Former India batsman and two-time national coach Anshuman Gaekwad has died aged 71 following a long battle with cancer, cricket authorities said on Thursday. Gaekwad passed away in the western city of Baroda on Wednesday after suffering various health complications. He played 40 Tests and 15 ODIs for India before becoming a selector and coach of the national team. Gaekwad scored 1,985 runs from 70 Test innings, with a highest score of 201 against Pakistan in the 1982-83 series. “My deepest condolences to the family and friends of Mr Aunshuman Gaekwad. Heartbreaking for the entire cricket fraternity,” Jai Shah, secretary…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
Pakistan’s consumer price index (CPI) in July rose 11.1 per cent Year-on-Year (YoY), data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Thursday. The CPI measures household inflation and includes statistics about price change for categories of household expenditure. “General CPI inflation increased to 11.1pc on year-on-year basis in July 2024 as compared to an increase of 12.6pc in the previous month and 28.3pc in July 2023,” the PBS report said. The inflation rate was 2.1pc on a month-on-month (MoM) basis, PBS noted, while, rural inflation was noted at 8.1pc and urban inflation was at 13.2pc. Topline Securities, a brokerage firm in Karachi,…
ISLAMABAD: Anticipating the government’s dissatisfaction with his performance, FBR Chairman Zubair Tiwana wrote a letter to the federal government requesting to be replaced by a new chairman. He was appointed to the position by former finance minister Ishaq Dar. Mr Tiwana managed to retain his position during the caretaker government’s tenure, but his fortunes changed when he allegedly began assigning poor performance grades to his senior colleagues. This grading system led to the removal of some senior tax officers, who were subsequently placed on the list of officers on special duty. The final straw came when the prime minister reprimanded him during a visit…
ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Wednesday expressed concern over a negative campaign against investment contracts in the power sector and warned that distribution companies might face an existential threat if they do not adopt emerging new technologies. “You cannot forcefully revisit contracts. It has repercussions and costs in the future,” Nepra’s Member Law Amina Ahmed said at a public hearing on the application of Rs2.63 per unit additional fuel cost to consumers of all Discos on account of electricity consumed in June. She said the situation was different when contracts were signed with independent power producers (IPPs). “That…
ISLAMABAD: The federal revenue collection during the first month of the current fiscal year (FY25) exceeded the target by nearly Rs3 billion, driven by a significant increase in imports, according to provisional data released on Wednesday. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected Rs659bn in July against the projected target of Rs656bn. The July collection also showed a 22 per cent growth compared to Rs542bn in the same month last year. In the budget for FY25, the government projected a collection target of Rs12.9 trillion, more than 41pc higher than the collection set for FY24. The government believes that the automated revenue collection…
LONDON: Former BBC TV news presenter Huw Edwards, a household name in Britain, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three counts of making indecent pictures of children. Edwards, 62, who was the BBC’s highest-paid journalist and top news anchor until he quit in April, arrived at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court wearing sunglasses through a throng of photographers and camera crews. After confirming his identity, he was asked if he wished to indicate a plea to the three charges, which relate to three different categories of indecent images. Edwards said: “Guilty”. Judge Paul Goldspring said Edwards would be sentenced on Sept 16. During the…
UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Human Rights Committee has expressed concern over the use of excessive force in “disturbed” territories in India, leading to unlawful killings. The UN committee, in a report released this week, noted that certain provisions of India’s Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) and counter-terrorism laws do not comply with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The committee expressed alarm over the prolonged application of these laws in “disturbed areas” such as districts in Manipur, the occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Assam. It noted with concern that this extended enforcement has led to…
CAIRO: Khaled Meshaal, tipped to be the new Hamas leader, became known around the world in 1997 after Israeli agents injected him with poison in a botched assassination attempt on a street outside his office in Amman, the Jordanian capital. The hit against a senior figure of the Palestinian group, ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, so enraged Jordan’s then-King Hussein that he spoke of hanging the would-be killers and scrapping Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel unless the antidote was handed over. Israel did so, and also agreed to free Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, only to assassinate him seven years…
ISLAMABAD: The US visa offices in Islamabad and Karachi were processing more than 10,000 applications a month and the appointment waiting time has also been reduced by almost half compared to last year. A senior US embassy official informed the media here on Wednesday that the number of visas issued from offices in Islamabad and Karachi reached the highest level in 2023. He said the number will surpass in the ongoing US fiscal year that ends in October 2024. The official referred to a crisis-like situation in September 2023 when the visa appointment waiting time peaked to 440 days, adding…
ISLAMABAD: The Mutahidda Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has announced that it will move court in the United Kingdom to get back party’s properties worth billions of rupees. “We are going to move the court to get these properties, which basically belong to Shuhada (martyrs) of MQM,” said MQM-P leader Farooq Sattar in a press conference on Wednesday. Flanked by Muttahida chief Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, he said the party would fight for rights of its workers and martyrs. The money to be received by selling these properties would be spent for the welfare of party workers, he vowed. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Siddiqui said there…
