Pakistan Today

As creative services and media management face automation, coupled by the self inflicted wounds of refusing to unite against the tyranny of price slashing advertisers, Profit looks at how the top advertising agencies in the country are fighting for survival and relevance

The company established by the government to run the bazaars might be on its way out, and to be replaced by an authority

The country was once one of the largest cotton producers but lately it is finding it hard to meet its cotton production targets, and all the players blame each other

Of all the bad habits the government of Pakistan has, perhaps one of the worst is the one picked up by the Ayub Administration in 1958 from the Soviet Union of building a government that assumes that it operates in a planned economy, even as it presides over at least a semi-open market economy. Ironic the President Ayub, arguably...

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Tens of thousands of Indian farmers on Sunday intensified their protests against three new agricultural laws aimed at overhauling food grain procurement and pricing rules by allowing private companies direct access to the vast agrarian sector. Angry farmers staged demonstrations near New Delhi after rejecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assurances that the laws would double farmers’ income. Six rounds...

Massive lending by Chinese financial institutions for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) are driving China towards its first overseas debt crisis while a pullback threatens to deliver a blow to the funding gap structure which only in Asia stands at $907 a year, a report by the Financial Times said on Saturday. The report mentions that China has promised...

BRUSSELS: London and Brussels face a make-or-break decision on an elusive trade agreement on Sunday, after a week of tension and deadlock that left a tumultuous ‘no deal’ exit for Britain from the European Union’s orbit on Dec. 31 looking more likely than not. Negotiators have until the evening to resolve an impasse on arrangements that would guarantee Britain zero-tariff...

ISLAMABAD: Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, who had recently been removed from the newly-constituted National Finance Commission (NFC) after objection from provinces and political parties, would now be chairing the NFC meeting after becoming federal finance minister. As per the new composition of NFC, Prime Minister Imran Khan was supposed to chair the meeting as the minister in charge. However, according to an...

LAHORE: In an ongoing war with foodpanda to establish dominance in the food delivery space, Careem Pakistan has announced that it has reduced restaurant commission fees to a fixed 5 per cent from the previous 15-20 per cent. The announcement was also made on Careem’s social media handles on Saturday. The restaurant industry needs you to be loud. Eat out loud. Speak...

ISLAMABAD: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has stressed the need for taking serious measures in close consultations with the real stakeholders to broaden tax base and improving tax-to-GDP ratio, as the number of return filers has declined by more than 23 per cent to 1.31 million till the first week of December as compared...

Federal Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar on Saturday underscored that the PTI government paid $10.4 billion on account of debt servicing of external public loans including principal payment of $8.5 billion and $1.9 billion in interest payments. "The PTI government is conducting the highest external debt repayment and servicing ever done by any government," he wrote on Twitter. "Despite...

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has issued a number of new rules for housing schemes located within the province. According to the draft rules and regulations, private housing schemes will be divided into five categories. Category D will be the smallest housing scheme with a maximum size of 50 kanals while in category C would be of 50 to...

KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Saturday excluded ATR-72 airplanes, hired on an expensive lease, from its fleet. As per details, the planes were removed from the fleet due to their non-profitable operation as the planes were hired on an expensive lease in 2015 by the then administration of PIA. Though the lease agreement was the biggest hurdle in returning...

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar on Saturday hailed the Asian Development Bank’s (ADBs) report on recovery of Pakistan’s economy, which he said was highly encouraging. The minister welcomed the ADB’s Asian Development Outlook Supplement (December, 2020) which highlights improvement in mobility and economic activities in Asia and the Pacific Region despite the persistent challenge of Covid-19,...

LONDON: Four Royal Navy patrol ships will be ready on Jan. 1 to help protect Britain’s fishing waters in the event the Brexit transition period ends without a deal on future ties with the European Union, the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) said on Saturday. There are concerns about possible skirmishes between British and foreign fishing vessels if no trade...