ISLAMABAD: Pakistan cut the price of diesel by the widest margin in months on Wednesday, delivering relief to a transport and power sector squeezed by months of war-driven volatility in Middle East energy markets, even as petrol costs edged higher for consumers.
Lead
Pakistan presses US for $10 billion currency backstop, eyes September decision
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has formally asked the United States for a $10 billion facility designed to shore up confidence in the rupee, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said, as Islamabad tries to convince investors it no longer needs the emergency bilateral support that has propped up its reserves for years.
PPP and PTI agree to renew parliamentary contact – but Bhutto Zardari warns coalition support is conditional
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s political landscape shifted on two fronts on Wednesday, as the Pakistan Peoples Party moved to repair ties with the opposition even as it sharpened its warning to its own coalition partner, the PML-N.
PML-N govt moves to block Imran Khan’s hospital transfer, calls Supreme Court order “discriminatory”
ISLAMABAD: The federal government has asked the Supreme Court to overturn its own ruling ordering the transfer of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan to a private hospital in Islamabad, setting up a fresh legal confrontation just a day after the original order was issued.
Pakistan refiners agree to cut diesel price by up to Rs32 a liter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s oil refiners agreed to cut diesel prices by more than Rs30 to Rs32 a liter, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervez Malik said Wednesday, delivering relief to consumers after months of price increases tied to the war in the Middle East.
Pakistan summons US envoy over ambassador’s Kashmir remarks
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan lodged a formal protest with the United States on Wednesday, summoning the American charge d’affaires in Islamabad to convey what the Foreign Office described as a “strong demarche” after the US ambassador to India referred to Jammu and Kashmir as part of India during a visit to the disputed territory.
Pakistan launches app-based tax scheme to bring small traders into the net
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan rolled out a mobile application on Wednesday to formalize its Fixed Tax Asaan Scheme, a bid to draw millions of small traders into the tax system through a simplified, app-based filing process that officials say removes the friction that doomed past efforts.
Ruling ally paralyses National Assembly, shelving 21 bills in show of force – report
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly was brought to a virtual standstill on Tuesday after the Pakistan Peoples Party, a key partner in the ruling coalition, forced the government to abandon a packed legislative agenda in protest at what it described as broken promises and unaddressed grievances, Dawn newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Factory output rises 4.98 percent on autos surge, June slumps
Pakistan’s large-scale manufacturing sector expanded 4.98% in the fiscal year ended June, with a surge in automobile production offsetting weakness in textiles and pharmaceuticals, even as output tumbled in the final month of the period, both from the prior month and a year earlier.
Pakistan’s textile shipments jump most in months as garments lead gains
Pakistan’s textile exports climbed to their highest monthly level on record in July, as gains in readymade garments and cotton yarn offset a slowdown in cotton cloth and helped anchor the country’s broader trade recovery at the start of the fiscal year.