THE Pakistan Business Council has issued a call for a national consensus on economic matters which merit detailed attention from the political leadership. As the government celebrates its achievements on the economic front, more and more voices are pointing out that the real work on the economy needs to begin now. The PBC points out that neglect of the domestic industry must be addressed, and capacity building and reforms at the FBR are necessary for…
Posts published in “Day: November 30, 2016”
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s internal and external debt and liabilities added during the last three and half years are almost equal to what the country had borrowed in almost 60 years of its independence i.e. from 1947 to 2007. State Bank statistics show a phenomenal rise in the country’s debt and liabilities during the last ten years. The State Bank figures relating to the total public debts and liabilities by end June 2013 were Rs 16,228 billion,…
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Senator Sherry Rehman on Tuesday voiced dismay over the country’s alarming debt accumulation under the current government and its refusal to hold itself accountable. The lawmaker said the democratic institutions could not work without transparency or economic prudence. Reports revealed that Pakistan’s total debt and liabilities had reached Rs22.5 trillion by the end of the last fiscal year. This figure showed a net increase of Rs2.6 trillion in…
Karachi: When police officials had seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition from a house near the Muttahida Qaumi Movement headquarters, Nine Zero, in Azizabad last month, they had made tall claims of bringing all the culprits to book. But their probe appears to have fallen flat as a new development emerged on Tuesday. The investigating officer admitted before an anti-terrorism court that the police had failed to trace the culprits, and requested that…
LAHORE: Billions of rupees have been pumped into the provincial police budget, but the rate of crime shows no signs of decreasing, reveals data available with The Express Tribune. When compared to 2015, extortion cases have increased by a whopping 43% as have car snatchings and kidnappings, which are up 29% and 13%, respectively, in the first 11 months of 2016. ‘52,552 Karachiites fell victim to street crime in 2016’ As many as 21,363 incidents,…
Ghani-Noor’s Close Ties Met With Mixed Reaction by Karimullah Amini in TOLOnews.com,30 November 2016
President Ashraf Ghani and Atta Mohammad Noor have in recent weeks forged closer ties, a move that has been met with mixed reaction. A serious rift emerged between the two during the last presidential election – after the results were announced. At the time, Noor said he did not accept Ghani as the then president-elect. However, Noor reportedly hosted Ghani at his house in Mazar-e-Sharif city for one night this week. Unconfirmed reports indicate that…
Tagab district of north-eastern Badakhshan has been cleared of Taliban insurgents and is once again under government control following an operation by security forces, local officials said on Tuesday. The district fell to the Taliban nine months ago. Ahmad Naweed Frotan, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the operation was conducted by the Afghan National Police, the Afghan National Army and the National Directorate of Security (NDS) forces. “The Taliban left the district after…
The U.S. military wants to replace Afghanistan’s well-worn fleet of Russian helicopters with American-made aircraft, according to a new budget proposal, a decision aimed at reducing the Afghan air force’s decades-long reliance on Russian equipment. The Afghan air force, trained and assisted by NATO advisers, has slowly gained strength, but remains too small to meet the needs of security forces struggling to combat a stubborn Taliban insurgency. Now the U.S. Defence Department is requesting funding…
The Afghan Taliban announced on Monday in a statement that the group fully backed and would safeguard all national projects – a move that critics believe is merely a ploy. According to their statement, the group said: “And just as the leader of the Islamic Emirate has stated in his messages and as declared by delegations of the political office during international conferences, the Islamic Emirate not only backs all national projects which are in…
The Afghan government reacted towards Taliban’s statement where the group vowed to protect the public welfare projects, questioning the group’s stance and challenging them to practically prove they will not harm the public sites and projects. Deputy presidential spokesman Shah Hussain Murtazvi said at least 302 schools, 41 health centers, 50 mosques, 5,305 residential houses, 1,818 shops, 1 government compound, 6 bridges, 170 culverts, 123 kilometers of road, 203 retention walls, and 84 service centers…
KABUL – The Afghan Taliban Tuesday pledged to protect billions of dollars worth of infrastructure projects throughout the country, many of which have been stalled for years due to militant violence and insecurity. The militant group, which has been repeatedly accused of conducting attacks against aid workers and infrastructure projects, made the surprise gesture in a statement. “The Islamic Emirate (Taliban) not only backs all national projects which are in the interest of the people…