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  • World Bank to give $10 million to help solve Karachi’s waste problem

    World Bank to give $10 million to help solve Karachi’s waste problem

    The World Bank (WB), on the recommendation of Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Murad Ali Shah, has allocated $10 million to help solve Karachi’s garbage problem through the Sindh Solid Waste Management Authority (SSWMA), Profit reported.

    According to the details, the allocated amount will be used for capacity building, technical expertise and construction of a new landfill site for the SSWMA.

    CM Murad held a meeting with an eight-member WB delegation on Wednesday, where he said, “It is a new organisation and would definitely take time to achieve expertise, but even then there is a dire need to operate in a scientific manner and make it a leading SWM organisation in the country.”

    At this, WB Global Director Dr Dameh said that in Karachi Neighbourhood Improvement Programme (KNIP) there was a provision for solid waste management and agreed to help in solving the city’s waste problem.

    The provincial chief executive also said that he was keen to develop a most modern and environment-friendly landfill site on the outskirts of the city.

    “This landfill site must be equipped with all the necessary machinery, gadgets, equipment and technical staff and useful for power generation,” he added.

    Moreover, on the request of the CM, the World Bank agreed to construct a landfill site over an area of 500 acres in the outskirts of the city for which the government would provide land.

  • PAKvsSL: Angry fans tear down Sarfaraz’s posters outside Gaddafi Stadium

    Cricket fans in Lahore tore up the posters of skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed after the Men in Green faced a humiliating defeat in the T20 series against Sri Lanka.

    As per details, the fans are demanding that Sarfaraz should leave his captaincy from T20 format as he is not suitable to lead the team and want Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to place someone who can play fast cricket easily.

    Captain Sarfaraz has said that the players failed to live up to the expectations associated with the number one ranked T20I side.

    “The management did their best to help us, but ultimately it’s up to the players and the captain to deliver. The management has no role to play in that, whether it’s the World Cup or this series”, he added.

    Sri Lanka’s victory was their first-ever T20 series whitewash and was achieved despite missing 10 of their top players, including regular T20 skipper Lasith Malinga, who refused to tour Pakistan over security fears.

  • Breakthrough expected on Kashmir during PM Khan’s Saudi visit: report

    Breakthrough expected on Kashmir during PM Khan’s Saudi visit: report

    A breakthrough on Kashmir is expected during Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Saudi Arabia.

    According to Geo News, the major development will happen during PM Khan’s meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.

    As per a Foreign Office schedule, PM Khan is expected to leave for Saudi Arabia on October 29 on a two-day official visit to attend Future Investment Initiative Conference on the invitation of King Salman. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be attending the conference which will take place in Riyadh.

    PM Khan has been vocally raising the matter of Kashmir ever since the Modi-led government revoked the special status granted to Indian occupied Kashmir on August 5. He also highlighted Indian atrocities in the occupied territory while addressing the United Nations General Assembly session in September.

    Meanwhile, PM Imran is also expected to visit Iran this month to mediate between Riyadh and Tehran.

  • PM Khan declared ‘Man of the Year’

    PM Khan declared ‘Man of the Year’

    Prime Minister Imran Khan’s popularity keeps on rising.

    Jordan’s Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center has named PM Khan as its ‘Man of the Year’ in its recent list of the most persuasive Muslims in the world.

    According to Arab News, the center is an autonomous research entity with the Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Jordan.

    At the same time, PM Imran Khan has also become the sixth most popular world leader on Twitter, boasting 10.5 million followers.

    “If The Muslim 500 was in print back in 1992 and I was the Chief Editor then, I would have nominated Imran Khan as our Muslim Man of the Year because of his brilliant performance in cricket, which culminated in Pakistan winning the 1992 Cricket World Cup — a sport I have always admired for its combination of elegance and intense competitive play,” said Professor S Abdallah Schleifer, a Professor Emeritus of Journalism in the American University in Cairo, who chose Imran Khan as winner of the title.

    Schleifer was quick to add that Khan’s role in cricket was not the only criteria for him being bestowed with the title. He was also impressed with Khan launching a successful fund-raising campaign to establish Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre, which is devoted to both the care of cancer victims and its research.

    “This was his magnificent response to the loss of his mother to cancer in 1985 and given Khan’s extraordinary popularity with Pakistanis both at home as well as among the large number of Pakistani expats – along with his own, no doubt, generous personal contribution — he raised sufficient funds so that by 1994, the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital opened its doors in Lahore whereby 75 percent of its patients receive free-care,” he added.

    However, it was PM Khan’s desire for peace with neighboring India which earned him the title, Schleifer said.

    Khan assumed the office of Prime Minister of Pakistan last year after devoting 22 years of his life to building an opposition political party that was committed to reform and confronting Pakistan’s civilian political establishment over the issue of embedded corruption and mismanagement, the report said.

    This and his other accomplishments, professor Schleifer says, are detailed in the biography that accompanies his ranking (Number 16) in the latest edition of The Muslim 500.

    “But what is particularly to his credit is that upon taking office in August 2018, Khan made it quite clear that one of his top priorities was to work for lasting peace with India,” Schleifer said.

  • Abhinandan leads MiG-21 formation on Indian Air Force’s 87th birthday

    Abhinandan leads MiG-21 formation on Indian Air Force’s 87th birthday

    Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was captured by Pakistan after an aerial dogfight led a formation of the MiG-21 Bison as the Indian Air Force (IAF) put up a show on its 87th birthday on Tuesday.

    According to the details, three Mirage 2000 aircraft and two Su-30MKI fighter aircraft flew in ‘Avenger formation’.

    Watch Video:

    Responding to IAF’s violation of Pakistani airspace on February 26, PAF had hit back by sending fighters to strike Indian targets the following day.

    In the pursuit, a PAF fighter jet had downed at least one Indian MiG-21 aircraft and captured Abhinandan, who had ejected and landed within Pakistani territory.

    He was later handed over to India by Pakistani authorities as a goodwill gesture within 60 hours of the standoff.

  • Pakistan owes China more money than it owes the IMF

    Pakistan owes China more money than it owes the IMF

    Pakistan needs to repay China more than double the amount it owes the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the next three years, Al Jazeera reported.

    According to the details, the country owes $6.7 billion in commercial loans to China over the three years through June 2022, according to the IMF, which this year approved a new program to bail out Pakistan from an economic crisis.

    On the other hand, the country needs to pay the multilateral lender $2.8 billion in the same period.

    “The borrowing picked up after the Belt and Road started,” said Hafiz Faizan Ahmed, head of research at Karachi-based Optimus Capital Management Pvt.

    He added, “A bulk of the Chinese lending happened about two years ago when dollar reserves were dwindling, so the government kept borrowing and borrowing.”

    Pakistan, one of the biggest beneficiaries of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, has been borrowing from Beijing to tide over a financial crisis.

    Still, the money was not enough to completely bridge the financing gap and pushed the country to knock at the IMF’s doors.

  • PTI leader resigns after Jahangir Tareen forced him to change party’s constitution

    Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Central Additional Secretary-General Abu Hassan Ansari has resigned after developing differences with former secretary-general Jahangir Tareen over the party’s constitution, Dawn has reported.

    As per reports, Hassan is the author of the PTI party constitution 2019. He was being forced by Tareen, who holds no official position in the party, to alter the constitution as per his recommendations. The two also had arguments in the past during several party meetings.

    Reports further reveal that Hassan believes that Tareen has taken over the party. “Although Tareen has spent his money for the party, we all spent our time and money for the PTI,” he was quoted as saying.

    Hassan submitted his resignation to PTI Chief Organiser Saifullah Niazi,  However, no decision has been taken on the resignation as Prime Minister Imran Khan has told the party’s members that he will take up the matter after his return from China.

  • NAB ‘creating hurdles’ in execution of govt decisions: report

    NAB ‘creating hurdles’ in execution of govt decisions: report

    The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is creating hurdles in the implementation of some of the federal cabinet’s decisions, a report presented to Prime Minister Imran Khan has revealed, Express Tribune reported.

    According to the details, the report reveals that the federal cabinet had decided to hold talks with the LNG terminal firms in its meeting held in October last year and the Ministry of Finance and Petroleum had to talk with these companies on profit rates.

    However, these talks could not move forward because NAB is holding an inquiry against an LNG terminal company and they have to wait while the inquiry is underway.

    The report also said that all the LNG terminals are fully functional right now and any action can disturb the situation.

    After the consultation, the federal cabinet decided that the talks with the LNG terminal companies should be postponed till the completion of the inquiry.

    The federal cabinet in a recent meeting had proposed to reopen agreements with LNG companies, however, Minister of Law Farogh Naseem opposed the proposal and said that new investors will hesitate to invest if the agreements were reopened.

  • Women banned from being part of JUI-F’s ‘Azaadi March’

    Women banned from being part of JUI-F’s ‘Azaadi March’

    The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) has decided to not allow women to attend its October 27 anti-government march towards Islamabad.

    According to reports, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman wrote to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) informing them of the decision to not include women in the upcoming Islamabad sit-in. The reason behind this decision has not yet been shared.

    The JUI-F chief is preparing to take down the government with his Azaadi march and has said the march would only end when the government falls.

    Speaking at a press conference, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said: “The entire country will be our battleground,” adding that people from all over the country will be joining the march.

    It is important to note than in the past Maulana Fazlur Rehman has been very critical of women’s participation in Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI jalsas. He had compared PTI sit-ins to mujras.

    Meanwhile, in 2015 Maulana Sahab had asked the armed forces to launch a military operation against women wearing jeans all over Pakistan saying that the immodesty of women is the cause behind earthquakes, inflation and other kinds of disasters. He went on to say that if a woman is not covered like a ‘sack of flour’ she is a mobile weapon of mass destruction for her state.

  • PM Imran plans to hand over Pakistan Steel Mills to China

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has decided to hand over Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) to China for its revival through government to government deal, Geo News has reported.

    According to the details, PM is also exploring options to finance multi-billion-dollar railways Mainline (ML-1) during his upcoming visit to Beijing.

    PM will take up five issues during his visit, he will offer China to get Pakistan Steel Mills, finalise deal on modernisation of ML-1, financing of Bunji hydropower project, agriculture and social sectors-related projects in and outside the ambit of CPEC.

    Pakistan’s top leadership will give assurances to the Chinese side that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would not slow down, but its next phase would be pursued with zeal and vigour despite passing through under the IMF [International Monetary Fund] programme.

    PM Imran will leave for a three-day visit to China on Monday, where he would also discuss Kashmir dispute.