expert studies, judicial commissions, and a much-mourned fast unto death by Telugu nationalist Potti Sriramulu that finally brought the government around. Still, the Reorganisation Act of 1955 was not passed to improve governance but to group various linguistic communities in their own separate states. In other words, distinctive ethno-cultural identities were recognised and restored, rather than brutally denied and suppressed as would have been the case if the states had been broken up in a manner that dispersed the historically located ethno-cultural communities — something that is being contemplated here.

Is referendum feasible? Perhaps encouraged by the smooth passage of the controversial 26th and 27th constitutional amendments, and not expecting a large section of the political establishment to oppose the proposed move, some elements here had appeared confident of securing the required numbers to ensure restructuring. However, the JUI-F, ANP, PTI, and even the ruling party’s major coalition partner have dug in their heels. In fact, even the prime minister and his party seem reluctant to support the restructuring, though some government ministers are backing it, albeit without the cabinet’s approval. Likewise, the Sindh Assembly has also rejected the break-up of the province.

As a result, other means are being sought — preferably, a referendum to execute the plan. But a referendum would not validate the wholesale reorganisation of the state. It lacks legitimacy and credibility. It cannot be used to circumvent or be a substitute for the mandatory constitutional amendment. People will not accept it because every military dictator has used it to legitimise their rule. Instead, a referendum will be seen as farcical and incite public anger, triggering a maelstrom of pushback.

Will the ‘plan’ succeed? Any idea, policy, or law that is imposed on the people has miserably failed to achieve its objectives; in fact, it has often led to disasters. Steamrolling the restructuring of provinces — against the will of the people — will further aggravate identity-driven politics across a fragile multiethnic landscape. It may even ignite the tinderbox the country has become, particularly for poor and disgruntled youth who have endured the harrowing realities of failed systems. The numbers are dreadful. Half the population lives in poverty, around 28 million children are out of school, four out of 10 children suffer from stunted growth, three-fourths of the populace is consuming contaminated water, and the increasingly murky security environment scares away local and foreign investors.

In these dire circumstances, the country desperately needs softer options to heal societal wounds — options that recompense the people through justice, equity, peace, opportunity, and development, which are democracy’s tested tools. The yawning fault lines — ethnic, social, political, inter-provincial and centre-province — must be mended, and federal democracy, which remains buried under the hybrid regime, restored.

The system does need a ‘reset’. But the reset should mean building efficient and accountable institutions, strengthening rules-based governance, and allowing legitimate and representative leadership to run political and public offices. That requires a continuous process of fair, free elections held on time, so that dead wood can be replaced with a fresher, cleaner leadership at the federal, provincial, and local levels.

Finally, a ‘reset’ would be fatal if it ignored the emotional, even spiritual, bonding of the various ethno-cultural communities with their respective provinces. This bonding goes beyond ideology or politics. It is the product of the centuries-long interplay between these communities and their distinctive land, history, culture, language, literature and art. This bonding leads many in Sindh to conceive their province as an indivisible historical entity — a firmer federalised version of Scotland or Quebec.

The writer is a lawyer.

shahabusto@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2026

The Islamabad-based watchdog welcomed the signing of memoranda of understanding and agreements be­­tween Google and the governm­e­­nt after the company opened its of­­fice in Pakistan to advance the country’s digital vision, but expres­sed ap­­prehensions that the tech company and the government had not made details of their agreements public.

“A big question is what exactly has been agreed? Will the government or Google publish all MoUs, agreements, contracts or other arra­ngements signed between them? If some provisions must remain confidential, who decided that and under what law?” Freedom Network asked in its alert shared with the media through a press release.

The media watchdog asked if there were any undisclosed commitments concerning access to user data, content, metadata or government databases. “Under what circumstances can Pakistani authorities request information about Google users? Will every request require a valid legal process and judicial oversight? Will Google reject requests that are overly broad, vague or inconsistent with fundamental rights?”

Media watchdog seeks details of MoUs, agreements

Freedom Network was explicit in asking if any protection or unambiguous safeguards against government access to journalists’ Gmail, Google Drive, photos, YouTube accounts, search-related information or other data that could reveal confidential sources were part of the agreements and MoUs.

The watchdog asked Google to commit itself to not removing any content merely because a government agency asks, or that requests for blocking or removal shall be assessed under transparent legal standards and users shall receive notice and an opportunity to challenge decisions where legally possible.

Freedom Network also worried about where Pakistani citizens’ data would be stored as the country is developing a national data-governance framework that urges data sovereignty, minimum disclosure and citizens’ right to know who has accessed their information. “Will Pakistani users’ data be stored in Pakistan, overseas, or both?” it asked Google.

“There should not be informal or undocumented data-sharing arrangements between Google and the Pakistan government.”

The press release quoted the media watchdog as asking the tech company: “Who independently will audit Google’s compliance with privacy and human-rights safeguards in Pakistan? The answer should not be simply the government.”

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2026