��������

KHAR, Pakistan: A mortar struck a home and killed two children and their mother in a northwestern Pakistani region where security forces are carrying out a “targeted operation ” against the Pakistani Taliban, residents and a hospital official said Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the overnight civilian casualties in Mamund, a town in the Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.

Naseeb Gul, a medical doctor at a local hospital, said the dead were two children and their mother. Two people were also wounded Tuesday when another mortar hit their home, he said.

Angered by the deaths, hundreds of demonstrators were refusing to bury the bodies and demanding an investigation, according to local villager Mohammad Khalid.

There was no immediate comment from the government or the military.

The latest development came days after security forces launched an offensive in Bajaur to target militant hideouts. The provincial government said the “targeted operation” was launched after tribal elders failed to evict insurgents from the region.

Government officials said the ongoing offensive against the Pakistani Taliban has displaced 25,000 families or an estimated 100,000 people in Bajaur, where authorities eased a curfew on Wednesday, allowing residents to buy essential items.

Thousands of displaced people are currently residing in government buildings, and many other have gone to other safer areas to live with relatives.

The Bajaur offensive is the second operation there since 2009, when the military launched a large-scale campaign against the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The TTP is a separate but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuary in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover and have been living there openly. Some have crossed the border back into Bajaur to carry out attacks.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will gradually cut tariffs on the auto sector over the next five years and work on a strategy to expand exports, Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan told industry representatives on Wednesday, as the government seeks to strengthen the local market and boost overseas sales.

Khan met auto industry stakeholders in Islamabad and announced the formation of a committee, comprising officials from the Commerce Ministry, the Federal Board of Revenue and the Ministry of Industries, to address sector challenges. The minister invited the industry to participate in the upcoming industrial policy and said healthy competition was increasing in Pakistan’s auto market.

“After tractors and motorcycles, we will now also export cars,” Khan said, adding that the government would prepare “a strategy for the development and exports of the auto sector” and that tariffs “will be gradually reduced over the next five years.”

Khan said imported used cars should meet quality and environment-friendly standards and linked new export prospects to a recently signed US tariff reduction agreement. Under the deal, Washington has cut import duties on Pakistani goods to 19 percent, a move the government says will improve competitiveness for products including automobiles. 

“The tariff reduction agreement with the US has created new opportunities for auto exports,” the minister said.

Industry representatives told the meeting that new technologies had increased production costs, and urged protection for local manufacturers from the import of used vehicles.

Pakistan’s automobile industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors, contributing around 7 percent of Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) and accounting for 7–16 percent of the manufacturing GDP depending on the metric used. It employs millions, and local assembly is dominated by established players like Honda, Toyota, Suzuki, Hyundai, Kia, and newcomers such as MG and Haval.

The market includes motorcycles, tractors, cars, and commercial vehicles, but remains highly concentrated among a few brands.

The fiscal year 2025–26 budget introduced several changes impacting the auto industry. A new Green Tax was applied to internal combustion engine vehicles, ranging from 1 percent to 3 percent of vehicle value depending on engine size and origin .

The industry also flagged an imbalance in GST rates — 8.5 percent on hybrid electric vehicles versus 18 percent on fully electric vehicles — raising concerns over a policy disconnect with the Automotive Industry Development and Export Policy (AIDEP) 2021–2026 provisions.

Experts warn that high taxes, policy uncertainty, and weak industrial support were curbing demand. Recent vehicle sales dropped 49 percent month-on‑month in July 2025, partly due to pre-budget rushes and subsequent tax adjustments  .

The sector also faces structural challenges including limited localization of parts, high production costs, and fragile capacity utilization (around 24 percent). Policy instability, particularly regarding tariff reductions and fiscal incentives, risks discouraging investment, and experts say long-term industrial support is necessary to prevent local manufacturing decline.

Inflation, currency volatility, and macroeconomic uncertainty further weigh on consumer demand and financing.