PARIS: Carlos Alcaraz fought back to defeat Alexander Zverev in a five-set French Open final on Sunday and become the youngest man to win Grand Slam titles on all three surfaces. The 21-year-old battled cramps to recover from 2-1 down in sets and win a gripping contest 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 after four hours and 19 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier. Alcaraz adds the Roland Garros crown to the Wimbledon title he won against Novak Djokovic last year and the 2022 US Open. He will head to the Australian Open next year with the chance to become the youngest man to complete…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
PAKISTAN missed a golden opportunity to beat India with a timid batting display, which makes it almost impossible to qualify for the next round of this T20 World Cup. Pakistan fans will be dumbfounded at the inability of the country’s first-choice batsmen to chase 120 in New York. How? Just how? The match came down to 21 runs needed off 2 overs, with Jasprit Bumrah running in to bowl. Why that happened was hard to understand, except that India fought like tigers and Pakistan lacked conviction and class in their batting. Somehow, Pakistan hadn’t allowed for the Bumrah factor. Iftikhar Ahmed exemplified…
Pakistan coach Gary Kirsten defended the playing surface at New York’s T20 Cricket World Cup venue on Sunday following his team’s defeat to India in a low-scoring contest. India were bowled out for 119, their lowest-ever score against Pakistan in a T20 game but won by six runs after their rivals fell just short. All five games at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, which features a ‘drop in’ square, laid a month before the tournament, have been low-scoring affairs. There had been criticism of the surface after India’s win over Ireland last week with former Zimbabwe international and ex-England team director Andy Flower calling…
The country seems to be on the threshold of a cultural change with social activists, educationists, economists, progressive stakeholders, and policymakers actively exploring options for a challenging, long-term transformational change. “Factors that appear highly significant within one set of circumstances may become relatively insignificant or absolute non-factors when the combination of variables is altered,” says a concerned citizen referring to social science-derived knowledge. While struggling with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) structural reforms, the authorities have also taken initiatives to usher in some much-needed economic stability. No doubt, the breathing space has been provided by the IMF, other international lenders,…
Pakistan’s coalition government is expected to lay out ambitious fiscal targets in the 2024/2025 (July-June) budget on Wednesday that will help strengthen its case for a new bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), officials and analysts said. Pakistan is in talks with the IMF for a loan estimated to be anything between $6 billion to $8 billion to avert a default for an economy that is growing at the slowest pace in the region. “The budget holds critical significance for Pakistan’s IMF programme and must close the gap between our revenue collection and total expenditure; it is thus likely be…
ISLAMABAD: The newly constituted National Economic Council (NEC) is set to convene today (Monday) to review ongoing and future investments and set targets for the next fiscal year. The council aims to achieve a 3.6 per cent growth rate amid the planning division’s push to increase next year’s federal Public Sector Development Programme to Rs1.5 trillion, against the Rs1.22tr recommended by the Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC) last week. Led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the highest constitutional forum on economic policymaking would take up a six-point agenda. The 13-member body also comprises four provincial chief ministers, four federal ministers (for foreign affairs, defence,…
ISLAMABAD: The oil industry is protesting the Pakistan Railways’ “strange tender specifications”, which practically bar the procurement of high-speed diesel (HSD) from local refineries and, instead, favour imported products at a substantial foreign exchange cost. Adil Khattak, chairman of the Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) and CEO of Attock Refinery Ltd, has formally complained to the government over Pakistan Railways’ tender “for meeting its HSD requirements and contested by different oil marketing companies (OMCs) in the country”. In a recent communication to Pakistan Railways’ Secretary and Chairman Mazhar Ali Shah, Mr Khattak pointed out that the tenders require a minimum…
GILGIT: In order to help mitigate the difficulties created by the electricity shortage in the region, Prince Rahim Aga Khan launched two solar power plants in Hunza on Sunday. Prince Rahim, who is on a visit to Pakistan these days, launched the development of Duiker Solar Power Plant Phase II and Nasirabad Solar Power Plant, which have a combined capacity of 3.6 Megawatt Peak (MWp). With a generation capacity of 1MWp, the phase I of the Duiker plant commenced operations in November 2023. The plant increased the daily power availability for more than 11,000 people, from 10 to 17 hours in summer…
MARSEILLE: A prisoner escaped from detention in southern France after casting his ballot in European elections on Sunday, a prison source and prosecutors said. The prisoner, who was held in a jail in the southern city of Arles, “was on supervised leave” to exercise his right to vote, the source said. He was accompanied by a probation officer and a prison guard, according to prosecutors and a prison guard union at the Arles prison. He fled as he was leaving the polling station, at the moment when he was supposed to be getting into a vehicle that was to take…
ZURICH: Swiss voters backed legislation to promote renewable energy in a referendum on Sunday, while rejecting separate proposals intended to contain rising healthcare insurance costs. Seeking to enhance energy independence, the federal law passed in autumn 2023 comprises measures to boost the transport, storage and production of electricity, including facilitating the installation of solar panels on buildings. It also includes provisions to fund these measures. The energy law, which was put to a referendum by opponents who argued it would be too costly and was not fit for purpose, was backed by more than two-thirds of voters, preliminary results and…
