• The federal government has announced a public holiday on November 9, 2026, nationwide in connection with Iqbal Day.

The Cabinet Division has issued a notification announcing Monday, November 9, as a public holiday across the country to mark the birth anniversary of Allama Muhammad Iqbal.

The holiday has been declared through the annual holiday circular released by the Cabinet Division on January 19, 2026.

The ministries and government departments have been asked to guarantee execution of the notification.

Schools and public and commercial offices throughout the country will be closed on November 9.

Employees of offices and educational institutions observing a two-day weekend will have three straight days off from November 7 to 9. Normal activities will resume on Tuesday, November 10.

Pakistan is “cautiously optimistic” about its mediation between Iran and the United States, the army spokesperson said in his first interview since a high-level delegation visited Tehran last week.

Field Marshal Asim Munir, the army chief and Pakistan’s point man in efforts to de-escalate the now eight-month-old Iran war, has been to Tehran twice this month, most recently on Monday together with Saudi and Turkish officials.

‘Why would the Field Marshal be going twice if it is not for some positivity? “So yes, of course,” said spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry when asked if the trips were a positive sign.

AGREEMENT NOT TO BLOCK NEW MEMBERS

“The word we would use is always cautiously optimistic,” said Chaudhry, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

“But still there are powerful spoilers and detractors,” he added, without naming them, who think strife suits them.

Speaking in Rawalpindi, the garrison city where Pakistan’s armed forces are based, Chaudhry declined to specify what was discussed or whether the United States had supported the trip.

Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin were with Munir when he flew to Tehran on Monday. On August 7, their two countries inked a combined defence deal with Pakistan saying an assault on any signatory will be considered as an attack on all.

The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement has gained new importance since the Iran war has changed regional alignments and sparked worries of a broader Middle East confrontation.

The three signatories insist the deal is about collective deterrence and regional security, but observers view its development as intimately linked to efforts by regional countries to handle the fallout from the Iran-US rivalry.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary Mohsen Rezaei said after Monday’s talks that regional security should be guarantyd by regional countries without international meddling.

“The text of the pact does not exclude new members,” Chaudhry said Friday when asked if Iran might be a member.

Pakistan has expressed its concerns over the presence of terrorist outfits in Afghanistan, warning that the Taliban leadership is allowing them to operate from its soil.

“More than 4,700 Pakistanis have lost their lives to terrorist attacks emanating from Afghanistan during the last three years,” Pakistan’s envoy Muhammad Jawad Ajmal said during the UN Human Rights Council’s interactive conversation on Afghanistan on Thursday.

Separately, UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett told the General Assembly that five years after coming to power, the Taliban had demonstrated no intention to ending systematic human rights atrocities. Instead, he added, limits on fundamental freedoms — especially for women and girls — have continued to tighten.

Ajmal said the degrading human rights situation was a sign of the Taliban’s “utter disregard” for their international duties. He pointed to the limits imposed on women and girls who, according to him, were denied of fundamental freedoms and dignity in a manner which was contrary to Islamic beliefs and values.

He also mentioned the ninth Ministerial Conference on Women, which was held in Islamabad in July and during which the Organization of Islamic Cooperation adopted the Islamabad Declaration. The declaration voiced worry over the Taliban’s limitations on women and girls, saying they are incongruous with Islamic beliefs.

Bennett urged UN member states not to normalise relations with the Taliban until the leadership rolls back its restrictive policies.

He said the Taliban’s new directives have further eroded women’s rights, enabled violence against them and severely curtailed their ability to exit abusive relationships. He also expressed alarm over the regime’s tolerance of child marriages.

Pakistan’s engagement also brought to the fore security issues relating to Afghanistan. Ajmal accused the Taliban of having strong links with terrorist outfits and said these groups were operating freely on Afghan soil with the patronage of external actors who wanted to target Pakistan and other surrounding nations.

He added the Taliban’s refusal to openly renounce the groups was evidence that they were involved and supported their activities.

Meanwhile, Bennett’s study chronicled major human rights abuses in Afghanistan, including arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, sexual violence, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

The report also expressed concern at restrictions on freedom of expression, exclusion of persons with disabilities, and discrimination and persecution of ethnic, religious, linguistic and other marginalised communities.