The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Act 2021 leaves room for the government to manipulate the exchange rate by exerting undue influence on top SBP officials. According to Riaz Riazuddin, a lifelong central banker who served as deputy governor as well as acting governor until five years ago, the recent legislation doesn’t fully address the issue of the exchange rate …

KARACHI: Banks extended record loans to the private sector in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year as the figure is significantly higher than the combined disbursements in the last two fiscal years. The latest data issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed that the private sector borrowed Rs1,235.5 billion till April 22 in the current …

KABUL: The National Resistance Front (NRF), led by the son of late anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, on Saturday claimed to have seized three northern districts from the Taliban, after announcing a wide military offensive. Led by Ahmad Massoud, NRF said the action in the Panjshir Valley was its first armed offensive against Taliban forces since they stormed back to …

WASHINGTON: Paki­stan has ruled out refugee status for Afghan asylum-seekers but is facilitating their stay and onward journeys to destinations in the West, the Voice of America (VOA) broadcasting service reported on Saturday. Another VOA report said that the United States was giving Ukraine 16 Mi-17 helicopters that were meant for Afghanistan. Pakistani officials said that since the Taliban takeover, more than 100,000 urban Afghans have …

DUBAI: The European Union’s Iran nuclear talks coordinator Enrique Mora is to visit Tehran on Tuesday, the semi-official agency Nour News reported on Saturday, as the bloc said it was seeking to break a deadlock and save the 2015 accord. Talks to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers have been on hold since March, chiefly over Tehran’s insistence that Washington …

PARIS: France’s Emmanuel Macron was sworn in for his second term as president on Saturday, promising to lead the country with a “new method” as his political rivals kicked off campaigning for next month’s legislative elections. In a country where presidents rarely get re-elected, Macron won 58.5% of the votes in the second round against the far-right’s Marine Le Pen, …

BELFAST: Irish nationalists Sinn Fein were poised for a historic first-ever win in elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly after vote counting resumed on Saturday. Tallies from Thursday’s complex proportional voting showed that the former political wing of the IRA paramilitary group had secured 18 seats for the 90-seat legislature, setting it on course for victory. England, Wales and Scotland …

MANILA: The son of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos was set to address hundreds of thousands of supporters Saturday on the final day of presidential election campaigning, as polls showed him heading towards a landslide win. Victory in Monday’s election would cap a decades-long effort to rehabilitate the Marcos legacy after the patriarch was deposed and the disgraced clan chased …

HAVANA: A deadly explosion hit a well-known hotel in downtown Havana on Friday, tearing a gash several floors high in the side of the building, killing at least 22 people and injuring upwards of 70, witnesses and state media said. Speaking from the scene on Cuban television, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the blast at the historic, high-end Hotel Saratoga appeared …

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was booed and heckled on Sunday on his first public outing since protests erupted across the country demanding his ruling family resign over the worsening economic crisis. Months of blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel and medicines have caused widespread suffering across the South Asian island, which is enduring its worst-ever economic downturn. …