LAHORE: Shaheen Shah Afridi set it up for the Lahore Qalandars. Yet another half-century from Fakhar Zaman and another from Kamran Ghulam completed victory against Quetta Gladiators. The eight-wicket victory at the Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday was a fifth win in seven for the Qalandars, not only brought them closer to a playoff spot for Shaheen’s men but also avanged their loss to the Gladiators earlier this week in the final match of the Karachi leg. This was a game they dominated from start to finish, chasing down the 142-run target with enviable ease and ending the Gladiators’ two-match winning…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
Pakistan is a fortunate country where every citizen has an opinion on topics ranging from politics to the economy. However, their opinions are swayed mostly by their opinion leaders, amongst whom media is the most effective. If there is a discussion on what is the biggest issue of the country, there would be voices claiming ‘corruption’ as the biggest issue. Others would argue that ‘incompetence’, ‘misgovernance’ or ‘delays in justice’ are the biggest issues. So on and so forth. However, the media has almost succeeded in convincing the masses that currently the most disturbing issue in Pakistan is soaring commodity…
DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has transferred four percent of Saudi Aramco shares worth $80 billion to the sovereign wealth fund, the government said on Sunday. The shares will bolster the Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) strong financial position and high credit ratings in the medium term, the crown prince said in a statement. The fund is the prince’s vehicle of choice to transform the Saudi economy and diversify away from oil revenues. The state remains the largest shareholder in Saudi Aramco after the transfer process, as it retains more than 94 percent of the company’s shares, the…
ISLAMABAD: Highlighting contingent liabilities of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) at almost eight per cent of GDP — or about Rs5 trillion — as a major fiscal risk, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has linked the continuation of its ongoing programme with “parliamentary approval” of the new SOE law by the end of June to ensure transparent management of these companies. “Contingent liabilities from loss-making SOEs — to the extent not covered by government guarantees — continue to represent additional risks to debt sustainability,” the IMF has noted in a special chapter in a recent report on Pakistan’s economy. It said the authorities…
Investors are bracing for more gyrations in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as worries over a hawkish Federal Reserve threaten to squelch risk appetite across markets. The volatility traditionally associated with cryptocurrencies has been on full display in recent weeks. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, is up by around 33 per cent since Jan 24 and recently traded at $43,850, rebounding from a tumble that cut its price in half from November’s record high. Its main rival, ether, is up around 45pc since Jan 24 at around $3,200, following a nearly 56pc nosedive from its record high of $4,868, also in November.…
In January, the annual increase in prices of essential items measured through the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) shot up to 19.5 per cent. This was the fastest ascend of SPI during the past 12 months, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). What is even more disturbing is that throughout the year (between Feb 2021 and Jan 2022) annual pace of increase in prices of essential items remained in double digits — and between Oct 2021 and Jan 2022 it never slipped below 14pc. Under the heap of these stats remain buried countless stories of human deprivations and miseries…
JAKARTA: At least 10 Indonesians died after tidal waves swept away a group of people meditating on a beach during Sunday’s early hours, police said. The group of 23 people was holding hands and meditating on Payangan beach, East Java province, shortly after midnight. “They were too close to the sea and could not save themselves when the tidal waves came and swept them away,” local police chief Hery Purnomo told TVOne. Ten bodies had been retrieved from the ocean and 12 people rescued alive. One more person, a 40-year-old man, was still unaccounted for. It was unclear what kind of…
DUNDEE: Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi are fighting for pardons for all those executed for witchcraft in Scotland, the vast majority of whom were women, and for a memorial to those forgotten by history. “Between the 16th and 18th century in Scotland, approximately 4,000 people were accused of witchcraft,” explained Mitchell, a lawyer who founded the campaign group Witches of Scotland. In total, more than 2,500 people were executed for witchcraft in Scotland, four-fifths of them women. They were mostly strangled and then burned, after making confessions that were often extracted under torture. “People would take turns interviewing them, keep…
KABUL: Four women activists in Afghanistan have been released by the country’s “de facto authorities” after going missing weeks ago, the United Nations said on Sunday. Since storming back to power in August, the Taliban have cracked down on dissent by forcefully dispersing women’s rallies, detaining critics and often beating local journalists covering unsanctioned protests. Tamana Zaryabi Paryani, Parwana Ibrahimkhel, Zahra Mohammadi and Mursal Ayar went missing after participating in an anti-Taliban rally, but Afghanistan’s hardline Islamist rulers — whose government is still not recognised by any country — had consistently denied detaining them. “After a long period of uncertainty…
TUNIS: Thousands of Tunisians protested on Sunday after President Kais Saied gave himself sweeping powers over the judiciary, his latest step in what opponents say is a slide towards autocracy. A decree published in the early hours officially replaced a judicial watchdog he had vowed to dissolve, and gave him powers to block judicial appointments, sack judges and ban them from going on strike. Hours later, more than 2,000 protesters gathered in central Tunis, many waving large Tunisian flags and chanting slogans against the president. “The people want what you don’t want,” went one chant, echoing a slogan of the…
