While speaking at the inauguration of Hazara Electric Supply Company (HAZECO) in Islamabad, the premier also confirmed a story of The Express Tribune that he had a telephonic conversation with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday. The premier’s direct intervention in the IMF programme talks suggests that the matters have slipped out of the hands of the finance ministry. The prime minister also disclosed that Georgieva inquired whether or not China and Saudi Arabia were supporting Pakistan. An official handout released by the PM’s Office after his speech read that the IMF managing director called premier Shehbaz on the phone. Sources said as a practice, in absence of the managing director, the first deputy MD of the IMF chaired the board's meetings.

January 07, 2023 09:57 UTC

photo: REUTERSThe Pakistan Business Council (PBC), on Friday, urged the government to admit before the nation that the country is in a serious economic crisis, instead of denying the default risk to effectively plan, execute and get out of the tough situation. In addition, the country’s preeminent business advocacy group, comprising the top 100 foreign businesses across the country, recommended a $19 billion energy conservation plan and the adoption of austerity measures. PBC has strongly advised the resumption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme and suggested the government urgently negotiate the restructuring of its foreign debt to buy time and undertake overdue economic reforms. The council shared a set of recommendations with the media, titled ‘Macro-economic Priorities/Primary Objectives: Secure Pakistan’s Solvency and Buy Time for Fundamental Reforms’. The PBC presented ideas to create a $19 billion positive impact on the external account and raise over Rs1 trillion for the fiscal account.

January 07, 2023 08:53 UTC

Share:Pakistan has reported no death in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of confirmed positive cases surged to 1,575,935. The nationwide tally of fatalities stood at 30,638 on Saturday. According to the latest figures issued by the National Institute of Health (NIH), at least 24 people were tested positive for Covid across the country in the past 24 hours. Pakistan has conducted 4,472 tests in the past 24 hours, out of which 24 people were tested positive. The Covid positivity ratio was recorded at 0.54 per cent.

January 07, 2023 07:09 UTC

Sources told The Express Tribune that the prime minister urged the IMF managing director to review the condition about imposition of new taxes. These remain the major stumbling blocks in reaching an initial understanding for a staff level visit by the IMF to Pakistan. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz also made a call to his Chinese counterpart, Li Keqiang, seeking Beijing’s help to avert a looming default. The prime minister’s call to the IMF head indicates that the finance ministry could not break the gridlock in the past over three months. The UN secretary-general will deliver remarks at the opening session and is scheduled to hold a joint media encounter with the Prime Minister Shehbaz from a stake-out position.

January 07, 2023 03:25 UTC

Faraz Khan, founder of Karachi-based venture capitalist firm SEED Ventures, has been awarded United Kingdom’s MBE title — Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Khan was conferred with the prestigious award by UK’s King Charles III for his services to strengthen Pakistan-UK bilateral ties. The MBE is awarded in recognition of contribution to arts, sciences, charitable work, welfare work, and public service. Honour to present pakistan story of enterprise chalange to HRH pic.twitter.com/G6kRwFBokf — Faraz Khan MBE (@fksquared) April 20, 2018Khan is the founder of Social, Entrepreneurship & Equity Development (SEED) Ventures which is an investment and impact development organisation in Pakistan. “He has spearheaded impact programmes & collaborations between UK & Pakistan in the space of inclusive education, enterprise, social enterprise for youth, women and Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) segments impacting and engaging over 100,000 people.”

January 07, 2023 02:22 UTC





We live in a postmodern time; era of death of meta narratives. We challenge and criticize the veracity of these claims and look at these belief systems with skepticism during these postmodern times. We live in these postmodern times and see its true manifestation unfolding in front of us. ‘Pastiche,’ ‘Distortion of Time,’ and ‘Hyperreality’ are also some of the interesting characteristics of postmodern era. The digital media platforms, technological advancements and our ever-growing independence on them are the real manifestations of postmodern era.

January 06, 2023 20:34 UTC

A consequence of the mounting debt pile is a huge increase in the cost of debt servicing. It has created default risk and is diverting half of the budget to debt servicing. But when he left office in April 2022, his government had added over Rs19 trillion to the total debt stock. Lower-than-targeted tax collection, steep currency devaluation, higher interest rates, high expenditures along with losses incurred by state-owned companies and debt mismanagement were the main reasons for the surge in public debt during the PTI’s tenure. A direct consequence of the mounting debt pile is a huge increase in the cost of debt servicing.

January 06, 2023 19:58 UTC

North Andover, MA (01845)TodaySnow this evening will taper off and give way to cloudy skies late. Winds light and variable. About one inch of snow expected..TonightSnow this evening will taper off and give way to cloudy skies late. Winds light and variable. About one inch of snow expected.

January 06, 2023 19:06 UTC

North Andover, MA (01845)TodaySnow this evening will taper off and give way to cloudy skies late. Winds light and variable. About one inch of snow expected..TonightSnow this evening will taper off and give way to cloudy skies late. Winds light and variable. About one inch of snow expected.

January 06, 2023 17:31 UTC

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January 06, 2023 17:18 UTC

In the first six months of its ouster from power, PTI’s one-point agenda was early general elections at all costs. These pages had noticed a shift in “PTI returns to economy” on November 25, 2002. This is why PTI’s white paper on economy challenges, in terms of numbers, each and every official claim to improvement. Number by number, he declared the PTI’s white paper as a pack of white lies. He had passed on a high-growth, low inflation economy to the PTI.

January 06, 2023 15:41 UTC

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January 06, 2023 11:34 UTC

Screengrab from alleged CCTV clip doing the rounds on social media. A purported CCTV footage surfaced on Thursday allegedly showing police officers recording a video confession of the alleged gunman who shot at PTI chairman Imran Khan during a protest rally last year. He had claimed in his confessional video statement that he shot the PTI chief as he was "misleading" the nation, which he could not tolerate. The alleged CCTV footage shows the date November 3, 2022 and timestamp of 5:28 PM. "After failure of the first plan, plan B was made under which Salman Taseer type murder plot was hatched so that they could put a blame of my murder on religious fanatics," he said.

January 06, 2023 08:51 UTC

Share:FAISALBAD - The district administration has increased the number of Sasta Atta sales points to 74 to supply cheap wheat flour to the consumers. As many as 63,948 wheat flour bags of 10 kg, at the rate of Rs 648 per bag, were being supplied at the sales points on a daily basis, said a spokesperson for the district administration here on Thursday. He said that the objective of increasing the number of sales points was to provide cheap flour to maximum people. The PFA teams got cases registered against 94 food outlets on serious nature violations and closed down production of 258 units till improvement. 43,000 kg Murabajat; 800 kg sweets, 50,000 sachets of Gutka besides 6,000 broken eggs were also disposed of during the period.

January 06, 2023 08:11 UTC

A strong earthquake jolted parts of northern Pakistan on Thursday evening, with tremors felt in various cities including Peshawar, Charsadda, and the mountainous Swat valley of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. According to the United States geological Survey (USGS), the magnitude on the Richter scale was recorded at 5.9, with the epicentre of the earthquake recorded 43 kilometres southwest of Jurm in neighbouring Afghanistan at a depth of 193.8 kilometres. In Pakistan, the earthquake tremors were reported from Peshawar, Takht Bai, Dir Bala, Landi Kotal, Swat, Swabi, Hangu, Charsadda, and surrounding areas. Also read: Earthquake jolts various cities of Punjab including LahoreNo casualties or loss of life was reported so far. Severe earthquake tremors were also felt on Wednesday in various cities of Punjab including Lahore.

January 06, 2023 05:54 UTC