ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s general inflation measured by Consumer Price Index (CPI) clocked in at 24-month peak of 13pc in January as prices of almost all commodities and utilities maintained a growing trend. The sectors that posted double-digit growth in prices when compared to the same month of last year included perishable and non-perishable food items, energy, transportation, clothing, restaurants and health. While household and energy rates increased by 15.5pc, the transport sector led the inflationary trend with an increase of over 23pc, followed by 13pc and 14pc for perishable and non-perishable food items, restaurants and hotels 13pc and clothing 12pc. This…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
KARACHI: A proposed five-year business plan to turn around Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) suggests financial restructuring, independent decision making, re-organisation of company structure, restrictions to core business, financial discipline and human resource (HR) rationalisation cost controls. The proposed plan also calls for reviewing destinations, fleet planning exercises and network expansion thereby increasing PIA’s network spread and passenger uplift. The comprehensive business plan for the national flag carrier – covering 2022 as the base year and going all the way to 2026 – was presented by IATA Consultancy to the Minister of Finance Shaukat Tarin and Federal Minister of Aviation Ghulam…
KARACHI: The representative body of the downstream oil industry has approached the central bank governor for the resolution of “regulatory issues” that prevent banks from extending additional trade financing to liquidity-constrained energy companies. Speaking to Dawn on Tuesday, Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) Secretary-General Dr Nazir Abbas Zaidi said financing requirements of oil marketing companies (OMCs) and refineries have registered a “significant increase” in the last couple of years because of myriad reasons. “Working capital requirements of OMCs and refineries are increasing on the back of the rupee’s depreciation and a rise in international oil prices as well as local demand,” the…
ISLAMABAD: With almost 55 per cent electricity generation from cheaper domestic resources with static prices, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Tuesday finalised Rs3.10 per unit increase in tariff for ex-Wapda distribution companies (Discos) on account of monthly fuel cost adjustment (FCA) to mop up additional Rs26 billion from consumers in February’s bills. “The Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) had in its petition demanded Rs3.12 per unit FCA for power consumed in December 2021. This, however, works out to be Rs3.10 based on our scrutiny of the data provided by the CPPA,” said Nepra in a press release,…
WASHINGTON: Pakistan hopes that the US Department of State will approve and return the agrément over the country’s new envoy for Washington in the next two or three weeks. The agrément, in diplomatic parlance, is an agreement between two states to receive and facilitate members of a diplomatic mission. The Pakistan embassy in Washington submitted Masood Khan’s agrément to the State Department in November and the host government usually takes two to three months to approve the papers. “Mr Khan’s “agrément is under process and the State Department will approve and send it back soon, perhaps in the next two…
JERUSALEM: Amnesty International on Tuesday labelled Israel an “apartheid” state that treats Palestinians as “an inferior racial group”, joining the assessment of other rights groups which the Jewish state vehemently rejects. “Israel’s cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid,” said Amnesty’s secretary general Agnes Callamard. “Whether they live in Gaza, east Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated as an inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights.” Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid strongly rejected the claims as “divorced from reality” and…
JERUSALEM: Israeli forces on Tuesday destroyed the home of a Palestinian man who fatally shot an Israeli tour guide before being killed by security forces in Jerusalem last year. Police said more than 150 security personnel arrived in the Shuafat refugee camp in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem for the destruction of the home of Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, a member of the Hamas militant group that rules the Gaza Strip. Police said residents of the camp threw stones at officers, prompting forces to use “riot dispersal means”. Video recorded by local residents showed heavily armed troops using hand tools to punch holes…
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s navy on Tuesday said it had arrested 21 Indian fishermen after a confrontation with two trawlers poaching in the island’s territorial waters. A fast attack craft was damaged in the clashes on Monday night, the navy said in a statement, without giving further details. “As the Indian trawlers were attempting to evade naval units with their aggressive manoeuvres, they also caused damages to the SLN Fast Attack Craft,” the statement said. It did not say if there were casualties, but said the navy seized equipment used by the Indians for “bottom-trawling”, a fishing method banned in Sri…
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Russia to immediately de-escalate tensions and to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s borders in a call on Tuesday with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Blinken “emphasised that further invasion of Ukraine would be met with swift and severe consequences and urged Russia to pursue a diplomatic path,” the US State department said in a statement. Lavrov said after the call that he had told Blinken that Russia would continue insisting on its demands, including that the West stick to its security “obligations,” and added that: “Blinken agreed that there is subject for further discussion.”…
LAHORE: A delegation, headed by the Indian Commissioner for Indus Waters, is set to visit Pakistan in March to attend the annual meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission. The visit was scheduled in January but it was postponed at the request of India due to the Covid-19 restrictions, has learnt. “The annual meetings, under the Indus Water Treaty, are always liable to be held before March 31 each year, alternatively in Pakistan and India. Last year, we had attended the annual meeting in India and this time it is their (Indian delegation) turn to attend the same in Pakistan,” Pakistan…
