KARACHI: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to “unwind” the two key measures for the promotion of housing and construction activities. In July 2020, the SBP made it mandatory for banks to increase their share of lending portfolios for housing and construction sectors to five per cent by December 2021. In addition, the SBP changed capital adequacy regulations in June 2021 to lower the applicable risk weight to 100pc from 200pc on banks’ investments in REITs or real estate investment trusts. The staff report, which the IMF released along with the $1 billion tranche under…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
AMBOISE: Vandals in central France attacked a sculpture of an Algerian military hero who resisted France’s colonisation of the North African country, just hours before it was inaugurated on Saturday as a symbol of Franco-Algerian reconciliation. The lower part of the steel sculpture in the town of Amboise, where Emir Abdelkader was imprisoned from 1848 to 1852, was badly damaged in the attack which comes in the midst of an election campaign dominated by harsh rhetoric on immigration and Islam. Amboise mayor Thierry Boutard said he was “ashamed” of those responsible and decided to proceed with the inauguration ceremony regardless.…
WASHINGTON: Republicans’ deep divisions over the 2020 US election were laid bare on Friday as the party censured two lawmakers investigating the deadly Capitol assault aimed at stopping its certification — only to see Donald Trump rebuked by Mike Pence for claiming falsely that his former vice president could have overturned the results. An extraordinary split-screen began when Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger found themselves rebuked by the Republican National Committee (RNC) over their roles on the House select committee probing Trump’s involvement in the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Just hours after the RNC met in Utah, Pence delivered an…
ADDIS ABABA: Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh on Saturday urged the African Union (AU) to withdraw Israel’s accreditation, bringing simmering tensions to a head as the 55-member bloc opened a two-day summit in Addis Ababa. Even as the continent reels from a spate of military coups and the Covid-19 pandemic, the relationship with Israel is expected to figure prominently during the summit this weekend. The row broke out last July when Moussa Faki Mahamat, chair of the African Union Commission, accepted Israel’s accreditation to the bloc, triggering a rare dispute within a body that values consensus. As heads of state…
GENEVA: The head of the World Health Organisation met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday for talks on Covid-19, including on the stalled investigation into the pandemic’s origins. WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, visiting Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, posted a picture on Twitter of the pair sitting with officials in a meeting room. “Pleased to meet with Premier Li Keqiang. We discussed Covid-19 and the need for an aggressive effort on vaccine equity this year to vaccinate 70 percent of all populations,” Tedros said. “We also discussed the need for stronger collaboration on Covid-19 virus origins, rooted…
SRINAGAR: A prominent journalist in Occupied Kashmir has been arrested by police and accused of “glorifying terrorism” and “spreading fake news” in the disputed region, where an ongoing press crackdown has intensified. Fahad Shah, the editor of Kashmir Walla news portal, had already been questioned several times for his reporting by officers in recent years. He had been arrested for “glorifying terrorism, spreading fake news and inciting general public”, Kashmir police said on Saturday. A police statement that followed his arrest the day before added that Shah’s Facebook posts had dented “the image of law enforcing agencies”. The Committee to Protect Journalists…
TEHRAN: US steps on lifting sanctions are “good but not enough”, Iran said on Saturday, following Washington’s announcement it was waiving sanctions on Iran’s civil nuclear programme. The US action came as talks to restore a 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers over its nuclear programme reached an advanced stage, with the issue of sanctions relief a major issue. “The lifting of some sanctions can, in the true sense of the word, translate into their goodwill. Americans talk about it, but it should be known that what happens on paper is good but not enough,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said,…
Bollywood superstar singer Lata Mangeshkar, known to millions as the “nightingale of India” and a regular fixture of the country’s airwaves for decades, died on Sunday at the age of 92. She passed away in a Mumbai hospital after being admitted to its intensive care unit on January 11 with Covid-19 symptoms. “I am anguished beyond words,” India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on Twitter. “The kind and caring Lata Didi has left us. She leaves a void in our nation that cannot be filled.” Public broadcaster Doordarshan announced a state funeral and two days of national mourning for the singer after…
ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday he had tested positive for Covid-19 but was not experiencing severe symptoms. “After experiencing light symptoms, my wife and I tested positive for Covid-19. We have a mild infection thankfully, which we learned to be the Omicron variant,” the 67-year-old president said in a tweet. “We remain on duty. We will continue our work from home. We hope for your prayers,” Erdogan added. “God willing we will shake this infection off together with Mr Tayyip,” his 66-year-old wife, Emine Erdogan, tweeted. The Turkish president received his third vaccine dose in…
NICE: The French government on Saturday forged ahead with efforts to reshape Islam in France and rid it of extremism, introducing a new body made up of clergy and laymen and women to help lead the largest Muslim community in western Europe. With France bloodied by past Islamic extremist attacks, having hundreds of citizens who went to fight with jihadists in Syria in past years and thousands of French troops now fighting extremists in Africa, few disagree that radicalisation is a danger. But critics also see the efforts as a political ploy to lure right-wing voters to President Emmanuel Macrons…
