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Tag: Pakistan

  • Pakistan outperforms leading stock markets, including Germany, Russia

    Amid efforts by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s team to stabilise the country’s economy, Pakistan has outperformed some of the world’s leading stock markets, including those of Germany, Sweden, Russia and Ireland.

    According to Bloomberg, Pakistan’s stock market surged by 30% (almost 10,000 points) during the past three months, outperforming the leading stock markets. Ireland’s stock market rose by 19%, followed by Russia’s RTS Index with a 16% increase, Sweden OMX Stockholm 30 with 14% and Germany’s DAX Index that increased by 13.9%, during the same period of time.

    Pakistan’s KSE-100 Index has advanced to the highest level in seven months, after falling to the lowest in almost five years in August, amid attempts by the government to stabilise the economy with a $6 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after a deficit blowout.

    At the same time, bond yields have begun to fall after peaking around 14% mid-year, making debt investments less attractive.

    Even over a week after the report, the stock market remains positive and continues its upward trend. On Tuesday, it touched over 40,000 points in the beginning trade hours. This came a day after the stock exchange gave the highest monthly return in over 6.5 years as the benchmark index rallied past 40,120 points.

    The upward trends in the market, coupled with Moody’s — financial services company — upgrading credit rating of Pakistan, have boosted the confidence of investors. The collective response and profits for traders and investors are making the local market lucrative for prospect interests within and without the country.

    This has materialised also in figures of net-buyers. More people are currently buying shares compared to those selling them.

    According to Samaa, Moody’s expects the current account deficit of Pakistan to continue narrowing in the current and next fiscal year, averaging around 2.2% of the GDP. It was more than 6% in the fiscal year 2018 and around 5% in the fiscal year 2019.

    The stock market had investors pulling out their funds since it plummeted to below 29,000 points in August, owing to the political instability causing negative sentiment and pushing stocks to the verge of a crash. Contrary to the erstwhile beliefs and speculations, the market hit on Monday its highest benchmark index in over 6 months, while the ROI were recorded to be the most since May 2013.

  • Fawad Alam will be part of Pakistan team against Sri Lanka, claims Shoaib Akhtar

    Pakistan legendary fast-bowler Shoaib Akhtar has claimed that batsman Fawad Alam will be included in the Test squad for home series against Sri Lanka. 

    Shoaib Akhtar broke the news on his YouTube channel on Sunday following Pakistan’s poor performance against Australia in Test series.

    The pacer said, “I’m giving you the breaking news here that Fawad Alam will be playing Test series against Sri Lanka”.

    Shoaib added: “He used to say that you should work so hard in silence that your success blows your trumpet. He [Fawad] has worked so hard his success is now screaming that ‘okay you do not play me for seven years? It’s fine. Now I will work so hard that I would make it impossible for you to ignore me’.”

    Watch Video:

    Fawad Alam, who last represented Pakistan cricket team in Test match way back in 2009, has scored 12000 runs at a stunning average of 56.57 in first-class cricket. He has scored 33 centuries as well.

    The Test series against Sri Lanka will begin on 11th December in Rawalpindi with the second match scheduled in Karachi from 19-23 December.

  • #BeautifulPakistan is trending on Twitter and the pictures are truly beautiful

    #BeautifulPakistan is trending on Twitter and the pictures are truly beautiful

    Every Pakistani will agree that Pakistan is truly a beautiful country. From the vast coastlines to the high mountains, the picturesque landscapes of the country are unmatched.

    The Independent recently wrote that travel experts are recommending Pakistan as a must-visit destination for 2020.

    “The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s visit to Pakistan this autumn put the country back into the spotlight. Plus, it’s now easier to get there from London, thanks to new direct British Airways flights to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad,” read The Independent’s article.

    “Tour operator Wild Frontiers has been tipping Pakistan as the next big destination for a couple of years – it has seen an increase in customer numbers of 20 percent this year compared to 2018,” it added.

    The hashtag #BeautifulPakistan has been trending on Twitter since morning on Wednesday, as people shared a posted pictures of the country on the social media platform. And we have to say, some of the pictures are dreamy.

    https://twitter.com/ElifTurkey/status/1202124710407999489?s=20
    https://twitter.com/aminn_riaz/status/1202181300087611395?s=20
    https://twitter.com/BeautyOfPak_/status/1202111048142217216?s=20
    https://twitter.com/MalikIbraheem29/status/1202164042225344513?s=20
    https://twitter.com/BeautyOfPak_/status/1202196949459460099?s=20

  • VIDEO: ‘Being tried for treason after serving Pakistan all my life,’ says ailing Musharraf from hospital bed

    Former military ruler General (r) Pervez Musharraf has regretted being tried for treason “despite having served Pakistan all his life”.

    In his latest video message from American Hospital Dubai, Musharraf, who is facing a high treason case back in Pakistan for implementing emergency rule and suspending the constitution in 2007, said that he was “very ill”.

    “I keep coming and going to the hospital,” he said, adding that his version of the story “wasn’t being heard”.

    “Even my lawyer Salman Safdar is not being heard by the court,” he said, adding that he had fought wars for Pakistan and served his country for 10 years.

    Musharraf also said that he was ready to record his statement with the commission, provided they came to Dubai.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    “As for me, the commission can come here, I can give them a statement. They can come and hear me, see my condition and then decide for themselves. When they return, they can give their statement and my lawyer will be heard in the court too and I hope it is then that I will get justice,” he said.

    The former army chief, who has been residing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a while now, felt under the weather Sunday night and was admitted to the hospital. He was set to undergo various tests in this regard.

    Musharraf’s close aide and the ex-chairperson of the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), Dr Muhammad Amjad, said the ex-president was rapidly becoming weaker due to an unknown disease, which is why he was unable to return to Pakistan to face the treason case.

    A couple of days ago,Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry had called Musharraf the nation’s benefactor, saying he had “rid the country of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif in 1999”.

    “When Musharraf was in power, a lot of people used to stand queuing up to light his cigar,” he had added.

  • Pakistan declared ‘more attractive destination for global investors than India’

    An international credit rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service, has upgraded the outlook for Pakistan’s economy from negative to positive, declaring the country a more attractive destination for global investors than India as the latter’s credit outlook downgraded to negative earlier this year, Sputnik News reported.

    According to the agency, upgrade in Pakistan’s status is driven by “Moody’s expectations that the balance of payments dynamics will continue to improve”. On the other hand, it said that India’s outlook downgraded, “on concerns that its economic growth would remain materially lower than in the past”.

    “Moody’s decision to change the outlook to negative reflects increasing risks that economic growth will remain materially lower than in the past, partly reflecting lower government and policy effectiveness at addressing long-standing economic and institutional weaknesses than Moody’s had previously estimated, leading to a gradual rise in the debt burden from already high levels.”

    Meanwhile, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s Adviser on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh said the upgradation of outlook to stable was affirmation of the government’s success in stabilising the country’s economy and laying a firm foundation for robust long term growth.

    The announcement also pushed Pakistan’s stock market above 40,000 points — highest after a gap of 10 months.

    The premier himself has also claimed that over the first four months of the current fiscal year beginning April 2019, Pakistan’s current account deficit fell by 73.5%, as compared to the same period last fiscal year. “The country’s exports of goods and services in October 2019 rose 20 per cent over the previous month and 9.6 per cent over October 2018.”

  • Unemployed? Here are the reasons why

    Unemployed? Here are the reasons why

    Being unemployed is never easy – on the person, his family or on the society as a whole. Here is what you need to do to get viable employment. 

    To get a job and then to sustain it, a candidate must possess two types of skills: hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are basically the primary talents one can have like engineering, programming, designing, and so on so forth. On the other hand, soft skills are those that let you manage yourself and people around effectively; some examples are social skills, communication skills, emotional intelligence, time management and so on.

    A person who has both will have better employment opportunities. So what one should do to learn both, especially, if you cannot afford to go expensive university, or you do not have enough time due to personal reasons? 

    Edx.org is a platform created by the world best universities from where you can take many online courses for free. These courses are ranging from computer sciences to creative skills like graphics designing or content creation. There are hundreds of other courses that you can take to polish your hard and soft skills. 

    Be mindful of one thing that to grow professionally – you have to develop the habit of learning. As a famous American author Alvin Toffler rightly said:

    “Illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

    So 2020 is not far away – be comfortable with your anxieties, fears and above all uncertainties. Perhaps, millennials do not have many options to escape this reality. 

  • Indian woman tried to escape Kartarpur with Pakistani boyfriend

    Indian woman tried to escape Kartarpur with Pakistani boyfriend

    Pakistani authorities last month thwarted an attempt by a Sikh girl to enter the country illegally.  

    According to reports, the girl came to Darbar Sahib Gurdwara in Kartarpur and entered Pakistan as a Sikh pilgrim in order to meet her Pakistani boyfriend at the Darbar Sahib.

    The girl, identified as Manjeet Kaur, met her boyfriend who was from Faisalabad. The guy had come along with a couple of friends including a woman.

    Kaur decided to stay in Pakistan and the woman who had accompanied the Faisalabad man gave the girl her visitor card. Kaur then discarded her pilgrim card in a dustbin in order to avoid being caught.

    However, Pakistani authorities hindered the plan and confronted the couple before the girl could escape into the country.  

    Following the incident, security around the Sikh holy site was tightened and visitors will now have to provide biometric verification when exiting the holy place as well. 

  • Pakistan repays $1 billion Sukuk bonds issued by PML-N govt

    Pakistan repays $1 billion Sukuk bonds issued by PML-N govt

    Pakistan has successfully reapaid a foreign debt of over $1 billion, shaking up the country’s foreign currency reserves on the day Moody’s rating agency upgraded Islamabad’s credit rating outlook to from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’, Express Tribune reported.

    According to the details, Pakistan on Monday has paid back around $1 billion on maturity of five-year international Sukuk.

    “We paid over $1 billion including interest payment at the maturity of a Sukuk today (Monday),” reports quoted SBP’s official as saying.

    Pakistan had earlier launched a $-denominated Islamic bond worth $1 billion with a five-year tenure in the international bond market in November 2014, during the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government’s tenure. The sovereign bonds were issued at a rate of 6.75%.

    The bond got matured in November 2019 and accordingly, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has repaid $1 billion, borrowed to build the foreign exchange reserves.

    A sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate, similar to a bond in Western finance, also commonly referred to as “sharia compliant” bonds. Since the traditional Western interest-paying bond structure is not permissible, the issuer of a sukuk sells an investor group a certificate, and then uses the proceeds to purchase an asset, of which the investor group has partial ownership. The issuer of the sukuk bond must also make a contractual promise to buy back the bond at a future date at par value.

    The said payment from the SBP’s foreign exchange reserves will be reflected in the next weekly forex report. However, the reports reveal that with this repayment, the SBP’s reserves will most likely slip below $7 billion.

    Moody’s in its report has highlighted that Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserve adequacy remains low, adding that that foreign exchange reserve adequacy will take time to rebuild.

    At the time of launching the Sukuk, the bond fetched bids amounting to $2.3 billion, five times higher than the actual target set by the government.

    The government had planned to raise $1-2 billion in fresh foreign debt before the Sukuk payment was made.  The floating of new Sukuk and Eurobond has remained pending for long.

    At the time of launching the Sukuk bond, it fetched bids amounting to $2.3 billion which is five times higher than the actual target set by the government.

    The government had planned to raise $1-2 billion in fresh foreign debt before the Sukuk payment was made. The floating of new Sukuk and Eurobond has remained pending for long.

  • ‘Treason’ for a better Pakistan

    On November 29, hundreds of thousands of students marched in 50 cities of Pakistan. Their main demand was that the ban on student unions be lifted; other demands included right to free education, better education facilities, etc.

    Any civilised country would have celebrated that the country’s youth came out on the streets to ask for their rights. In a country where more than 64 per cent of its population is under the age of 30, Students’ Solidarity March should have been a moment of pride for Pakistan. Instead, we saw that the top trend on Twitter the following day (November 30) was #StudentsMarchExposed.

    From calling these students ‘foreign agents’ to ‘traitors’, this and many other comments on social media portrayed this march in a negative colour. This isn’t entirely a Pakistani phenomenon. In our neighbouring India, the same card has been used against students. The sedition case against Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students comes to mind. A sedition case was registered against JNU Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and eight others for allegedly raising ‘anti-national slogans’ during an event at JNU in February 2016.

    This is not to say that all comments pertaining to the Students’ Solidarity March in Pakistan were negative – our mainstream media and many on social media praised the students for organising such a successful march on the streets of Pakistan. But we must question this negativity regarding an indigenous movement that should be lauded for its efforts.

    On December 1, an FIR pertaining to sedition charges was registered against the organisers of the march in Lahore as well as some of the participants, including Iqbal Lala who is the father of Mashal Khan, a student lynched on allegations of blasphemy, academic Ammar Ali Jan, labour rights activist Farooq Tariq, Alamgir Wazir Mohammad Shabbir and Kamil Khan. One can only wonder why sedition charges were brought against peaceful protestors.

    Well, if there is one thing common since Pakistan came into being, it is how the state hands out certificates of who is a ‘traitor’/‘anti-national’/‘anti-state’ to whosoever challenges the status quo. What to talk of others if someone like Māder-e-Millat (Mother of the Nation) Fatima Jinnah – who fought for Pakistan’s independence alongside her brother Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah – couldn’t escape the tag of being a ‘foreign agent’ by the then military dictator Ayub Khan. Nationalist leaders were also dubbed anti-state. From Bacha Khan to Baloch nationalists, from G.M. Syed to mainstream leaders like Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, all have been labelled ‘anti-national’ at one point of time or another.

    Dissenting voices that challenge how the state has failed its citizens or those who question the flawed policies of the Pakistani state are dubbed as ‘foreign agents’ working on the agendas of some foreign powers. Patriotism of politicians, students, human rights activists, civil society, NGOs, lawyers, social media activists, media groups, journalists and anyone who has crossed a ‘red line’ or gone against the status quo has been called into question. Just recently, Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa lamented how the three judges including the CJP were being called Indian agents, CIA agents, etc., for questioning the government’s notification regarding the army chief’s extension.

    Pakistanis should realise that dissenting voices are the conscience of a country and that freedom of expression is a fundamental right. We must not go down this dangerous path of silencing dissent for if we do, there will no one to speak for the rights of the marginalised, the rights of minorities, the rights of any human being. Let us not go down a disastrous path from where there is no turning back.

  • ‘Pakistan to introduce battery-powered electric buses,’ says Fawad Ch

    ‘Pakistan to introduce battery-powered electric buses,’ says Fawad Ch

    Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Fawad Chaudhry has revealed that Pakistan will become the first country of South Asia which would introduce battery-powered electric buses in the country.

    The minister in his Twitter message has said that the budget of science and technology has increased up to 600% in the current year, adding that he would make efforts to hike the budget to 1000 per cent next year.

    Fawad credited Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan for his special attention in the sci-tech sector, saying that the government has brought back the country to research and development with the support of the PM.

    Chaudhry said that ministerial commissions are being established with Russia and the government is now focused on the European Union (EU) and United States (US).

    He said, “It is our failure for not manufacturing engines, but we will make up solar panels and lithium batteries in the next three years. The energy system of the country will be completely changed.”

    The minister further announced that Jhelum biotech park will become the largest herbal medicine park of South Asia, whereas, Pakistan will be the first country which would manufacture battery-powered [electric] buses in the region.

    On November 20, it emerged that the government had set to launch electric buses in Pakistan to combat air pollution. The federal government has reportedly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with private ride-hailing service to introduce electric vehicles in the country.

    The MoU was signed by Fawad Chaudhary and CEO of bus hailing service in Islamabad on Tuesday, according to Radio Pakistan.

    Under this agreement, the company will introduce electric battery-powered buses and also spend Rs12 billion to expand its transport bus service in the country.