Islamabad

26 July 2023; MEMO: Qatar has manged to fend off competition from Saudi Arabia, UAE and China to secure a deal with Pakistan over the running of Islamabad Airport. The sale, via tender of a contract, to manage Islamabad Airport is nearing completion after consultations with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Ministry of Finance said Thursday.

Islamabad, Jul 18 (PTI) Cash-strapped Pakistan has received a rollover of an additional USD 600 million loan from its all-weather ally China to help shore up the country's foreign exchange reserves on the back of an IMF deal, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday.

It is in addition to the over USD 5 billion in loans that Beijing has rolled over for Pakistan in the last three months, helping the debt-ridden nation avert a default as negotiations to secure the IMF bailout dragged on, the Dawn newspaper reported.

11 July 2023; MEMO: Pakistan has received $2 billion in financial assistance from Saudi Arabia, days after Islamabad and the IMF reached a $3 billion stand-by agreement, the country's Finance Minister announced on Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reports.

Islamabad, Jul 3 (PTI) Debt-trapped Pakistan will become the fourth largest IMF borrower in the world after receiving a fresh loan of USD 3 billion in the next nine months under the standby arrangement reached with the global lender.

Pakistan, which is facing its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1947, was on March 31, 2023, ranked fifth in the list of countries with the highest borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), The Express Tribune newspaper reported, citing the global lender's data.

20 June 2023; MEMO: Pakistan observed a day of mourning for more than 300 Pakistanis presumed dead after an overcrowded fishing vessel carrying refugees sank off the coast of Greece.

At least 78 bodies have been recovered and hundreds more are feared drowned after the boat capsized in what was the worst and deadliest disaster of the year.

Islamabad, Jun 18 (PTI) Pakistan's Senate has passed a bill to ensure no parliamentarian is disqualified for a lifetime, a move termed by the Opposition as an attempt to clear the way for former premier Nawaz Sharif’s return to the country and his participation in the upcoming elections.

Nawaz Sharif was disqualified in 2017 by a five-member bench of the Supreme Court. In 2018, he became ineligible to hold public office for life after a Supreme Court verdict.

Islamabad, Jun 11 (PTI) The first shipment of discounted Russian crude oil has arrived at the port city of Karachi, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced on Sunday, a development that is expected to provide relief to the people hit by skyrocketing inflation.

Pakistan, which is currently grappling with high external debt and a weak local currency, is hoping that snapping crude at discounted rates from Russia will stabilise oil prices in the country.

Islamabad, Jun 12 (PTI) Pakistan's efforts to unlock access to the already agreed USD 6.5 billion loan package with IMF a quagmire after the cash-strapped country unveiled a subsidy and development-packed budget of Rs 14.46 trillion which experts say will do little to allay the concerns of the global lender.

Islamabad, Jun 9 (PTI) Cash-strapped Pakistan on Friday hiked defence spending by 15.5 per cent and allocated over Rs 1.8 trillion, as the government unveiled a Rs 14.4 trillion budget for 2023-24 as it battled to fend off a looming default due to shrinking foreign reserves.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who presented the budget in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, said the government will target a growth rate of 3.5 per cent in the coming fiscal year.

Islamabad, May 13 (PTI) Pakistan Army chief General Syed Asim Munir on Saturday warned that the armed forces would not tolerate any further attacks on the country's key installations and vowed to bring to justice those responsible for the recent acts of vandalism.