ISLAMABAD: While ignoring the recommendations of a parliamentary panel on agriculture, the government on Monday approved about 7.6 per cent increase in minimum indicative prices (MIPs) of tobacco crop for 2022. A special meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet, virtually presided over by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, on Monday approved the MIPs proposed by National Food Security Minister Syed Fakhar Imam for various types of tobacco. The prices would be ultimately notified after ratification of the decision by the federal cabinet. Under the decision, the MIP for major variety — Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) of plain area…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Monday cleared the government’s Rs20 billion subsidy reduction plan through increase in uniform national electricity rates by up to 95 paisa per unit with effect from Feb 1, saying it was just a post office in the matter. “Our role is more like a postman,” summarised Nepra chairman Tauseef H. Farooqui while presiding over a public hearing on a tariff petition of the Power Division seeking implementation of ‘Subsidy Reform Plan — Phase II’ by gradually increasing tariff for residential consumers. Mr Farooqui said Nepra had already determined a fair basket…
KARACHI: The huge and powerful dark green locomotive attached to a long line of big and small freight containers awaited the inauguration ceremony to be off on its way at the Hutchison Ports Pakistan, also known as the South Asia Pakistan Terminal, on Monday. Then as soon as the ribbon was cut, it honked loudly while making the slouching guests sit up straight in their chairs as it chugged away on its new ballastless tracks. Expected to take away the traffic congestion caused by container trucks on roads and highways here, this freight train will reach its destination, Lahore, in…
KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 9.75 per cent in its latest monetary policy and signalled that borrowing costs would remain steady for now, as recent tax increases were expected to curb demand and reduce the country’s budget deficit. “There’s no need for further tightening at the moment because of the government’s fiscal policy,” SBP Governor Dr Reza Baqir told a news conference on Monday. He said economic indicators were within the target, which allowed the central bank to keep the interest rate unchanged at 9.75pc. In its previous monetary policy…
ATHENS: Snowfall blanketed much of Greece on Monday, closing schools, vaccination centres and parliament in Athens, causing blackouts in mountain villages and falling as far south as the island of Crete. Temperatures plummeted to -14 degrees Celsius (6.8 Fahrenheit) overnight as the front dubbed ‘Elpis’ (the Greek word for hope) brought the first snow of the winter to central Athens. Parliament was suspended, schools were shut down across the greater Athens area and metro access to the airport was disrupted, officials said. Air and sea services remained unimpeded. “It is an extreme condition for our country,” Christos Zerefos, an atmospheric…
LONDON: A UK government minister resigned on Monday in protest over the government’s handling of fraudulent loans granted as part of a pandemic business support scheme. Theodore Agnew, a minister at the Cabinet Office and Treasury with a seat in the House of Lords, dramatically walked out after resigning from his posts during a speech criticising the “Bounce Back Loan Scheme”. While Agnew said he was not resigning over the “Partygate” allegations surrounding Prime Minister Boris Johnson, it was another blow to his government’s reputation. Agnew’s resignation came after the Treasury revealed in documents published online this month that it expects to…
HEIDELBERG: A gunman stormed a lecture hall at Heidelberg University in southwestern Germany on Monday, killing a young woman and injuring three others before fleeing the scene and turning the weapon on himself. The man fired shots “wildly” around the amphitheatre, a police spokesman said. He appeared to have no religious or political motive, German media reported. All four victims were “seriously injured”, police said. One of them later succumbed to her wounds in hospital, security sources said. Police said the man was a “lone perpetrator” wielding a “long gun”, confirming that he had left the amphitheatre before killing himself.…
LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had a birthday party during the first Covid lockdown in June 2020 when social gatherings indoors were banned, ITV News reported on Monday. The revelation ratchets up the pressure on Johnson over a series of gatherings at his 10 Downing Street residence that would seem to have broken the pandemic lockdown rules imposed by his government. His office disputed the claim it was a party, telling ITV: “A group of staff working in No 10 that day gathered briefly in the cabinet room after a meeting to wish the prime minister a happy birthday. “He was there for…
OUAGADOUGOU: Burkina Faso’s army said on Monday it had ousted President Roch Kabore, suspended the constitution, dissolved the government and the national assembly, and closed the country’s borders. The announcement cited the deterioration of the security situation and what the army described as Kabore’s inability to unite the West African nation and effectively respond to challenges, which include an Islamist insurgency. Signed by Lt Col Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba and read by another officer on state television, the announcement said the takeover had been carried out without violence and that those detained were at a secure location. The statement was made…
TAIPEI: Two US aircraft carrier groups have entered the disputed South China Sea for training, the Department of Defence said on Monday as Taiwan complained of a new Chinese air force incursion at the top of the waterway including a fearsome new electronic warfare jet. The South China Sea and self-governing Taiwan are two of China’s most sensitive territorial issues and both are frequent areas of tension between the United States and China. US Navy ships routinely sail close to Chinese-occupied islands in the South China Sea to challenge Chinese sovereignty claims, as well as through the Taiwan Strait, to…
