ISLAMABAD: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) on Wednesday alerted the government about the impediments that could cause delays and cost escalations to major dam projects, particularly Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand. Briefing the Implementation Committee on Diamer Basha and Mohmand Dams (ICDBMD) on Wednesday, Wapda Chairman Muzammil Hussain updated the participants “of the impediments in the way to smooth execution of these dams including Covid-19, financial flows, emerging security scenario, land acquisition and completion of a critical stretch of relocated Karakoram Highway in case of Diamer-Bhasha Dam. The ICDBMD, constituted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in July 2018 and…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
KARACHI: Stock investors restricted themselves to range-bound trading on Wednesday as the number of coronavirus cases and international oil prices remained on the higher side. According to Arif Habib Ltd, cement stocks came under pressure after the release of provisional data that reflected an annual decline of 19 per cent in monthly despatches. The fertiliser sector also suffered as Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim Ltd hit its lower circuit after a disappointing earnings announcement. As a result, the benchmark index added 67.28 points or 0.15pc from a day ago to close at 44,955.05 points. Market participation decreased 33.7pc to 137.3 million…
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said on Wednesday the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Executive Board had delayed on Pakistan’s request its case for completion of the sixth review because of authorities’ inability to get the State Bank of Pakistan amendment act passed by the Senate. “The IMF board was kind enough to accept our request and postpone the review until February 2,” he said at a news conference. He said the government was required to get the SBP bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday so that the IMF board could consider completion of the sixth review at its meeting slated for…
KARACHI: The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) said on Wednesday it was cooperating with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which is investigating a mega scandal worth Rs54 billion and has arrested several high-ranking officials of the bank and a petroleum company. The FIA arrested Mumtaz Hasan, founder of the Hascol Petroleum Limited (HPL), on Jan 23. It said a total of 30 suspects — including present and former top officials of the NBP, HPL and other organisations — had been booked in the case and that efforts were under way to arrest the remaining suspects. “As has been reported in the press,…
ISLAMABAD: A new report on private investments for Pakistan’s sustainable development warns that continued borrowing from multilateral and other sources is posing all sorts of economic and political challenges while external development grants are rapidly shrinking. The situation calls for an exploration of resources from the private sector, as well as non-traditional regional partners, emphasises the ‘Pakistan SDG Investment Report 2021’ published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The report was launched on Wednesday at a ceremony in Islamabad chaired by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. A first of its kind report on the country, the publication provides an…
WASHINGTON: A chunk of a SpaceX rocket that blasted off seven years ago and was abandoned in space after completing its mission will crash into the Moon on March 4, according to an expert’s calculation. The rocket was employed in 2015 to put in orbit a Nasa satellite, called the Deep Space Climate Observatory. Since then the second stage of the rocket, or booster, has been floating in what mathematicians call a chaotic orbit, astronomer Bill Gray said on Wednesday. It was Gray who calculated the space junk’s new collision course with the Moon. The booster passed by pretty close…
PARIS: Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Paris for talks on Wednesday in a bid to defuse soaring tensions, with France seeking to usher both sides down a “path to de-escalation”. The high-level meeting, attended by senior diplomats from France and Germany, brings together the four countries in a format that has been used repeatedly since Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian province of Crimea. Russia is represented by vice-prime minister Dmitri Kozak and Ukraine by presidential advisor Andriy Yermak, with diplomatic advisors to President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also taking part in the talks that began…
UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to take cognisance of the compelling evidence of India’s crimes in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and to hold accountable the Indian officials and personnel responsible for these crimes. Speaking in a Security Council debate on “Protection of civilians in armed conflict”, Ambassador Munir Akram accused India of financing, sponsoring and supporting terrorist attacks against Pakistan, including from the territory of Afghanistan. “India has funded and supported UNSC listed terrorist entities to carry out cross-border terrorist attacks against Pakistani military and civilian targets,” he said, citing a 2020 attack on…
MONTREAL: An Indigenous community in Canada has identified nearly 100 “potential” graves at a residential school site, months after the discovery of hundreds of children’s remains at former boarding schools rocked the country. The Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) community said on Tuesday that a geophysical survey revealed “93 reflections” with characteristics “indicative of potential human burials” at the former St. Joseph’s Mission residential school in British Columbia. Investigators “surveyed approximately 14 hectares of the broader 480-hectare site”, which is about 300 kilometres (186 miles) north of Kamloops — where the remains of 215 children were found in May. Since May, more…
HASAKEH: Kurdish forces on Wednesday retook full control of a prison in northeast Syria where jihadists of the militant Islamic State group had been holed up since attacking it six days earlier. The brazen IS jailbreak attempt and ensuing clashes left more than 180 dead in the jihadists’ most high-profile military operation since the loss of their “caliphate” nearly three years ago. Ghwayran prison in the city of Hasakeh held an estimated 3,500 IS inmates when the initial attack began on January 20 with explosives-laden vehicles steered by suicide bombers. The Kurdish authorities have insisted no inmates escaped from the compound but the British-based…
