ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb underscored Pakistan’s strategic shift from seeking aid-based support towards trade- and investment-led engagement to ensure long-term economic sustainability and mutually beneficial partnerships, particularly with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. In an interview with CNN Business Arabia, Aurangzeb highlighted the vision of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, which reflected Pakistan’s renewed economic confidence and reform momentum. …

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has taken notice of the frequent offloading of passengers travelling abroad, ordering the constitution of a committee to look into the matter, Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Chaudhry Salik Hussain said on Monday. Over the past few months, numerous incidents have been reported of travellers being offloaded from flights at various airports, despite possessing valid …

ISLAMABAD: Pakis­tan on Sunday urged the Afghan Taliban to rid their country of all militant groups, while Iran stressed the need for regional cooperation, rather than foreign intervention, at a multinational Afghanistan-foc­used mee­t­ing in Tehran. The calls for action came during a meeting of Special Representatives for Afghanistan from neighbouring countries, plus Russia. The Taliban were invi­ted to participate, but …

SYDNEY: A Pakistan-origin man living in Sydney has said he had received death threats and was “terrified” to leave his home after his photo was widely shared online as the gunman responsible for the Bondi Beach shooting, it emerged on Monday. Two gunmen on Sunday had opened fire at a Hanukkah gathering in Sydney’s Bondi Beach, killing 15 in Australia’s …

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Finance clarified, in a statement on Sunday, that there is nothing new in the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) conditionalities. It stated that the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) is a continuation of the agreed reform agenda being implemented in a phased manner for the country’s economic stability and sustainable growth. At the start …

KOHAT: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi asked PTI supporters on Sunday to “be ready” in case a call was made for a protest, adding that “we will together seize [our] Haqiqi Azadi (true freedom)” from the country’s current rulers. Afridi’s intimation came during a PTI rally in Kohat, where he reminded the crowd that incarcerated PTI founder …

ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) Bilal Bin Saqib has said that the no-objection certificates (NOCs) issued to global cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and HTX were not a “blanket approval” but the “first step under a risk-mitigated, phased, supervised entry framework”. Saqib’s video statement, televised on Sunday, comes after Pakistan gave initial clearance for Binance and HTX …

QUETTA: Former chief minister Nawab Sanaullah Khan Zehri alleged on Saturday that military-led political engineering in Balochistan had caused the fall of his elected provincial government and damaged democratic norms. Mr Zehri, a senior PPP leader, said in a statement that recent accountability measures against former spymaster Faiz Hameed had revived long-suppressed realities about interference in the province’s politics. Reacting …

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said Pakistan had pulled itself out of severe economic distress through the collective efforts of his government and its economic team, recalling that the country was on the brink of financial default when the government assumed office. Addressing the launch ceremony of the National Regulatory Reforms, the prime minister said runaway inflation, a …

LAHORE: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday held ex-spymaster Faiz Hameed responsible for the ouster of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 2017, adding that more charges against him were to come soon. The minister’s remarks come two days after Hameed, in a first, was sentenced to a 14-year jail term after being convicted on four counts related to violating …