ISLAMABAD: Pakistan volleyball team captain Murad Jehan feels the country is blessed with immense talent in the sports but there is a need to harness it. For that, the 30-year-old believes, a professional league is essential. “A league on the pattern of cricket’s Pakistan Super League is the need of the hour as it will provide much-needed exposure to the players,” Murad told Dawn on Tuesday. “The government and the sponsors need to come forward and make it happen.” Murad was speaking on the rest day during the Central Asian Volleyball Championship, in which Pakistan have won their opening three matches. He…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
BOCCA SELVA: Frenchman Valentin Paret-Peintre launched a late attack on the final climb to win stage 10 of the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday, celebrating at the finish line with his brother Aurelien who came fifth. Slovenian Jan Tratnik looked set to take the stage after launching a solo break from the leading group with more than 30km left to race, but was overtaken by Paret-Peintre with less than 3km to ride. “I was there to get a good result in the stage and why not win? Now I have a stage win for my first professional win,” Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale’s…
LAHORE: While Gary Kirsten, the newly appointed white-ball head coach of Pakistan, will join the national team in England on May 19, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the first time has hired the services of a mental performance coach, David Reid, besides recruiting Simon Helmot as fielding coach. Though ex-South African opener Kirsten and former Australian Test fast bowler Jason Gillespie, the red-ball head coach, were appointed on April 28, both have not physically joined the Pakistan team yet. Kirsten is currently busy in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as mentor and batting coach of the Gujarat Titans, which…
DUBLIN: Pakistan skipper Babar Azam and his short-term predecessor Shaheen Shah Afridi came together to outclass Ireland by six wickets in the third and final Twenty20 International at Castle Avenue on Tuesday and seal the series 2-1. While Shaheen, despite his struggles in the first two matches of the series, produced a clinical bowling show to restrict the hosts to 178-7, Babar displayed uncharacteristic aggression to deny even a sniff to Ireland. Thanks to his 75 off 42, which featured five sixes and six fours, and Mohammad Rizwan’s second consecutive half-century, the batter scoring 56 off 38 with the help…
Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark share index touched another all-time high on Wednesday, breaching the key level of 75,000, on hopes that easing inflation could pave the way for interest rate cuts as early as June. Still attractive stock valuations, expectations of more foreign inflows, and the start of talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a new loan programme added to the bullish sentiment. The KSE-100 index was trading at 75,013 points at 10:31am, up 0.7 per cent, after hitting an intraday high of 75,115. It has surged 80pc over the past year, and it is up 16.1pc year-to-date after an…
ISLAMABAD: Struggling to compete with a large influx of smuggled products, the oil industry has asked the government to expedite the clearance of over Rs90 billion stuck in foreign exchange adjustment and tax refunds to ease its liquidity challenges. In a communication to the federal government, the Oil Marketing Association of Pakistan (OMAP) has called for the intervention of Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb to ensure the smooth availability of foreign exchange to secure oil imports and reduce the turnover tax in the upcoming budget to ease the cash flow problems that are currently hindering the industry’s operations. OMAP Chairman…
KARACHI: Pakistani stocks extended their overnight rally, hitting an all-time high closing above the 74,000 barrier as investors weighed Citibank’s expectations that Pakistan would reach a $8 billion new IMF loan deal by July and an easing of interest rates from June. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the government plans to privatise all state-owned enterprises except strategic ones and SBP’s revised forecast of 3.5pc growth in FY25 supported bullish sentiments. Topline Securities Ltd said the market momentum remained buoyant as investors welcomed the beginning of talks with the IMF for a longer and larger Extended Fund Facility. Encouraging…
ISLAMABAD: The office of the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) has identified deficiencies in the Federal Board of Revenue’s legal department that result in the filing of a large number of petitions with superior courts for a stay against tax recovery due to non-adherence to legal procedures for taxpayers. This matter has been brought to the surface in a letter, the second in a week from the attorney general’s office (AGP). This comes after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s directive to expedite the hearing of cases related to a staggering Rs2 trillion stuck in courts as the top tax authorities failed…
KARACHI: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has reiterated the government’s resolve to expand the tax base by aggressively pursuing the untaxed and undertaxed sectors. In a meeting with a delegation of the Pakistan Business Council (PBC) on Tuesday, the minister stated that the government is more determined than ever to broaden the tax base. He also shared the progress on digitalisation and the plans to restructure the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), saying that the government is putting a lot of emphasis on this matter. On smuggling and the misuse of the transit trade, the minister informed the meeting that significant…
Cheering crowds greeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday as he submitted his candidacy for a Hindu holy city’s parliamentary seat in a general election his party is strongly favoured to win. Modi remains roundly popular in India, in large part due to his cultivated image as an aggressive champion of the country’s majority faith. Varanasi is the spiritual capital of Hinduism, where devotees from around India come to cremate deceased loved ones by the Ganges river, and the premier has represented the city since sweeping to power a decade ago. “I swear on God… I will have faith…
