Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark share index touched another all-time high on Wednesday, breaching the key level of 75,000, on hopes that easing inflation could pave the way for interest rate cuts as early as June. Still attractive stock valuations, expectations of more foreign inflows, and the start of talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a new loan programme added to …

ISLAMABAD: Strugg­ling to compete with a large influx of smuggled products, the oil industry has asked the government to expedite the clearance of over Rs90 billion stuck in foreign exchange adjustment and tax refunds to ease its liquidity challenges. In a communication to the federal government, the Oil Marketing Assoc­iation of Pakistan (OMAP) has called for the intervention of Minister …

KARACHI: Pakistani stocks extended their overnight rally, hitting an all-time high closing above the 74,000 barrier as investors weighed Citibank’s expectations that Pakistan would reach a $8 billion new IMF loan deal by July and an easing of interest rates from June. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the government plans to privatise all state-owned enterprises except strategic ones …

ISLAMABAD: The office of the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) has identified deficiencies in the Federal Board of Revenue’s legal department that result in the filing of a large number of petitions with superior courts for a stay against tax recovery due to non-adherence to legal procedures for taxpayers. This matter has been brought to the surface in a letter, …

KARACHI: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has reiterated the government’s resolve to expand the tax base by aggressively pursuing the untaxed and undertaxed sectors. In a meeting with a delegation of the Paki­stan Business Council (PBC) on Tuesday, the minister stated that the government is more determined than ever to broaden the tax base. He also shared the progress on digitalisation …

Cheering crowds greeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday as he submitted his candidacy for a Hindu holy city’s parliamentary seat in a general election his party is strongly favoured to win. Modi remains roundly popular in India, in large part due to his cultivated image as an aggressive champion of the country’s majority faith. Varanasi is the spiritual …

The United States must move on from the “trauma” of two decades of war and step up counterterrorism efforts to face growing threats from Afghanistan and Pakistan, a study said on Tuesday. The group, led by former senior US policymakers, made clear it was not advocating a return to America’s longest war which ended when President Joe Biden pulled troops …

MOUNTAIN VIEW: Google said on Tuesday it would introduce AI-generated answers to online queries made by users in the United States, in one of the biggest updates to its search engine in 25 years. “I’m excited to announce that we will begin launching this fully revamped experience, `AI overviews,’ to everyone in the US this week,” Google chief executive Sundar …

ROUEN: Gunmen attacked a prison van at a motorway toll in northern France on Tuesday, killing at least two prison officers and freeing a convict who had been jailed last week. President Emmanuel Macron vowed that everything would be done to find those behind the attack and hundreds of members of the security forces were deployed for a manhunt to …

BUTOVC: A hovering drone drops linden and pine seeds wrapped in soil onto a barren hillside outside Kosovo’s capital Pristina, part of an effort to reforest thousands of hectares lost to illegal logging and wildfires. Environmentalists say deforestation, also driven by demand for popular wood-fired stoves, is endangering wild animals such as brown bears, lynx, wild goats and roe deer …