ISLAMABAD: In a bid to appease their “annoyed” coalition partner, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday hosted an iftar dinner for the PPP, following President Asif Ali Zardari’s address to a joint sitting of parliament. The PPP delegation, led by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, reportedly expressed their reservations over the controversial project to carve more canals out of the Indus River. The …
ISLAMABAD: The Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court was reconstituted on Monday to commence hearing on a set of challenges to the imposition of super tax on high earning individuals through Section 4C of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001. The composition was changed after Justice Aminuddin Khan, who was heading the bench, noted that one of the bench members, Justice …
RAWALPINDI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday extended the interim bail of Bushra Bibi, wife of former prime minister Imran Khan, in cases related to the November 26 protests. Due to the leave of Judge Amjad Ali Shah, the court extended Bushra Bibi’s bail until April 8 in 31 cases linked to the protests. Bushra faces legal proceedings in multiple …
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have initiated policy-level discussions for the next tranche of the $7 billion loan program. The review process is scheduled to continue until March 14. According to the Ministry of Finance, the IMF delegation will evaluate Pakistan’s progress in implementing economic reforms outlined under the program’s conditions. The ongoing policy-level talks between the …
KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced on Monday that it has decided to keep the policy rate unchanged at 12 per cent, assessing the current real interest rate to be adequately positive on the forward-looking basis to sustain the ongoing macroeconomic stability. The central bank’s policy rate, after being slashed by 1,000bps from 22pc since June 2024 in …
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday directed relevant ministries to collaborate with the private sector in raising awareness about the procurement of the Rs5,000 Ramadan Relief Package through digital wallets for deserving families, state-run Radio Pakistan reported. The move comes after the government launched a Rs20 billion Ramazan relief package earlier this month for four million deserving families — …
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday warned lawmakers in a joint session of parliament that the government’s one-sided way of taking decisions was causing a “grave strain” on the federation. The differences between the PML-N, which heads the ruling coalition, and the PPP have been simmering for months as the key ally has expressed frustration over unfulfilled promises. A …
PESHAWAR: Visiting the Darul Uloom Haqqania a week after it was rocked by a deadly suicide attack, Maulana Fazlur Rehman made a fiery speech denouncing the killing of Muslims and religious scholars as “not jihad, but militancy”. Addressing seminary students at the Akora Khattak institute, the chief of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) questioned whether playing with …
RAWALPINDI: The United States Central Command (US Centcom) has expressed gratitude to Pakistan for its role in capturing the main suspect behind the deadly 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul Airport in Afghanistan. In a post on its official Urdu-language account on X, US Centcom acknowledged Pakistan’s cooperation in arresting Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, an alleged Daesh-Khorasan (ISIS-K) operative. …
LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has approved significant projects aimed at improving the welfare of workers in the province. The chief minister has directed the enforcement of the minimum wage law across the province, ensuring that workers receive at least 37,000 rupees per month. She also called for a comprehensive plan to establish labour colonies throughout Punjab and instructed …