Mehmood Ul Hassan Khan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recently completed his official visit to Washington where he met US President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry and other top officials. Economic integration and further strengthening of bilateral trade and commerce ties were the main areas of attraction of the Prime Minister’s visit to the USA. The Energy Sector The leaders emphasized that both sides should work together on a range of options to enable Pakistan to overcome its energy deficiencies. It was specified that both sides will hold further discussions in the working groups on Energy and Security, Strategic Stability, and Non-Proliferation. Moreover, President Obama noted that US as...
November 6, 2013 at 6:59 pm | News Desk
Tausif-Ur-Rehman The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the only Muslim country to exist in the G-20. It is also the fourth ideal destination for the foreigner expats. Saudi Arabia is the largest free market economy in the Middle East and North Africa holding 25 percent share of the total Arab GDP. The Kingdom’s geographic location provides easy access to export markets in Europe, Asia and Africa. Despite regional socio-economic meltdown, deteriorating law and order situation in many parts of the region and political uncertainty, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s macro-economy has surpassed the previous levels of productivity, efficacy, expansion and profitability. Prevalent societal divide in many key regional countries,...
October 7, 2013 at 10:22 pm | News Desk
In what appears to be a last ditch effort to ward off privatization, the management of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) unveiled a plan to add international flights to boost revenue and achieve breakeven within a year. PIA will add 16 weekly services to cities like Toronto, Manchester, Birmingham and Dubai as part of its initiative to use limited aircraft on profitable routes and rollback operations from loss-making destinations, PIA Managing Director Captain Junaid Yunus told a press conference. It has also decided to give a tough time to domestic competitors as it starts operating nine additional flights between Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and Quetta from next month. Yunus, who remained composed throughout the press conf...
October 6, 2013 at 7:57 pm | News Desk
ANKARA: Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday announced key political reforms, including lifting a ban on Islamic headscarves and strengthening Kurdish rights. The moves come as critics accuse Erdogan of bringing religion to the staunchly secular country and as minority Kurds pursuing a difficult peace process with Ankara demand still more rights. In a highly-anticipated speech, Erdogan said that, with a few exceptions, female civil servants would be allowed to wear Islamic headscarves and male colleagues allowed to sport beards, a sign of Muslim piety. However, the ban will remain in place for judges, prosecutors, police and military personnel. “These restrictions violate the right to work, the freedom of thought...
October 1, 2013 at 5:25 pm | News Desk
DAMASCUS: A disarmament team is to arrive Tuesday in Damascus on a mission to destroy Syria's chemical arsenal, a day after UN experts wrapped up their investigation of alleged gas attacks. The team of 20 inspectors from The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is implementing a UN resolution that ordered the elimination of Syria's chemical arms. The operation to rid Syria of chemical weapons by a target date of mid-2014 will be one of the largest and most dangerous of its kind. The arsenal is believed to include more than 1,000 tonnes of sarin, mustard gas and other banned chemicals stored at an estimated 45 sites across the war-torn country. The outgoing UN team of chemical arms experts that has en...
October 1, 2013 at 4:20 pm | News Desk
BRUSSELS: Eurozone unemployment dropped for the first time in more than two years to 12 per cent in July against 12.1 per cent the previous month, and then remained stable in August, official data showed Tuesday. The small drop was the first within the 17-nation zone since February 2011, the Eurostat statistics agency said. The total number of people out of work fell 16,000 to 19.17 million, but in the year since August 2012 was up by 895,000. In the full 28-member European Union – including Croatia which joined in July – the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 10.9 per cent for the fourth consecutive month, with 26.59 million people jobless, down 38,000 from June. There was some good news for youth unemployment, which fell...
October 1, 2013 at 4:09 pm | News Desk
SHANGHAI: China's Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said the zone is set to become a pilot project for economic reform and a role model in efforts to upgrade the Chinese economy. Dai Haibo, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai municipal government and vice-director of the zone's management committee, said the guiding principle is to shift the overriding role of the government from administrative to supervisory. Enterprises will no longer need to seek government approval for many of the things they want to do in the zone. In three years, the country will build on the experience gleaned from the Shanghai free trade zone, and further reform targets may be set, Dai said. These include, in certain areas, no administrative approval re...
September 30, 2013 at 10:06 pm | News Desk
The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will open on September 30first bid for obtaining 10 additional aircraft on lease, to improve its services and overcome losses. Although the PIA management has sought financial bids for acquiring 10 aircraft either on lease or on payment, it prefers the former option, according to sources. “We are opening two separate bids for obtaining 10 additional aircraft on lease or on purchase on Sept 30 and April 4, respectively,” PIA spokesman Mashhood Tajwar told Dawn. He said that negotiations were under way with different banks for loans to get the planes on lease because even in case of lease PIA would have to pay some initial amount to the contractors or the aircraft companies. When asked...
September 30, 2013 at 9:56 pm | News Desk
ISLAMABAD: Bangladeshi businessmen have signed agreements worth US $8 million with Pakistan to import GFC Fans, Kinnows and Basmati Rice at EXPO 2013. During the MoU signing ceremony held at Expo Convention at Karachi the other day said that three Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) have been finalized between Bangladeshi Buyers and Pakistani Companies in the presence of Mrs. Shahida Qaiser, Director Investment /B2B TDAP, Mr. Riazuddin Qureshi DG Board of Investment Sindh and Commercial Attache of Pakistan at Dhaka Ms Farah Farooq. The GFC Fans has agreed to provide 150,000 fans to Nurul Islam a Bangleshi delegate representing Shuba Enterprises and Z&Z Corporation Bangladesh worth US $ 5 Million for FY 2013-14, says a statement...
September 30, 2013 at 9:49 pm | News Desk
Pakistan plans to sell off a 26 percent stake in ailing national carrier PIA and hand over management control to stem haemorrhaging losses. Pakistan International Airlines is one of the poorest performing state-run companies and businessmen welcomed the decision announced late on Thursday. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has made repairing the weak economy his priority, ordered PIA to slash losses to make it viable for sale. The company has incurred heavy losses because of poor management, corruption and inefficiencies. It lost $320m last year but the deficit would have been much larger if the state had not been pouring money to keep it afloat. The airline has 18,000 employees for 42 planes, a ratio of more than 400 staff per airc...
September 14, 2013 at 12:44 pm | News Desk
CHRISTOPHER M. MATTHEWS and SHIRA OVIDE Microsoft Bribe Probe Reaches into Pakistan, Russia Deals Justice Department Reviewing Allegations Involving Deals in Five Countries A U.S. investigation into Microsoft Corp.'s relationships with business partners that allegedly bribed foreign officials in return for contracts includes activity in Russia and Pakistan, a sign that the probe is wider reaching than previously known, according to people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal reported this year lawyers from the U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission had been conducting a preliminary investigation into kickback allegations made by a former Microsoft representative in China, as well as the c...
September 12, 2013 at 12:07 pm | News Desk
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August 31, 2013 at 3:11 am | News Desk
By Nita Bhalla As the silver waters of the Kishanganga rush through this north Kashmir valley, Indian labourers are hard at work on a hydropower project that will dam the river just before it flows across one of the world’s most militarised borders into Pakistan. The loud hum of excavators echoes through the pine-covered valley, clearing masses of soil and boulders. The 330-MW dam shows India’s growing focus on hydropower but also highlights how water is a growing source of tension with downstream Pakistan, which depends on the snow-fed Himalayan rivers for everything from drinking water to agriculture. Islamabad has complained to an international court that the dam in the Gurez valley, one of dozens planned by India, will a...
August 30, 2013 at 11:58 am | News Desk
by Shiraz Nizami Nawaz government has struck a deal with International Monetary Fund for $5.3 billion extended loan facility, intended to rebuild foreign exchange reserves, pull the plug on energy crisis and a sliding currency in Pakistan. Though, it was a contradiction of PML (N)’s election manifesto, but the government’s finance minister says there was no way out to retire from past liabilities. The country had long been discussing a fresh bailout package from the IMF after abandoning $11.3 billion loan program in 2011 after the PPP led government refused to carry out strict financial reforms. The program, which is worth $5.3 billion, will carry a floating interest rate of 3% and would be payable over a longer period than conventi...
August 30, 2013 at 11:31 am | News Desk
By Vaqar Ahmed With the power shortage taking the front stage in the media and in the new government’s pronouncements, an even more important issue has been relegated to the back burner. This serious issue is the future availability of water to support food production in Pakistan. To put it simply, while we can survive with power shortages, we cannot survive without food. Thus, the criticality of water required for agriculture is even greater than that for power. While lack of water for domestic use gets attention due to the immediate impact it has on daily life, availability of water for agriculture is brushed under the rug and deferred as there is still enough food to feed the population. This assumption – that sufficient food will...
August 30, 2013 at 11:02 am | News Desk
by Mehmood Ul Hassan Khan In the wake of continued power breaks, protests and processions, the new government at the center has succeeded to formulate the much awaited and debated national energy policy 2013-18. The same has already been approved by the Council of Common Interest (CCI). The policy accentuates the diversified but integrated efforts of the government to overcome the energy deficit in the country. It pinpoints the existing socio-economic ills closely associated with the ongoing saga of power crisis throughout the country. A widening supply-demand gap where the demand for electricity far outstrips the current generation capacity (up to 4500-5000mw), highly expensive generation of electricity (Rs12/unit) due to an increased de...
August 30, 2013 at 10:39 am | News Desk
Pakistan Rupee Exchange Rate