Pakistan Today

ISLAMABAD: A World Bank report has revealed that the implementation of the 'Pandemic Response Effectiveness in Pakistan' has been significantly delayed due to the pending PC-I issue. The project was aimed at preparing and responding to the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, besides strengthening national system for public health preparedness. As per the details, following the instructions issued by the Economic...

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque on Monday launched the Rolling Spectrum Strategy 2020-2023. Addressing the launching ceremony, Haque lauded the efforts of the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) for finalising the rolling spectrum strategy in consultation with all stakeholders. He said the incumbent government, in line...

WASHINGTON: International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has urged the Group of 20 (G20) leaders to maintain policy support and reinforce the economic bridge to recovery as the global economy is "not out of the woods." "I commended the G20 countries as a whole for taking unprecedented actions to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 -- including fiscal and...

ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has decided to formulate laws related to the establishment of digital assets in the country. This was revealed by SECP Information System & Technology Director Abdul Rahim and Primary Market Approvals & Securities Market Division Additional Director Najia Ubaid during a media briefing on digital assets on Monday. Abdul Rahim said that...

KARACHI: The total non-performing loans in Pakistan stood at Rs91 billion during the first nine months of 2020, as compared to Rs78 billion during the same period of last year.  However, the total NPLs fell to Rs6 billion in the third quarter (July-Sept) of 2020, compared with Rs44 billion in the second quarter.  Fahad Rauf, Deputy Head Research at Ismail Iqbal...

By Farheen Zaidi Realizing the fact that Covid has resurged with positivity rate going back to as high as 7pc among daily tests conducted in Pakistan and with thousand of people falling prey to this pandemic, it gives one a comic relief that for once in their life they are not alone and have thousands like themselves joining the Covid-19...

LAHORE: Markets and shops in Lahore are likely to be closed by 6:00pm, as the Punjab government has made a decision in this regard. The provincial government, however, has not made any official statement over this till the filing of this report. The shops were reportedly being given a closing deadline as standard operating procedures (SOPs) were not being followed, sources said. Meanwhile,...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China have agreed to accelerate efforts for early execution of Karachi-Peshawar Main Line-1 (ML-1) project. The understanding came at a meeting between Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed and Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong in the federal capital on Monday. The meeting discussed in detail matters of mutual interests, Pak-China relations and rail projects. Sheikh Rasheed said that the...

Renowned anchorperson and lawyer Shahzada Naeem Bokhari has been appointed as an independent director and chairperson of the Pakistan Television Corporation's (PTV) Board, according to a notification issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Monday. "Pursuant to the provisions of Section 166 of the Companies Act, 2017, the Federal Government is pleased to appoint Shahzada Naeem Bokhari as...

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has directed the provincial governments as well as other concerned authorities to take immediate proactive measures to keep the prices of basic commodities in check. He gave these directions while chairing a meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) on Monday. The NPMC reviewed the weekly price...

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) took a beating on the first trading session of the week, with the indices heading south right from the word go as investors adopted a cautious approach ahead of the monetary policy announcement. Global equity markets, on other hand, showed a positive trend, whereas crude oil prices also moved north from the previous close;...

ISLAMABAD: The import of mobile phones witnessed an increase of 43.6 per cent during the first four months (July-Oct) of the current financial year (FY21) as compared to the corresponding period of last year. According to details, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $556.783 million in July-Oct FY21 as compared to the imports of $387.741 million in July-Oct FY20, according to...

ISLAMABAD: The National Highway Authority (NHA) has been working to modernise, upgrade and expand the nationalised road infrastructure in Balochistan for bringing the province at par with developed areas of the country. In this regard, the APP on Monday released details of ongoing road development projects in the province. According to the details, an amount of Rs10,000 million has been allocated...

SINGAPORE: Oil prices extended gains on Monday as traders eyed a recovery in crude demand thanks to successful coronavirus vaccine trials, although prices were contained by renewed lockdowns in several countries. Sentiment was also bolstered by hopes that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and other producers, a group known as OPEC+, will keep crude output in...

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan kept the main policy rate unchanged at 7 per cent, a statement by the central bank said on Monday. In making this decision, the SBP’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) cited the ‘broadly unchanged outlook for growth and inflation’, stating that the existing stance of monetary policy was appropriate to support the nascent recovery, while keeping...