ISLAMABAD: Leaders of Pakistan’s two top opposition parties on Wednesday pledged to use all democratic and constitutional means required to unseat the government while holding a meeting in the country’s southern port city of Karachi that witnessed massive urban flooding only a few days ago.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif said in a Twitter post that he was visiting Karachi to express solidarity with its residents who suffered a great deal due to heavy monsoon rains.
“Here to express my solidarity with the people of Karachi who braved the worst conditions created in wake of heavy downpours and urban flooding,” he wrote on the social media website. “All stakeholders need to sit together to work out a comprehensive and doable plan to uplift the megacity. Politics can wait for another day!”
Sharif visited the top Pakistan People’s Party leaders, Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto, along with other senior party members to discuss the country’s overall political situation.
The meeting was followed by a joint news conference that was addressed by the leaders of the two parties who vowed to strengthen democratic institutions by ensuring constitutional supremacy in Pakistan.
Referring to the Charter of Democracy signed between former prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, on May 14, 2006, in London, PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said that the document required the two parties to rise above their political interests and defend democracy in the country.
The opposition leaders also claimed that the fundamental rights of Pakistani citizens were being violated under the incumbent administration and vowed to resist that while staying within the constitutional framework of the country.
The joint press conference also announced that the PPP would host the Rehbar Committee meeting on Thursday to decide the date for the All Parties Conference (APC).
Apart from criticizing the performance of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government, leaders of the two parties also targeted the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that is investigating several high-profile opposition politicians.
The two political factions, who already claim that the anti-graft references against their leaders are politically motivated, decided to resist arrests of their party members by NAB.
Leaders of Pakistan’s top opposition parties to deliberate on anti-government strategy
https://arab.news/g2ytj
Leaders of Pakistan’s top opposition parties to deliberate on anti-government strategy
- PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif meets PPP’s Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto in Karachi
- The two parties claim the fundamental rights of Pakistani citizens have been usurped
‘Look ahead or look up?’: Pakistan’s police face new challenge as militants take to drone warfare
- Officials say militants are using weapons and equipment left behind after allied forces withdrew from Afghanistan
- Police in northwest Pakistan say electronic jammers have helped repel more than 300 drone attacks since mid-2025
BANNU, Pakistan: On a quiet morning last July, Constable Hazrat Ali had just finished his prayers at the Miryan police station in Pakistan’s volatile northwest when the shouting began.
His colleagues in Bannu district spotted a small speck in the sky. Before Ali could take cover, an explosion tore through the compound behind him. It was not a mortar or a suicide vest, but an improvised explosive dropped from a drone.
“Now should we look ahead or look up [to sky]?” said Ali, who was wounded again in a second drone strike during an operation against militants last month. He still carries shrapnel scars on his back, hand and foot, physical reminders of how the battlefield has shifted upward.
For police in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the fight against militancy has become a three-dimensional conflict. Pakistani officials say armed groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), are increasingly deploying commercial drones modified to drop explosives, alongside other weapons they say were acquired after the US military withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan.
Security analysts say the trend mirrors a wider global pattern, where low-cost, commercially available drones are being repurposed by non-state actors from the Middle East to Eastern Europe, challenging traditional policing and counterinsurgency tactics.
The escalation comes as militant violence has surged across Pakistan. Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) reported a 73 percent rise in combat-related deaths in 2025, with fatalities climbing to 3,387 from 1,950 a year earlier. Militants have increasingly shifted operations from northern tribal belts to southern KP districts such as Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan.
“Bannu is an important town of southern KP, and we are feeling the heat,” said Sajjad Khan, the region’s police chief. “There has been an enormous increase in the number of incidents of terrorism… It is a mix of local militants and Afghan militants.”
In 2025 alone, Bannu police recorded 134 attacks on stations, checkpoints and personnel. At least 27 police officers were killed, while authorities say 53 militants died in the clashes. Many assaults involved coordinated, multi-pronged attacks using heavy weapons.
Drones have also added a new layer of danger. What began as reconnaissance tools have been weaponized with improvised devices that rely on gravity rather than guidance systems.
“Earlier, they used to drop [explosives] in bottles. After that, they started cutting pipes for this purpose,” said Jamshed Khan, head of the regional bomb disposal unit. “Now we have encountered a new type: a pistol hand grenade.”
When dropped from above, he explained, a metal pin ignites the charge on impact.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Raza Khan, who narrowly survived a drone strike during construction at a checkpoint, described devices packed with nails, bullets and metal fragments.
“They attach a shuttlecock-like piece on top. When they drop it from a height, its direction remains straight toward the ground,” he said.
TARGETING CIVILIANS
Officials say militants’ rapid adoption of drone technology has been fueled by access to equipment on informal markets, while police procurement remains slower.
“It is easy for militants to get such things,” Sajjad Khan said. “And for us, I mean, we have to go through certain process and procedures as per rules.”
That imbalance began to shift in mid-2025, when authorities deployed electronic anti-drone systems in the region. Before that, officers relied on snipers or improvised nets strung over police compounds.
“Initially, when we did not have that anti-drone system, their strikes were effective,” the police chief said, adding that more than 300 attempted drone attacks have since been repelled or electronically disrupted. “That was a decisive moment.”
Police say militants have also targeted civilians, killing nine people in drone attacks this year, often in communities accused of cooperating with authorities. Several police stations suffered structural damage.
Bannu’s location as a gateway between Pakistan and Afghanistan has made it a security flashpoint since colonial times. But officials say the aerial dimension of the conflict has placed unprecedented strain on local forces.
For constables like Hazrat Ali, new technology offers some protection, but resolve remains central.
“Nowadays, they have ammunition and all kinds of the most modern weapons. They also have large drones,” he said. “When we fight them, we fight with our courage and determination.”
