ISLAMABAD: Half of the population has received COVID-19 jabs in Pakistan in which Sindh tops the vaccination rate followed by the federal capital Islamabad, ARY News reported on Saturday. Sources told ARY News that 52 per cent of Pakistan’s population are fully vaccinated, whereas, 83 per cent of the eligible population has received COVID-19 jabs. They detailed that Sindh has …

LONDON: International Cricket Council (ICC) chair Greg Barclay said women’s Test matches should be played over five days, but raised doubts over the place of the longer format in the future of women’s cricket. Women’s Test matches are played over four days as opposed to five in the men’s game, and the five Tests that have been played since 2017 …

HARARE: Batsmen Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi and all-rounder Mohammad Nabi starred as Afghanistan climbed to third in the Cricket World Cup Super League after a 60-run One-day International victory over Zimbabwe in Harare on Saturday. Securing 10 points from the win at Harare Sports Club lifted the tourists above India and Australia in the standings and left them trailing …

PARIS: World number one Iga Swiatek confirmed her dominance of women’s tennis by sweeping aside American teenager Coco Gauff 6-1 6-3 to claim her second French Open title in three years on Saturday. The 21-year-old Pole’s blend of power, poise and precision on the clay was too much to handle for the 18-year-old Gauff, who never recovered from a shaky …

LAHORE: The prevailing hot weather conditions in Multan aren’t a concern for Saqlain Mushtaq. Instead, the Pakistan head coach is eyeing a clean sweep of the West Indies when the three-match One-day International series begins next week. Pakistan finished their preparations for the series here on Saturday, a day before leaving for Multan, and Saqlain was rather upbeat about his …

PESHAWAR: The business community has urged the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) to play its role for removal of impediments in the way of regional trade through imparting essential training to exporters and provision of easy loans to local investors to strengthen national economy. They said that Pakistan was losing a huge amount of foreign exchange owing to impediments …

LAHORE: As the authorities and key government figures have been drawing attention to the economic losses due to illegal trade, the country’s shadow economy accounts for about 40 per cent of GDP, while 6pc of the gross domestic product is being stolen every year, according to a study on tax evasion in five sectors, including tea, tobacco, tyres & auto …

ISLAMABAD: The Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC) on Saturday finalised Rs800 billion worth of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) to achieve an economic growth rate of 5 per cent in 2022-23. The PSDP for next year is Rs100bn lesser than the current year’s allocation of Rs900bn, while the economic growth target of 5pc is also slightly lower than the …

ISLAMABAD: The information technology (IT) industry has refuted the claims of the government that the country’s IT exports were on a growth path and instead said Pakistan will miss the export target by around $1 billion in the outgoing fiscal year. The report titled “Why the planned growth was not achieved” was finalised by Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT …

KARACHI: The introduction of a mechanism for prior approval from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for the import of goods has created hurdles in the arrival of completely knocked down (CKD) kits of vehicles and all major auto sector imports. The delay in processing approvals for CKD kits import transactions would lead to a production shutdown for all major …