Pakistani News Digest – May 9, 2026
Stay informed with today’s most important news from Pakistan. Here are the top stories making headlines:
1. Federal Constitutional Court staff pay, perks surpass Supreme Court’s amid supremacy row
ISLAMABAD: The newly created Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) has pushed the emoluments of its staff and officers to unprecedented levels as debate continues over the constitutional supremacy of FCC and Supreme Court.
The development comes amid an intensifying constitutional debate between the FCC and the SC over their respective jurisdictions and authority following the 27th Constitutional Amendment.
In a recent judgement, the SC ruled it is not subordinate to the FCC despite FCC’s repeated assertions that exclusive constitutional adjudication now rests with it after the amendment.
The ruling, authored by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, interpreted the amended constitutional framework as creating two co-equal apex courts with separate jurisdictions, rather than a hierarchical arrangement placing one above the other. The judgement diverged sharply from several FCC rulings declaring its decisions binding on all courts, including the SC.
Pay gap of up to Rs300,000 in some cases raises questions
In a number of judgements, the FCC maintained the SC no longer retained the authority to interpret the Constitution after the enactment of the 27th Amendment and that constitutional interpretation exclusively fell within FCC’s domain.
Against this backdrop, FCC officials have emerged as one of the most highly compensated segments of the public sector, with salary structures and benefits significantly exceeding those available to employees of the SC and high courts.
Official notifications issued by the FCC reveal an extensive package of salaries, allowances and financial incentives for employees ranging from lower-grade staff to senior officers, raising questions about the growing financial privileges being extended to the newly established institution.
According to a notification issued last week, judicial and utility allowances for FCC employees were fixed at 50pc each of the running basic pay. The decision effectively doubles employees’ basic salaries through additional benefits.
In an earlier office order, the court had also approved a special judicial allowance equivalent to three times the basic pay, substantially increasing the overall monthly emoluments of employees across various grades.
The benefits apply to employees from BPS-2 to BPS-22 under notifications and office orders issued between November 2025 and January 2026. During the same period, the Federal Constitutional Court also created dozens of new posts to expand its administrative structure.
Another notification granted transport monetisation to officers from BPS-17 to BPS-22, ranging from Rs60,000 to Rs250,000 per month. Under the arrangement, officers would receive cash payments in place of official transport facilities.
By comparison, transport monetisation available to SC officers starts at Rs65,000 for BS-17 officers and rises to Rs95,000 for BS-22 officers.
A senior court official said the widening disparity between the salaries and allowances of FCC and Supreme Court employees had increased the difference in monthly compensation to between Rs250,000 and Rs300,000 in certain cases.
Separate gazette notifications also showed the creation of more than 25 posts in the Federal Constitutional Court, including those of registrar, six additional registrars and the secretary to FCC chief justice, all carrying special pay scales substantially higher than those available to ordinary government servants.
According to the documents, the expenditures would be met from the FCC’s allocated budget for the fiscal year 2025-26. However, no public details have been released regarding the total financial implications of the new compensation structure or its long-term sustainability.
Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2026
2. Mideast war taking a toll on Pakistan’s ‘wedding economy’
• Marriage halls increase rates or avoid long-term pricing commitments due to economic uncertainty
• Govt austerity measures have led to stricter enforcement of wedding regulations, including the 10pm curfew and one-dish policy
KARACHI: With temperatures climbing, wedding invitations seem to have mercifully dwindled to a stop for those who dread the sweat of suits, heels, and layers of makeup. And not a day too soon, given how the ongoing war has impacted this wedding-obsessed country.
Amid surging fuel rates and inflation, pricing volatility has reached new highs. Several venues have raised rates by up to Rs500 per head, while others are refusing to commit to winter pricing altogether, citing uncertainty around oil and input costs, says Izzah Zaman, co-founder of wedding-tech startup Shadiyana.
Alongside this, the government’s austerity measures have led to stricter regulatory enforcement: a 10pm wedding cutoff, police intervention in cases of violations, and crackdowns on the one-dish policy, resulting in venue closures across Islamabad.
There are also operational challenges. Weddings in the capital, in particular, are increasingly vulnerable to external disruptions, whether due to security cordons near the Margalla Hills during peace talks or city-wide VIP protocols that delay guest arrivals without warning.
Media reports suggest that last winter’s wedding season in Karachi alone was worth around Rs33 billion, while Shadiyana estimates the nationwide market at approximately Rs900 million.
All of this is unfolding within an industry that has historically operated at enormous scale, albeit through a fragmented and informal economy. This disconnect is what Shadiyana aims to address.
The idea took shape in 2021, at the height of Pakistan’s startup boom, when funding was pouring into companies such as Airlift.
While much of that capital pursued models tested elsewhere, Izzah Zaman and her co-founder, Neelam Shoaib, chose a less-travelled path: weddings. “When we thought about weddings, we realised this isn’t something you can simply copy-paste from the West. It’s a very local problem,” she says.
Pakistan’s wedding economy has historically been structurally resistant to organisation. Entire neighbourhoods, such as North Nazimabad in Karachi, function as dense clusters of 60 to 70 wedding halls, where discovery remains largely physical and inefficient.
Finding a venue often means driving from one location to another, only to discover that most dates are already booked. Shadiyana’s proposition is to bring this chaos online and streamline it with just a few clicks.
In essence, Shadiyana is a wedding marketplace that connects users with vendors offering a wide range of services, from mehendi artists and photographers to its primary revenue driver: marriage halls.
The company began modestly in 2021 with $2,500 in funding from Ms Zaman’s alma mater, Carnegie Mellon. Since then, it has helped organise over 30,000 weddings across Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad, leading to an $800,000 raise from Indus Valley Capital.
Today, the platform, which includes both a website and a mobile app, reports more than half a million users and over 600 vendors listed on its platform.
The company’s business model is anchored primarily in commissions, which comprise roughly 80 per cent of revenue. This is supplemented by vendor subscriptions and marketing add-ons, including services such as a wedding-night workshop that educates brides on the religious and medical aspects of their first night together.
In practice, when a user books a venue through the platform, Shadiyana earns a percentage of the transaction, with rates varying by category. Photographers may generate commissions of around 10pc, while venues yield between 2pc and 10pc, depending on the size of the deal.
Yet, even as the platform formalises parts of the process, it remains exposed to the same pressures reshaping the wider industry.
Before the latest inflationary wave driven by the US-Iran conflict, the average wedding ticket size on Shadiyana stood at around Rs600,000. Through the platform, wedding budgets have ranged from as little as Rs20,000 to as much as Rs4.4 million.
However, the broader trend points towards contraction. A startup that began operations during the pandemic, then navigated the Russia-Ukraine conflict, domestic inflation, a near-default economic crisis, and now ongoing geopolitical tensions, has effectively grown alongside a series of economic shocks.
The impact is evident in consumer behaviour. Guest lists that once averaged 400 people have now shrunk to around 150. Budgets for venues, photography, and catering are also being reduced.
As the war continues and fiscal pressures tighten for ordinary people, weddings will still take place, albeit on significantly smaller budgets.
Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2026
3. Afghan Taliban leaders reach out to Fazl, express condolences over cleric’s killing in Charsadda
ISLAMABAD: Senior leaders of the Afghan Taliban government on Friday contacted JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to express condolences over the killing of Sheikh Idris.
According to the JUI-F media cell, Afghan Defence Minister Mullah Yaqoob, Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid separately contacted Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
In the discussion with Maulana Fazl, the Afghan leadership expressed deep sorrow over the killing and prayed for the departed soul.
Maulana Idris, a senior member of JUI-F was shot dead by armed motorcyclists in the Utmanzai area of Charsadda on May 5, while he was traveling to a madressah. As the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) claimed responsibility for the killing the initial findings suggest the attack was planned in Afghanistan.
JUI-F protesters in Islamabad demand immediate arrest of culprits
They strongly condemned the assassination and said the people and leadership of Afghanistan equally share the grief of the Pakistani people over the killing.
The Afghan leaders also conveyed solidarity with JUI-F and its student wing, saying they fully understand and share the pain and suffering of the party and religious students. The contacts come amid strong reactions from political and religious circles following the killing of Sheikh Idris, which has triggered condemnation and protest calls from JUI leadership across the country.
Meanwhile, the JUI-F Islamabad chapter staged a protest demonstration against the killing. Led by JUI-F Islamabad emir Mufti Owais Aziz, a large number of party leaders and workers participated in the protest including JUI-F central spokesperson Aslam Ghauri, Sindh deputy chief Qari Usman, Punjab deputy secretary general Maulana Saeed Sarwar, emir Rawalpindi chapter Dr Ziaur Rehman and Mufti Abdullah.
The protesters demanded the immediate arrest of those involved in the killing. Addressing the demonstrators, Aslam Ghauri said that until the killers were arrested, the present government would be considered responsible for Sheikh Idris’ murder. He said JUI-F is a peaceful political party that has always advocated peace and stability.
He vowed that the blood of Sheikh Idris would not go in vain and alleged that no one’s life, property or honour is safe in Pakistan anymore. Criticising the authorities, Mr Ghauri said repeated failures of the security institutions had become unbearable.
The protest comes amid growing anger within JUI-F over the killing, with the party announcing demonstrations in different parts of the country.
Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2026
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