Pakistan

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday dispelled rumours about holding an emergency meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), saying that such reports were “completely baseless”. “The reports making rounds in media about holding of an emergency meeting of the MPC of SBP are completely baseless,” the central bank said on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).   …

QUETTA: Balochistan National Party-­Mengal (BNP-M) Pres­i­dent Sardar Akhtar Mengal has announced that his party would contest the upcoming elections on the slogan of “recovery of missing persons”. He lamented that despite raising the issue at all forums, nothing was done by the government to resolve it. Speaking at a seminar, organised by the ‘Voice for the Baloch Missing Persons’ to …

LAHORE: In a bid to reduce escalating expenditures and mitigate losses, Pakistan Railways (PR) is all set to shift its entire array of field formations, encompassing stations, offices, workshops and factories, to solar power. In the first phase, the department plans to transition 99 formations, including major railway stations, nine divisional headquarters and various other important offices, to operate on …

LAHORE: The State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC) has suspended cataract surgeries under Sehat Sahulat Programme at all the empanelled private hospitals of the Punjab province. The step was taken following the serious complaints of implanting substandard/low quality lenses during cataract procedures which were not approved by the Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (Drap). There were also reports that the private hospitals …

ISLAMABAD: A majority of the industrial units in the country have no plan to expand in the coming years mainly due to non-availability of electricity, reveals a report released by Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) on Thursday. “A staggering 83 per cent of the surveyed firms expressed that the unavailability of electricity created hurdles in achieving their production goals, resulting in …

ISLAMABAD: Despite opposition from the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS), the Senate Standing Committee on NHS on Thursday passed the “Pakistan Opportunistic Screening and Treatment of Hypertension Bill 2023”. The meeting of the committee was held with Senator Dr Muhammad Humayun Mohmand in the chair. The committee unanimously passed the private member’s bill, but the ministry stated that there …

An Islamabad Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Friday issued directives to keep human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir in a women’s police station in the capital city until her bail hearing tomorrow just moments after deciding a two-week judicial remand in Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail in a terror case. Imaan and former lawmaker Ali Wazir were arrested on August 20 for alleged sedition, two …

ISLAMABAD: Like many parts of the country, a shutter-down strike was observed in the federal capital and Muzaffarabad by traders in protest against inflated electricity bills. Another strike has been scheduled for Saturday over the same issue. The strike, on the call of All Pakistan Anjuman Tajran, was observed by the majority of business community across Pakistan. Except G-9 Markaz, …

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to release PTI President Parvez Elahi. Justice Amjad Rafiq was hearing a petition of Elahi against his arrest in an alleged corruption case by the NAB. Announcing the verdict, the judge barred authorities from arresting the former chief minister of Punjab in any other case. Elahi is …

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday announced that it has decided to shorten the timeframe of the delimitation of constituencies and will complete the process by November 30. According to a press release issued by the electoral body, the decision was taken after the ECP held meetings with political parties and sought feedback from them. It said the …