Tag: Pakistan

[News] Pakistani man arrested for attacking UK Sikh Shrine, leaves note on Kashmir
20Jun By Team FPNo Comments
Asia, USA

[News] Pakistani man arrested for attacking UK Sikh Shrine, leaves note on Kashmir

A Pakistani man has been arrested by the UK police for breaking into a gurdwara in eastern England. Guru Arjan Gurdwara in Derbyshire alerted the Police after its front doors were found smashed in the early hours of Monday morning.He was later identified and arrested.As per the statement of the gurdwara, at around 6 a.m., "an individual entered the gurdwara premises causing thousands of pounds of damage. We can confirm that no individual was injured and that the clean-up process has begun."The gurdwara described the vandalisation of the shrine as a hate crime. The CCTV footages of the person, showed smashed glass doors of the gurdwara, glass shards scattered all over the floor and a man inside the premises.The vandal left a hand-written note in broken English on a piece of paper in the gur...
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Rs.7.5 billion allocated for Pakistan Railways ‘ML-1’ under CPEC
17Jun By Joe RodriguezNo Comments
Asia

Rs.7.5 billion allocated for Pakistan Railways ‘ML-1’ under CPEC

The Federal Government of Pakistan has allocated Rs.6 billion for the up-gradation of Pakistan Railways existing Main Line-1 (ML-I) and establishment of Dry Port near Havelian Phase-1 under CPEC including Rs.500m as foreign component.Meanwhile, Rs 1.5 billion was also included in Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2020-21 for Preliminary design/drawings for up gradation and rehabilitation of main line (ML- 1) and establishment of Dry Port near Havelian under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).Rehabilitation and up gradation of Karachi-Lahore Peshawar (ML-1) Railway’s 1,872km long track is an important project of CPEC.The project includes doubling of entire track from Karachi to Peshawar. After its completion the speed of passenger trains will be raised from 65/110km per ho...
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Game changer CPEC gets Rs21 billion in Pakistan’s 2020-21 budget
17Jun By Michael SmithNo Comments
Asia

Game changer CPEC gets Rs21 billion in Pakistan’s 2020-21 budget

Pakistan’s Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the year 2020-21 has allocated Rs21 billion for projects under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) - once considered a game changer for Pakistan.Except a few major road and rail projects under the CPEC, the PSDP does not allocate money for any significant scheme. There is no mention of any allocation for any of the much-discussed industrial zones, which were to be established under the CPEC to general industrial and economic growth of the country.The most conspicuous allocation under CPEC in the 2020-21 PSDP is for the construction of Zhob to Kuchlak Road, CPEC Western Corridor as Rs10 billion has been allocated for this project.For the upgradation of Pakistan Railways existing Main Line-1 (ML-I) and establishment of dry port ne...
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Pakistan Budget 2020-21: CPEC placed in cold storage due to influence from West
17Jun By Michael SmithNo Comments
Asia

Pakistan Budget 2020-21: CPEC placed in cold storage due to influence from West

Economist Dr Kasier Bengali has said that Pakistan’s economic policies are being made in Washington and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sent its people to sit in major institutions, which is why there is no mention of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in the budget 2020-21.Speaking during a webinar organised by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) on Sunday, he said due to the influence from the West the government had placed CPEC in cold storage.“Pakistan’s economy is mainly relying on foreign loans, so the economic managers are trying to appease the IMF and other international lenders by not mentioning the CPEC,” Dr Bengali said.Pakistan’s Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the year 2020-21 has allocated Pakistani Rs 21 billion f...
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Defence Budget: Pakistan’s misplaced priorities
17Jun By Joe RodriguezNo Comments
Asia

Defence Budget: Pakistan’s misplaced priorities

For a country suffering through a pandemic and whose economy is crashing, putting more money for defence seems illogical. But this is exactly what the Imran Khan government has proposed in a grim reminder of how much Islamabad’s priorities are misplaced.The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government has proposed 11.9 per cent increase in the country’s defence budget.The budget document shows that the defence outlay for 2020-21 would be Pakistani Rs 1,289 billion as compared to Pakistani Rs 1,152 billion earmarked for the ongoing fiscal year.A closer look at the budget details revealed that Rs 1,289 billion figure does not include Pakistani Rs 369 billion allocated for pensions of retired military personnel and Pakistani Rs 324 billion for the armed forces development programme.“The defence budget...
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PoK activist blames army as Pakistan registers first ever negative economic growth
17Jun By Joe RodriguezNo Comments
Asia

PoK activist blames army as Pakistan registers first ever negative economic growth

Exiled rights activist from PoK, Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza, has blamed Pakistan's deep state of the army for the negative growth the country has registered for the first time ever in its history. Mirza asked how a country could flourish or register a positive growth if its annual budget couldn't be unveiled without the blessings of the army. "This budget has Rs 650 Billion allocated for the development purpose, while the military has been allocated a sum of Rs 1.3 Trillion. This simply means that the budget has been presented after the approval of the army," said Mirza. He also said that there was a prevailing sense of fear amongst the legislators of Pakistan and they were forced to respect the army. "Hammad Azhar, the minister who presented the budget expressed his government's gratitude to the...
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China making inroads into Pakistan’s mainstream media and telecommunications, warns experts
17Jun By Michael SmithNo Comments
USA

China making inroads into Pakistan’s mainstream media and telecommunications, warns experts

Chinese inroads into Pakistan's mainstream media, and state-level bilateral cooperation on telecommunications infrastructure and surveillance is growing, posing a threat to people's freedom of speech in the country, a researcher has warned.Nowmay Opalinski, a research intern with the Centre for Internal & Regional Security (IreS), said, "These developments are taking place against a backdrop of Pakistani state's growing attempts to censor online content domestically. “How does this set of circumstances favour China? Where does China's big picture media strategy fit into this?" he added. Opalinski found that since 2012, the government of Pakistan has been attempting to implement a national firewall to tighten control over content shared online. The introduction of the Pakistan Electroni...
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Pakistan bars Afghan goods, but exports freely into Afghanistan
15Jun By Mike Trudell1 Comment
Market, Singapore

Pakistan bars Afghan goods, but exports freely into Afghanistan

Afghan traders and merchants on Thursday voiced their concerns about Pakistani products coming into Afghanistan flow as usual, but Afghan business people still not being able to export goods to the Pakistani ports.Merchants called on the Afghanistan government to take action and raise the issue of the barring of Afghan exports with the Pakistani government.“Our trucks have been stopped in Torkham for the past three months, we don’t know what to do, the products are on the verge of destruction,” said Hejratullah Hamdard, a merchant.“We don’t know when the government will take reciprocal action against Pakistan,” said Navid, a merchant.This comes as the harvest of vegetable and fresh fruits are at their peak in Afghanistan, and the Afghan traders are losing millions of dollars because of the...
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COVID impact: Economy to contract even more than estimated earlier, says World Bank
10Jun By Michael SmithNo Comments
Asia

COVID impact: Economy to contract even more than estimated earlier, says World Bank

Due to COVID-19 outbreak, Pakistan’s economy would actually perform even worse than what previous estimates had warned about, The World Bank forecast said on Monday.In its latest report, ‘Global Economic Prospects’, the World Bank assessed that the country’s economy was likely to go into the red this fiscal year and would be unable to recover even next year.It forecast a negative GDP growth of -2.6pc for the current fiscal year (2019-20) and -0.2pc during the next (20-21).“Pakistan (-2.6pc in FY2019/20) and Afghanistan (-5.5pc in 2020) are both projected to experience contractions as mitigation measures are anticipated to weigh heavily on private consumption. Key labor-intensive export sectors are expected to contract sharply and recover only slowly”, the Bank said in its report.This would...
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