ISLAMABAD: At least 38 government departments exceeded the amounts allocated to them during the fiscal year 2023-24, receiving additional funds through supplementary and technical grants, details of current expenditure released by the Finance Division for the outgoing fiscal year show. Apart from debt servicing (both local and foreign), the Power Division was the biggest spender, utilising Rs769.7 billion against an allocation of around Rs450.5bn. Consequently, it needed an additional sum of around Rs319.1bn to meet its expenses during FY2023-24. The same was the case with the defence sector. Under the Defence Services head, the government had allocated Rs1.8tr, but expenditure ballooned…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) alleged on Friday that the incumbent government was causing irreversible damage to the country, citing the recently announced budget as evidence. Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub made these remarks during a press conference in Islamabad. He was flanked by PTI leader Raoof Hasan. Ayub claimed that complete budget documents were not presented in the National Assembly and that the budget had a seven per cent deficit, the highest in Pakistan’s history. He also alleged that facilities provided to PML-N leaders and others in jail far exceeded those provided to Imran Khan. He…
ISLAMABAD: In a rare but apparent downgrade, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will personally head the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), instead of Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, as he notified the newly formed eight-member centre-provincial forum. This marks the first time in decades that a finance minister will not chair Ecnec, a subordinate committee of the constitutional forum traditionally led by the finance minister. Prime Minister Sharif is also the chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Energy. According to a notification issued by the Cabinet Division on Friday, the newly constituted Ecnec, led by the prime minister, would also comprise…
ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Friday announced an increase of almost 20 per cent in the uniform national tariff to ensure about Rs3.8 trillion in funding for the 10 ex-Wapda electricity distribution companies (Discos) during the fiscal year 2024-25. The Rs5.72 per unit increase, which will come into force from July 1 after formal notification by the government, would provide Rs485bn in additional revenue to Discos and strengthen the government’s position in securing an IMF bailout in July. The government has the power to make adjustments with different rates of increases for various consumer categories through a cross-subsidy but…
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has turned down Switzerland’s invitation to the Ukraine Peace Summit citing scheduling conflicts and other considerations. “Pakistan received an invitation from Switzerland for the Conference, which is being held from 15th to 16th of June. However, due to a host of factors, including scheduling challenges, Pakistan is not participating in this conference,” FO Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at the weekly media briefing. The two-day summit being held at the Bürgenstock resort outside the city of Lucerne in Switzerland is designed to gather international support for Ukraine’s vision of peace, detailed in Ukrainian President Zelensky’s ten-point peace formula. Despite the…
Over one million Muslims packed the giant tented city of Mina near Makkah on Friday for the Haj pilgrimage held in sweltering heat and against the grim backdrop of the Gaza crisis. Robed worshippers arrived on buses or on foot, many shaded by umbrellas, at the vast encampment in Mina after performing the “tawaf” — the circumambulation of the Kaaba, the large cubic structure draped in black cloth with gold trimmings that millions of Muslims pray towards every day. Chanting “God is great” and “God, we answer your call”, many were awash with spiritual fervour as they followed in the footsteps of…
BARI: G7 leaders meeting in Italy on Friday hardened their tone against China, warning Beijing to stop sending weapons components to Russia and play by the rules on trade, according to a draft summit statement. China has been a key focus of the Group of Seven talks in Puglia, amid souring trade relations between Beijing and the West and concerns that its supplies of equipment to Moscow are fuelling Russia’s war in Ukraine. “We call on China to cease the transfer of dual-use materials, including weapons components and equipment, that are inputs for Russia’s defence sector,” according to a draft…
BORGO EGNAZIA: Pope Francis became the first pontiff to address a Group of Seven summit on Friday, warning world leaders that artificial intelligence (AI) must never be allowed to get the upper hand over humanity. An array of global chiefs warmly embraced the 87-year-old pope as he made his way around their huge oval table, pushed in a wheelchair as age and infirmity limit his mobility. The pope said AI represented an “epochal transformation” for mankind, but stressed the need for close oversight of the ever-developing technology to preserve human life and dignity. “No machine should ever choose to take…
LONDON: Kate, Britain’s Princess of Wales, said on Friday she is making good progress as she undergoes preventative chemotherapy, but is “not out of the woods” ahead of her first public appearance since surgery revealed the presence of cancer. In a personal written message, Kate said she had been “blown away” by the thousands of kind messages from across the globe which followed her cancer announcement in March. She said they had made a world of difference to her and her husband, heir to the throne Prince William. “I am making good progress, but as anyone going through chemotherapy will know, there…
WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Friday declared unlawful a federal ban on “bump stock” devices that enable semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns, rejecting yet another firearms restriction — this time one enacted under Republican former president Donald Trump. The justices, in a 6-3 ruling authored by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, upheld a lower court’s decision siding with Michael Cargill, a gun shop owner and gun rights advocate from Austin, Texas, who challenged the ban by claiming that a US agency improperly interpreted a federal law banning machine guns as extending to bump stocks. The conservative justices…
