PARIS: American swimming great Katie Ledecky says she hopes athletes will be “competing clean” at the Paris Olympics amid a row over a doping case involving Chinese swimmers. The New York Times and German broadcaster ARD reported in April that 23 Chinese swimmers were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics despite testing positive earlier in the year for heart medication trimetazidine, a drug banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Eleven of the swimmers named in the reports were selected in China’s Olympic team at Paris. None of the swimmers were suspended or sanctioned after WADA accepted the conclusion…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
PARIS: The sporting action at the Paris Olympics kicked off with two football matches on Wednesday, two days before thousands of athletes and artists are set to take part in an ambitious opening ceremony at the heart of the French capital. After years of preparation, and as more than 10,000 athletes are getting ready for their shot at one of the 329 gold medals that will be up for grabs in 19 days of competition, the first two events of the Paris Games kicked off at 3:00pm local time. But chaos and confusion reigned as Morocco won against Argentina, with the South…
KARACHI: The government has slashed the cut-off yields of treasury bills by up to 56 basis points, reinforcing market expectations for a significant reduction in the State Bank’s policy rate on July 29. The government also raised its target amount over three times in the latest auction, securing Rs481 billion against a target of Rs150bn. The auction attracted total bids of Rs1.793 trillion, with the highest bids of Rs1.025tr received for the benchmark six-month T-bills. For the three-month T-bills, the government cut the rate by 56 bps to 19.49 per cent, raising Rs72bn. The six-month tenor saw a rate reduction of 50…
KARACHI: Auto financing completed its second straight year of downward journey last month, dropping to Rs230.5 billion in June from Rs233bn in May. According to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the total decline in outstanding loans in the last two years stood at Rs138bn, based on the June 2022 figure of Rs368bn. It appears that the cut in interest rate from 22 per cent to 20.5pc by the SBP on June 10 has yet to lure buyers towards financing for new, locally assembled vehicles due to their exorbitant prices. Buyers, however, remained focused on leasing old and locally assembled vehicles through private…
ISLAMABAD: Amid a brewing controversy over the alleged financial relaxation granted to the long distance and international (LDI) companies, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications has reconstituted a Steering Committee to address the issue. The ministry issued a fresh notification withdrawing the previous one that granted LDI operators billions of rupees in exemptions. The ministry said to resolve the pending dispute regarding access promotion charges (APC) the LDIs are required to contribute to the Universal Service Fund (USF) and the timeframe of the steering committee had been extended. The access promotion contribution on mobile call termination is diverted to the…
KARACHI: The prospects of success for Pakistan’s economic reforms under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme remain tenuous, with significant challenges ahead for the government and economy, opine business leaders. Earlier this month, Pakistan and the IMF reached a Staff-Level Agreement (SLA) for a $7 billion Extended Fund Facility. The IMF-mandated reforms included increases in tax revenues to 1.5 per cent of GDP in FY25 and 3pc over the 37-month programme. “Revenue collections will be supported by simpler and fairer direct and indirect taxation, including by bringing net income from the retail, export, and agriculture sectors properly into the tax system,” IMF’s statement said. The reform…
KARACHI: Pakistan Tanners’ Association (PTA) Chairman Muhammad Mehr Ali has said that the additional burden of taxes and duties in the budget has put the industry on the verge of collapse, thus jeopardising future exports. He said the government had imposed a 2 per cent additional customs duty (ACD) on importing key raw materials and vital chemicals and a 5pc regulator duty on various items, making it difficult for the industry to survive. He said the industry had been facing an acute shortage of liquidity as refunds of Rs2.5 billion were stuck on account of sales tax, duty drawback claims, and other…
DOHA: The arrival of an Israeli delegation in Doha for discussions on new demands for a truce in Gaza has been postponed, a source with knowledge of the talks said on Wednesday. The source said the meetings, which had been scheduled for tomorrow, were postponed until early next week, without giving a reason why. Qatar, along with Egypt and the United States, has been engaged in months of behind-the-scenes efforts to broker a truce in Gaza and a hostage-prisoner swap. A proposed cessation of hostilities focuses on a phased approach, beginning with an initial truce. Recent discussions have centred on…
BEIJING: Ukraine’s top diplomat told China’s foreign minister at talks in the southern city of Guangzhou on Wednesday that Kyiv was open to talks with Russia if Moscow was prepared to negotiate in good faith, something he said he saw no evidence of for now. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is the highest ranking Ukrainian official to travel to China since Russia’s February 2022 invasion and held talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi for more than three hours, a Ukrainian source in the delegation said. “Kuleba restated .. that (Kyiv) is ready to engage the Russian side in the negotiation process…
CAIRO: Israeli forces carried out new raids in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to address the US Congress. The latest Israeli attacks destroyed homes in towns east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza and thousands of people were forced to head west to seek shelter, residents said. The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it had received distress calls from residents trapped in their homes in Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis, but were unable to reach the town. Medics later said two Palestinians had been killed in an airstrike on Bani Suhaila, where Hamas…
