ISLAMABAD: The Privatisation Commission board approved an agreement on Friday appointing the Asian Development Bank as transaction adviser for the outsourcing of Islamabad International Airport, clearing a key hurdle in the government’s push to hand over management of the country’s flagship gateway to private operators.
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Pakistan targets 2028 restart for Neelum-Jhelum hydropower plant shut by tunnel collapse
ISLAMABAD: Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project, one of the country’s most expensive power installations, will remain offline until at least March 2028 — nearly four years after a tunnel collapse forced its shutdown — as the state utility overseeing the plant works to determine what caused the failure and how to fix it.
Pakistan braces for weekend of flooding, landslides as monsoon rains intensify
ISLAMABAD: The federal government ordered disaster management authorities into a state of heightened readiness on Friday, as meteorologists forecast a weekend of heavy rain, windstorms and thunderstorms likely to trigger flash flooding, landslides and dangerous river surges across the country’s northern and mountainous regions.
Pakistan raises petrol, diesel prices as Mideast war pushes up oil costs
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan raised petrol and diesel prices on Friday, reversing a brief reprieve from the previous week, as renewed fighting between the United States and Iran pushed global crude prices toward their sharpest weekly gain in months.
Pakistan’s top court reverses course on Nasla Tower demolitions, faults justices for overreach
ISLAMABAD: A landmark ruling this week from Pakistan’s newly formed Federal Constitutional Court has upended nearly a decade of court-ordered demolitions across this sprawling port city, finding that the country’s Supreme Court exceeded its authority when it launched a sweeping campaign against illegal construction that eventually claimed one of Karachi’s most recognisable buildings.
Pakistan’s top Islamic scholar rules crypto purchases forbidden, complicating digital money push
KARACHI: For a country that spent the better part of a decade treating cryptocurrency as something close to contraband, Pakistan’s turn toward embracing it has been swift. Parliament passed the Virtual Assets Act in March. The State Bank followed in April, clearing licensed banks to open accounts for crypto businesses. A new federal regulator has begun issuing licenses to global exchanges. By some estimates, tens of millions of Pakistanis, and perhaps as many as 40 million, now hold digital assets worth billions of dollars.
PIA taps Ethiopian Airlines veteran in bid for revival
KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines has shortlisted Tewolde Gebremariam, the former chief executive of Ethiopian Airlines Group, to lead the recently privatized national carrier, according to a Bloomberg News report on Friday that cited a person familiar with the matter.
Funding gap threatens final push to eradicate polio, global health officials warn
ISLAMABAD: For nearly four decades, the campaign to wipe polio from the face of the Earth has been a study in incremental, hard-won progress: a disease that once paralyzed hundreds of thousands of children a year narrowed, country by country, until only two remained where it still spreads on its own. Now, with the finish line closer than it has ever been, the people running that campaign say they are running out of money to reach it.
Security forces kill 75 militants in widening Balochistan offensive
QUETTA: Security forces have killed 75 militants in a widening counterterrorism campaign across the restive southwestern province of Balochistan since July 5, officials said on Friday, as the government presses a large-scale crackdown following a string of separatist attacks that killed dozens of people earlier this month.
More wreckage found as hunt for missing Pakistani flight crew stretches into third day
KARACHI: The search for five crew members of a cargo plane that vanished into the Arabian Sea earlier this week stretched into a third day Friday, as Pakistani authorities reported finding additional wreckage but no sign of the missing crew.