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Two people were killed in separate shooting incidents reported within an hour in different areas of Karachi on Thursday, prompting police to launch investigations into both cases. The first incident occurred in the Boat Basin police jurisdiction near Bath Island in Clifton, where a watchman was fatally shot outside a residential bungalow. Rescue officials shifted the victim’s body to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for legal formalities. According to Chhipa rescue officials, the deceased was identified as 40-year-old Mewa, who sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the chest. Initial information suggested that armed suspects opened fire after encountering resistance during an attempted robbery. However, Boat Basin Station House Officer (SHO) Riaz Niazi said the exact motive behind the killing had not yet been established. He confirmed that the victim originally belonged to the Thar region and was employed as a watchman at the bungalow where the incident occurred. The SHO said police were investigating all possible angles, including personal enmity and robbery, before reaching a final conclusion. Authorities are also attempting to obtain CCTV footage from the surrounding area to identify the suspects and reconstruct the sequence of events. In a separate incident, another man was shot dead near Link Road on the National Highway in the Bin Qasim area. The victim was also taken to Jinnah Hospital for medico-legal procedures. Bin Qasim SHO Faisal Rafiq identified the deceased as 40-year-old Bashir, a truck driver originally from Dera Ismail Khan. According to preliminary findings, Bashir was present at a truck terminal when unidentified assailants, who were allegedly lying in wait, opened fire on him. Police said the victim suffered three bullet wounds, including one to the chest. Investigators recovered three spent 30-bore pistol casings from the crime scene, which have been collected as forensic evidence. Officials believe the second shooting may have been motivated by personal enmity, although they emphasised that the investigation remains ongoing and no suspects have been arrested so far. The two fatal incidents highlight the continuing security challenges in Karachi, where police regularly investigate cases involving violent crime, targeted attacks, and robbery-related shootings. Authorities have appealed to the public to cooperate with investigators and provide any information that may assist in identifying those responsible.

  Zoe Saldaña has built an impressive career in Hollywood, achieving milestones that only a small number of actors can claim. From becoming an Academy Award winner to appearing in some of the world’s most successful film franchises, the actress has established herself as one of the industry’s most recognisable stars. However, Saldaña now appears ready to explore a completely different side of filmmaking by considering a move into directing. During an appearance at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, Saldaña spoke about her desire to eventually take control behind the camera. Addressing the festival audience, the actress said she believed there would come a point when simply watching other directors work would no longer be enough for her. Saldaña joked that after observing directors for so long, she might eventually feel compelled to take over the camera herself. Her comments reflected her growing interest in expanding her creative role within the film industry and exploring storytelling from a director’s perspective. The actress also expressed confidence in her own instincts, particularly when discussing women and their ability to recognise what they believe is right. With a humorous tone, she suggested that women often feel confident in their opinions because they are correct a significant amount of the time. For Saldaña, directing could provide an opportunity to test those instincts and prove what she can accomplish outside her established acting career. Her remarks came as she was being honoured at the prestigious Locarno Film Festival. Saldaña received a Special Honorary Pardo at the event, recognising her contribution to cinema and her successful career across a wide range of projects. During her appearance, the actress also reflected on her childhood and the experience of growing up between different cultures. Born in the Dominican Republic, Saldaña said her background and experiences of feeling like an outsider have played an important role in shaping the way she approaches acting and develops her characters. She recalled the challenges of being separated from a New York environment where she had been exposed to people from different backgrounds and cultures. According to Saldaña, living in a diverse environment allowed her to encounter different perspectives and understand the world beyond a single cultural identity. She later moved to a much smaller and more culturally homogeneous island, an experience she described as difficult during her formative years. The transition brought significant challenges, particularly because she encountered a society with a more unified religious and cultural identity. Despite the difficulties, Saldaña believes those experiences ultimately became valuable to her as an actor. She explained that the challenges of growing up between different cultural environments helped her develop a broader understanding of people and identities. That perspective, she suggested, became particularly useful when portraying some of her most famous characters, including Neytiri in the Avatar franchise and Gamora in the Guardians of the Galaxy films. For Saldaña, growing up between cultures provided both struggles and opportunities for personal development. She believes being exposed to different ways of life enriched her understanding of human experiences and gave her additional emotional depth as a performer. Now, after years of success in front of the camera, Saldaña appears interested in turning those experiences into a new creative challenge. Her potential move into directing could mark an important new chapter in her career, allowing her to bring her perspective, cultural experiences and storytelling instincts to filmmaking from behind the camera.

Lahore: An important consultative meeting of the Core Committee of the Pakistan Association of Alternative Medicine (PAAM) was held, in which the “Policy Draft and Working Paper” was finalized to make the country’s alternative medicine sector namely Homeopathy, Herbal, and Unani economically self-reliant and to transform it into an international industry. During this meeting, PAAM Core Committee members Dr. Tariq Mahmood Chaudhry and former Director of Homeopathy at the Punjab Health Department, Dr. Jamil Akhtar Ghauri, met with PAAM President Kashif Aslam Malik and held deep consultations on the framework of the proposed federal ministry. According to the text of the policy draft, more than 80 percent of the world’s population relies on alternative and natural methods of treatment. China earns an annual export profit of 60 billion dollars from this sector, and India earns over 5 billion dollars in valuable foreign exchange. In contrast, despite having abundant natural resources and hundreds of thousands of qualified doctors, Pakistan accounts for less than 0.5 percent of the global market due to the lack of an independent federal ministry. The working paper prepared by PAAM highlights that establishing an autonomous federal ministry could be the fastest way to pull Pakistan out of its economic crisis and boost exports. The PAAM leadership has presented three-year economic targets to the government and parliament, setting the export target at 200 million dollars for the first year, 500 million dollars for the second year, and aiming to exceed 1.5 billion dollars in the third year through international trade agreements and Business-to-Business (B2B) partnerships. Another key feature of this policy draft is that commercial herb farming will be initiated nationwide under the new ministry, directly benefiting the rural economy and local farmers. Furthermore, this initiative aims to eliminate Pakistan’s reliance on expensive imported raw materials for the allopathic industry, making the country truly economically independent. During the meeting, the PAAM leadership emphasized that the alternative medicine sector is facing a severe crisis due to the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan’s (DRAP) hyper-focus on allopathic brands and bureaucratic red tape. They noted that introducing a one-window operation under an autonomous ministry would ensure medicine quality complies with World Health Organization (WHO) and International Herb Pharmacopeia standards, while also reducing public healthcare expenditures at the government level by up to 50 percent through the provision of affordable alternative medicines. Following the completion of the policy draft, PAAM has demanded a joint emergency meeting of the Senate and National Assembly Standing Committees on Health and Commerce, the formation of a dedicated task force, and a special export package for alternative medicine manufacturers. The Chairman and Core Committee of PAAM reaffirmed their commitment to presenting this policy paper to the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the Federal Cabinet very soon to make the country self-sufficient on both economic and medical fronts.