ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance continued its deliberations on the Finance Bill 2024 on Friday, with a focus on recommending to the government a reduction in the proposed increase in sales tax rates on various items, including stationery and hospital equipment. A meeting of the committee, presided over by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, also questioned the logic behind bringing exporters under the standard tax regime while increasing the tax rate on retailers from 15 per cent to 18pc, particularly those selling branded garments. PTI’s Shibli Faraz and independent Senator Faisal Vawda continued their debate on income tax measures, though the agenda…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said time-tested Pak-China friendship is indispensable for bilateral as well as regional peace and development, expressing great satisfaction over complete political consensus in both countries on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. He expressed these views while talking to Minister of International Department of the Communist Party of China (IDCPC) Liu Jianchao, who along with a delegation called on him at PM House. While welcoming the Chinese dignitary and members of his delegation to Pakistan, the prime minister congratulated him as well as political leaders of Pakistan on the successful organisation of Pakistan-China Political Parties Forum and the…
ISLAMABAD: As an additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) resumed hearing the pleas seeking suspension of sentences of former PM Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, in the Iddat case, the counsel for her ex-husband repeatedly sought an adjournment, trying to delay the case further. Zahid Asif, the counsel for Bushra Bibi’s ex-husband, Khawar Fareed Maneka, requested ADSJ Afzal Majooka to adjourn the hearing since his client, who is the complainant in the instant case, was not present. The counsel, however, submitted his power of attorney (wakalatnama) to the court. The judge asked Mr Asif to conclude his arguments on the…
PARIS: Dior offered a more light-hearted collection featuring giant cats at Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday, with designer Kim Jones saying he wanted to counter the gloomy world atmosphere. The big cartoon cats that dotted the runway for the menswear collection were inspired by South African ceramicist Hylton Nel, a favourite of Jones, an avid art collector. Nel’s artwork popped up as prints on several outfits, which overall had a more laid-back vibe than recent Dior collections, with baggy trousers and shorts, and loose rounded silhouettes on the work coats and suits. Many were topped with “cloche” — or bell-style…
GENEVA: A Swiss court has handed jail sentences to four members of Britain’s richest family on Friday, branding them “selfish” for exploiting Indian staff at their Geneva mansion. The Hindujas were acquitted of human trafficking, but convicted on other charges in a stunning verdict for the family, whose fortune is estimated at £37 billion by The Sunday Times. Prakash Hinduja and his wife Kamal Hinduja each got four years and six months, while their son Ajay and his wife Namrata received four-year terms, the presiding judge in Geneva ruled. They were found guilty of a charge of “usury” for taking advantage of their…
NEW DELHI: An Indian court stopped on Friday the release from jail of one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s chief opponents, a day after he was granted bail in a long-running corruption case, reports said. Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi and the leader of the opposition Aam Aadmi party, denies the charges as a “political conspiracy” by Modi and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was released from detention to campaign partway through India’s weeks-long general election but returned to jail after voting ended this month. A trial court ordered his release late Thursday, but before he…
BEIJING: Beijing warned on Friday that escalating friction with the European Union over electric vehicle imports could trigger a trade war, as Germany’s economy minister arrived in the Chinese capital with the proposed tariffs high on his agenda. Robert Habeck’s three-day trip to China is the first by a senior European official since Brussels proposed hefty duties on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles to combat alleged excessive subsidies. That has unleashed countermeasures by China and harsh criticism from Chinese leaders. In an unexpected twist, Habeck — from the ecologist Greens Party that is a junior partner in Germany’s fractious three-way coalition…
RIYADH: After years of failing to secure a visa, Yasser finally concluded he had no choice but to perform Haj illegally, a move he now regrets. While he survived the rites in extreme heat, he has not seen his wife since Sunday and fears she is among the more than 1,000 reported fatalities — the majority unregistered Egyptians like himself. “I have searched every single hospital in Makkah. She’s not there,” the 60-year-old retired engineer said on Friday by phone from his hotel room, where he is reluctant to pack his wife’s suitcase in hopes she will return to do it herself. “I don’t…
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has said he wishes to grant ‘green cards’, to ‘foreign’ graduates from US colleges. This is an apparent softening of his typically ‘hard-line’ view on immigration, which emerging as a ‘key issue’, in the upcoming presidential election. The Republican candidate made the remarks in a podcast published on Thursday. This is just days after President Joe Biden announced a citizenship pathway for immigrants married to US nationals, counterbalancing his recent crackdown on illegal border crossings. “What I want to do and what I will do is, you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically…
CINAR: A huge wildfire has killed 11 people and critically injured five, as it ripped through Turkiye’s mainly Kurdish southeast overnight, the health minister stated on Friday. Hundreds of animals perished or were badly injured in the blaze, which roared across the dry landscape, sending flames into the night sky. By morning, the fire had left huge areas of charred and blackened land, across the Diyarbakir and Mardin provinces. “Eleven people lost their lives,” Health Minister Fahrettin Koca wrote on X, adding that another 78 people sustained injuries and smoke inhalation. Of that number, five people were being treated in…
