It’s a bittersweet day for Pakistani cricket fans everywhere. Former captain and veteran allrounder Mohammad Hafeez announced his retirement from international cricket on Monday, triggering a flood of farewells from cricket fans on Twitter. The 41-year-old announced his decision at a press conference in Lahore. “I started this journey 18 years ago, and I’m announcing my retirement today,” he said. “I played for Pakistan due to the pride [I felt]. I didn’t have greed, I didn’t want to earn money, I only played for pride. I have no regrets of any kind. I am completely satisfied [with my career].” Hafeez said he…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
SYDNEY: Young Pakistan pace bowler Mohammad Hasnain announced his arrival to the Big Bash League with a blistering show at the Sydney Showground Stadium on Sunday, helping his team Sydney Thunder beat Adelaide Strikers by 28 runs. In his four overs, the 21-year-old registered figures of 3-20, taking all three wickets in his first over on debut. Coming in to bowl in the third over — after Thunder posted 172-7 for the Strikers to chase — Hasnain drew first blood only on the second ball. The right-armer made opener Matthew Short flick a well-directed delivery off his pads only to…
Former captain and veteran allrounder Mohammad Hafeez on Monday announced his retirement from international cricket, adding, however, that he will continue to play in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and other cricket leagues. The 41-year-old announced his decision at a press conference in Lahore. “I started this journey 18 years ago, and I’m announcing my retirement today,” he said. “I played for Pakistan due to the pride [I felt]. I didn’t have greed, I didn’t want to earn money, I only played for pride. I have no regrets of any kind. I am completely satisfied [with my career]. “It’s not…
Pakistanis will start 2022 from a peak of expensive energy in 2021. The pattern appears set to go on into this year with higher average gas rates, oil prices and electricity costs. There are no indications that a major decline in transmission and distribution losses in the electricity and gas sector is likely to take root in the 12 months from now as the authorities and energy sector entities struggle to sustain a higher recovery rate or inculcate efficiency patterns in the system. Apart from high global energy prices, the 2021 energy scene in Pakistan was marked by mismanaged imports…
SHAKING off last year’s haunting images of human misery around them, Pakistanis remained true to their elements and refused to surrender to despair. Be they images of makeshift crematoriums in India at the height of Covid outbreak in June, or those of Afghans, desperate to leave the country after the Taliban takeover, falling to death on the tarmac of Kabul airport from exiting US planes in August, Pakistanis continued their fight to beat the odds. It is some audacity on their part to not just live on but to expect better fortunes this year. In what happens to be a…
Inflation posed an immediate challenge for Pakistan in 2021. But in 2022 inflationary pressures should ease — thanks to a double dose of monetary tightening administered towards the end of 2021. However, the government will face some other big challenges like managing its fiscal balance, checking the current account deficit and maintaining economic growth momentum. Even before the 250 basis points interest rate tightening between Nov 22nd and Dec 15th, the shortage of gas and electricity had started taking its toll on the growth of industrial production. (Large-scale manufacturing output growth reading was below 3.6 per cent year-on-year during July-Oct).…
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s trade deficit doubled to $24.79 billion during the first half of the current fiscal year, mainly on the back of a 63 per cent year-on-year increase in imports, according to the government’s provisional data. Data for the July-December period showed that imports jumped to $39.91bn from $24.47bn a year ago. In contrast, exports during July-December also grew 25pc to $15.13bn compared to the year-ago period. In December, the imports stood at $6.9bn, rising by 38pc compared to the same month a year ago. However, the figure was 13pc lower on a month-on-month basis, as imports during November were…
If and when the history of Pakistan’s technology sector is written, 2021 will be a standout year that saw the space emerge from a niche followed only by those working in it to the mainstream, well on Twitter at least. The key reason for that was obviously money finally started pouring in, and not just a handful of million dollars. Total investment crossed $330 million, making it more productive than all previous years on record combined. Following the dollars came government officials, including the Prime Minister Imran Khan himself, with their congratulatory tweets, either telling us the potential of tech…
TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they killed six “armed bandits” in a shootout in the country’s southeast that also left three members of a Guards-linked paramilitary force dead. The latest clashes in Sistan-Baluchestan broke out around a hideout of militants near a village in the centre of the province, the Guards said late on Saturday on their Sepah News website. Sistan-Baluchestan, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, is a flashpoint for clashes with smuggling gangs as well as separatists from the Baluchi minority and extremist militant groups. “Six bandits were killed and five others wounded,” the Sepah News report said, while three…
NAIROBI: Richard Leakey, a Kenyan conservationist and paleoanthropologist who spearheaded campaigns against the ivory trade to save the dwindling African elephant population, died on Sunday. He was 77. For years Leakey served in various roles in the Kenyan government, including as director of the National Museums of Kenya and twice as board chairman at the Kenya Wildlife Service. President Uhuru Kenyatta said Leakey had “served our country with distinction”. “Besides his distinguished career in the public service, Dr Leakey is celebrated for his prominent role in Kenya’s vibrant civil society where he founded and successfully ran a number of institutions.”…
