ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary Secretary for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatisation Rana Muhammad Afzal on Thursday informed the National Assembly that domestic debt stock had increased by Rs3800.7 billion from 2013 to 2015. He said the government was running fiscal deficit; therefore, instead of replaying domestic debt, it has refinanced domestic debt from the domestic market.He said amount of external debt, along with the IMF loans, repaid by the government since 2013 to the end…
Posts published in “Day: March 18, 2016”
LAHORE: The Punjab government spends three percent of this fiscal year’s budget to service its debt, which stands at Rs421 billion, a senior minister said on Thursday. Punjab’s total budget outlay for 2015-16 is Rs1.45 trillion. Punjab Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghaus-Pasha while addressing media at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) said the provincial debt is only three percent of the its GDP. Dr Ayesha said over one million workers were entering…
QUETTA: After the Balochistan home department announced on Thursday head money for 99 members of banned militant organisations, Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri vowed ‘not to pardon’ people involved in terrorist activities. The home department issued a list of 99 militants carrying head money ranging between Rs500,000 and Rs15 million. The militants belong to the Baloch Liberation Army, Baloch Republican Army, Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), Baloch Republican Guards and Lashkar-e-Balochistan. But the names of Nawabzada…
ISLAMABAD: After a lapse of four years, the GHQ has finally conveyed to NAB its willingness to share the official record of the NLC swindle involving generals and others. Informed sources said NAB had been told to make a request for the acquisition of the NLC scam record through the proper channel — the Ministry of Defence. These sources said the authorities concerned in the GHQ had conveyed that the record would be provided. The…
A delegation of Hezb-e-Islami party arrived in Kabul today to hold talks with the Afghan High Peace Council, nearly a week after the group announced to participate in reconciliation process. In a brief press conference, the delegation told reporters that Hezb-e-Islami party is keen to resolve issues with the Afghan government through peaceful negotiations. The delegation also called on other militant groups to join talks and peace process with the Afghan government. The Hezb-e-Islami party…
Afghanistan’s High Peace Council (HPC) said the Afghan government’s high expectations of Pakistan has undermined the peace process with the Taliban. This comes after the Afghan government has, on occasion, chosen the wrong direction in its attempt to achieve peace, the HPC said in an statement, arguing that government’s unnecessary expectations of Pakistan has discouraged the Taliban to endorse peace talks with the government in Kabul. But the statement comes at a time that Afghan…
The dissident Taliban leader Mullah Rasool has said he will not participate in peace talks with the government which is led by the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor. In an interview with the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Mullah Rasool has said he is not opposed to reconciliation in principle, insisting that he opposes with Mansoor’s hegemony over the process as far as the Taliban are concerned. “Earlier we were thinking that the…
ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office said on Thursday that efforts to arrange direct talks between the Afghan government and Taliban were continuing despite insurgents’ refusal to participate in the dialogue. “Efforts by Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) countries are continuing for facilitating talks between the Afghan government and Taliban. … This facilitation is a shared responsibility of all QCG countries,” FO spokesman Nafees Zakaria said at the weekly media briefing. Officials from countries participating in QCG —…
Considering how the Pathankot fallout was pretty amicably handled by both sides – New Delhi not going overboard with the hysteria and Pakistan cooperating with the investigation – Sartaj Aziz and Sushma Swaraj were expected to further break the ice ahead of the two prime ministers’ likely meeting in the US shortly. Most observers equated that with something tangible coming out of the Nepal meeting; like a roadmap for putting foreign secretary level talks back…
BEIJING—China’s plans to process spent nuclear fuel into plutonium that could be used in weapons is drawing concern from the U.S. that Beijing is heightening the risk of nuclear proliferation. U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, in Beijing for talks, said Thursday that China’s plans to build a nuclear-recycling facility present challenges to global efforts to control the spread of potentially dangerous materials. “We don’t support large-scale reprocessing,” Mr. Moniz told The Wall Street Journal on…
Why repeatedly Charsadda?: By Mohammad Ali Babakhel in The Express Tribune, March 18th, 2016
The writer is a senior police officer posted to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. By carrying out a suicide attack outside a court’s premises in Shabqadar, militants once again registered their presence in Charsadda. Through an attack such as this, the militants not only wanted to inflict damages but also send out certain clear-cut messages. In the backdrop of the Army Public School (APS) and Bacha Khan University (BKU) attacks, law-enforcement agencies primarily invested their energies in the enhancement…