Page 15 - Pakistan

No backchannel talks being held between Pakistan and India, says Khar

Pakistan said on Thursday that no backchannel talks were being held between Islamabad and New Delhi. "At this moment, there is no such thing under way," Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar told the Senate - the upper house of parliament. She added that backchannel diplomacy was desirable when it was result-oriented. Separately, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch at the weekly media briefing reiterated Khar's remarks about no secret diplomatic engagements with India. "There is no backchannel diplomacy between India and Pakistan," Baloch said. Speaking in the Senate, Khar went on to say that Pakistan had always taken initiatives to promote peace in the region but right now, the cross-border hostility [from India] is of a unique type. She said that Pakistan was asked at international forums sometimes to normalise its ties with India, but the world should look at the messages New Delhi was sending to Islamabad. "The messages that we are getting are a

Pak economic crisis: 10% cut in govt employees' salary under consideration

Pakistan is considering different proposals, including slashing the salaries of government employees by 10 per cent across the board, according to a media report on Wednesday, amidst the looming economic crisis in the cash-strapped country. Pakistan is grappling with one of the country's worst economic crises in recent years amid dwindling foreign exchange reserves. The National Austerity Committee (NAC) constituted by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is considering different measures, including cutting down the salaries of government employees by 10 per cent across the board, Geo News reported. The NAC is also considering cutting down expenditures of ministries/divisions by 15 per cent, reducing the number of federal ministers, ministers of state, and advisers from 78 to 30 only while the remaining should work on a pro bono basis, the report said. The recommendations would be finalised on Wednesday and the committee will send the report to prime minister Shehbaz. The government is

16 including children die of gas leakage incidents in Pakistan's Quetta

At least 16 people, including children, have died due to gas leakage incidents in the past one week in Quetta city of Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province. On Wednesday, four children of a family died inside a mud-walled house after the gas leakage triggered an explosion in the Killi Badezai area in Quetta, police said. Two women were also injured in the incident. The children were sleeping when the gas filled the room and caused an explosion, leading to the collapse of the walls of the house, police said. In a separate incident, a police sub-inspector died after his room was filled with gas in another area of Quetta. A senior police officer confirmed that several cases had been reported on a daily basis since last week, leaving more than a dozen dead and dozens unconscious due to gas leakages in their homes. He added that the leakages occurred due to widespread gas load-shedding and low pressure. According to reports, the problem of gas load shedding and leakages has be

Pak yet to decide on India's invitation to Bilawal to attend SCO meet

Pakistan is yet to decide on India's invitation to Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Goa, foreign ministry sources said on Wednesday. All SCO members are expected to attend the meeting of foreign ministers in May to be hosted by India which has taken over the rotating presidency of the SCO in 2022-2023. Sources in the foreign ministry confirmed that the invitation has been received but no decision has been taken if the foreign minister would travel to India. Responding to a text message sent by PTI to Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch asking if her office would issue a statement on the matter, she simply responded: "No." Launched in Shanghai in June 2001, the SCO has eight full members, including its six founding members, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined as full members in 2017. It is for the first time that India has been given the .

6 million people in Pakistan facing acute food insecurity: World Bank

A new report from the World Bank has revealed that an alarming six million people in Pakistan are currently experiencing acute food insecurity as a result of the devastating floods

Pakistan PM Shehbaz ready to sacrifice political capital at IMF altar

The premier said the government has clearly conveyed its intentions to complete the ninth review to the IMF

Long queues at filling stations in Pakistan amid acute petrol shortage

Long queues of automobiles and motorcycles were witnessed at filling stations in capital city of Islamabad and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province due to reduced supplies by oil marketing companies

Pak opposition leader Fawad Chaudhry arrested for publicly censuring govt

Pakistani authorities on Wednesday arrested Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party senior leader Fawad Chaudhry, hours after he publicly censured the government for scheming to arrest party chairman Imran Khan. Fawad, a close aide of ousted prime minister Khan, was taken into custody from his residence in Lahore after a case was registered against him at Kohsar Police Station on the complaint of the Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). This imported government has gone berserk, PTI leader Farrukh Habib tweeted. An official PTI Twitter account also posted videos, showing a convoy of police vehicles which the party claimed was carrying Chaudhry after his arrest. The arrest of Fawad, 52, came amidst rumours that the government may arrest PTI chief and former premier Khan. Fawad's arrest comes after he, along with scores of party workers, gathered outside Khan's Zaman Park residence in Lahore, claiming to avert the government's alleged plan to arrest the party chief. The arrest o

After Shehbaz Sharif's statement, India invites Pak for SCO meeting: Report

If the Pakistani foreign minister visits India, it will be the first such visit in 12 years

Pak textile sector suffers massive financial loss due to power outage

Industries all over Pakistan were halted after the significant power outage since the National Grid's electricity supply to three provinces was interrupted

Pak PM apologises to nation for inconvenience caused by power outage

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday apologised to the nation for the inconvenience caused by the countrywide power outage that plunged millions of people into darkness and vowed to fix responsibility for the second major breakdown in nearly four months. Pakistan faced a major power breakdown on Monday due to a voltage fluctuation in the national grid, disrupting normal life and leaving major parts of the country, including capital Islamabad and financial hub Karachi, without electricity. Taking to Twitter, the premier wrote: "On behalf of my government, I would like to express my sincere regrets for the inconvenience our citizens suffered due to power outage yesterday." "On my orders an inquiry is underway to determine reasons of the power failure. Responsibility will be fixed," he tweeted. Power supply was mostly restored in Pakistan, though some parts of the country still experienced blackouts on Tuesday. Minister for Energy Khurram Dastgir said on Tuesday that ...

Electricity supply restored incrementally in Pak after nationwide outage

Electricity supply was restored incrementally in Pakistan on Tuesday after a nationwide power breakdown left millions of people without electricity amidst fears of default and looming economic meltdown due to a balance of payment crisis in the country. The massive power blackout on Monday was the second such outage in nearly four months. Today, at 5:15 am, the system was completely restored across the country, Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir said. However, major cities, including Karachi, Quetta and Lahore, remained deprived of power, the Dawn newspaper said. Dastgir said that approximately 6,600 megawatts of coal and 3,500MW of nuclear plants would take an estimated 48 to 72 hours to restart. Until these plants start running, there will be limited load management, excluding industrial users, he was quoted as saying by the paper. The minister added that there was no fuel shortage in the country. We are considerate of the electricity bills people have to pay and try not to ...

Ready to assist Pakistan in solving its electricity issues, says US

The US is ready to assist Pakistan in resolving its electricity woes, a top official in the Biden administration has said, hours after the South Asian country faced a nationwide power breakdown due to a "frequency variation" in the national grid. According to the Ministry of Energy, the system of frequency of the national grid went down at 7:34 am local time on Monday, resulting in the breakdown on Monday, leaving millions of people without electricity, the second such outage in nearly four months. Of course, (we) have seen what has transpired in Pakistan. Our thoughts are with all those who've been affected by the outages. The US, of course, as you mentioned, has assisted our Pakistani partners across any number of challenges, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference on Monday. We're prepared to do so in this case, if there is something that we're able to provide. But I'm not aware of any particular request yet, he said. Pakistan is ...

PM Shehbaz Sharif orders inquiry into 16-hour power outage in Pakistan

The outage lasted for more than 16 hours, especially when temperatures were forecasted to fall to around 4 degrees Celsius (39°F) in Islamabad and 8 degrees Celsius (46°F) in Karachi

Pakistan's national grid fails for the second time in three months

Energy Minister Khurrum Dastagir said the outage was caused by a large voltage surge in the south of the grid, which affected the entire network

Imran slams EC, says will challenge Punjab caretaker CM's appointment in SC

Pakistan's ex-premier Imran Khan has said he will challenge in the Supreme Court the appointment of Mohsin Naqvi as the caretaker chief minister of Punjab, describing him an "enemy" of his party and slamming the election commission for reducing the country to a "Banana Republic". Naqvi was sworn in as the caretaker chief minister of Punjab on Sunday night, hours after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) unanimously decided to appoint him to the post. His appointment came after the ruling party and the opposition in the province failed to reach consensus on a name for the post. Naqvi, who was one of the two candidates suggested by ex-Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz, is the owner of a media house and said to be very close to PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari.

Pakistan's State Bank raises key rate by 100 basis points as crisis mounts

State Bank of Pakistan raised the target rate to 17%, a move expected by 25 of 43 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The majority of the economists had forecast a hike ranging from 75-200 basis points

Pakistan has 'technically' defaulted with continuous loan rollovers

While Pakistan has not officially defaulted, but with continuous rollovers of loans that have come from China, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE among others, the country has already done so 'technically'

Pak suffers nationwide power outage after grid failure: Power ministry

Pakistan faced a major power breakdown on Monday due to a "frequency variation" in the national grid, leaving millions of people in large parts of the country, including capital Islamabad and financial hub Karachi, without electricity. According to the Ministry of Energy, the system of frequency of the national grid went down at 7:34 am local time, resulting in the breakdown. System maintenance work is progressing rapidly, it tweeted. Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir said the restoration work was going on. "I can assure you that power will be fully restored across the country within the next 12 hours, he was quoted as saying by Geo News. Explaining the failure, he said the authorities shut down the power generation system at night due to lower demand in winter to save fuel costs. But when the systems were turned on in the morning, frequency variation and voltage fluctuation were observed in the south of the country somewhere between Dadu and Jamshoro resulting in shutting down of

Pakistan's mobile phone imports decline 66% in 1st half of FY 2023

Pakistan's mobile phone imports declined by 66 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal year 2022-2023, compared to the same period of the last fiscal year, according to official figures