by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Sunday that Finance Minister Asad Umer will present the Mini-Budget on Tuesday.
During his meeting with the owners of Pakistani media outlets in the southern port city of Karachi, Imran Khan called for austerity measures to curtail the country’s expenses. He also stressed the need for eliminating corruption from the society. He further stated that austerity and corruption elimination aspects were the topmost priorities of his government.
According to the Pakistani economic experts, the Pakistani government faces a massive challenge of reducing the burdens of trade deficit and budget deficit, which is weakening its economy.
The government also has to increase its revenues by taxing the rich strata of the society and reducing the burden of tax on the salaried class. The Finance Minister will present the budget for the remaining nine months of the fiscal year of 2018-19. The main aim to present the mini-budget is to streamline the government’s economic policies with the current economic indicators.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Friday said that Turkey has agreed to support Islamabad’s bid for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue at the UN.
Qureshi’s comments came at a joint press conference at the Foreign Office with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, who is currently in Pakistan on a four-day visit.
“Turkey stands by Pakistan during its tough times… It supported Pakistan against the Financial Action Task Force’s decision to place Islamabad on the grey list and wants the best solution for the Kashmir issue,” Qureshi was cited as saying by Geo News.
“At the UN conference, there will be a separate conference on Kashmir on the side. It happens every year but it is different this time because a new UN report has come out which sheds light on the (Indian) Kashmir.
“There has certainly been a surge in the interest of people in the human rights abuses that are taking place there,” said the Pakistani minister.
Cavusoglu said it was Turkey’s wish that the Kashmir issue involving India and Pakistan gets resolved in the UN in a peaceful manner, according to Dawn newspaper.
“In the group that has been formed over Kashmir in the UN, we will stand with Pakistan.”
According to Qureshi, Turkey also supported Pakistan’s membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
He said that ways to enhance economic and commercial ties with Turkey were also discussed in his meeting with Cavusoglu.
Later, Cavusoglu called on Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
They discussed bilateral ties, regional security including the evolving situation in the Middle East and the management of defence and security cooperation between both the countries, said the military’s media wing, Inter Services Public Relations.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Business, Emerging Businesses, World
By Gaurav Sharma,
Beijing : China on Monday said it will extend the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to the west of Pakistan.
China has already invited Afghanistan — west to Pakistan — to join the CPEC. Iran, which is located further west, has expressed interest in joining the project.
The over $50 billion project — a key component of Beijing’s Belt and Road programme — is opposed by India as its planned route goes through the disputed Kashmir region.
“The two sides will advance the CPEC. In the light of Pakistan’s economic development and its people’s need, we will identify the pathways and cooperation for the CPEC,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang.
“We will accelerate the industrial cooperation and projects of people’s livelihood, extend the CPEC to the western area and make more people to benefit from it,” he said.
The CPEC envisages linking China’s Kashgar in Xinjiang to Pakistan’s Gwadar port.
Geng was replying to a question about Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s three-day visit to Pakistan last week during which he met the country’s new leadership.
He said the all-weather friendship between China and Pakistan was not aimed at targeting any third country, which could be a reference to India.
“Our relations will not target a third party and will be influenced by our development of foreign relations with other countries,” Geng said at a routine press conference.
“Politically they (China and Pakistan) will further enhance political mutual trust, strategic communication and firmly support each other’s core interests and mutual concerns. They will have closer communication and coordination on issues of common interest,” he said.
“On the security front, the two sides will enhance cooperation in defence and enhance exchanges between their militaries and law enforcement agencies. China will firmly support Pakistan in combating terrorism in the light of its own national conditions,” Geng said.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government on Friday asked renowned economist Atif R. Mian, who belongs to the persecuted and minority Muslim sect Ahmadi, to step down from the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) following mounting pressure from religio-political parties against his appointment.
Atif Mian, a Princeton University economist, had been appointed to the EAC last week and has agreed to resign, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted on Friday. A replacement will be announced later, he said.
“The government wants to move forward alongside scholars and all social groups, and it is inappropriate if a single nomination creates an impression to the contrary,” the minister tweeted.
The appointment of Atif Mian of Princeton University to the 18-member EAC set up to advise the government on economic policy was opposed by some individuals and groups, including Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, who objected to his Ahmadi faith, Dawn online reported.
The news of his removal from the body came as a surprise since the Imran Khan government three days ago defended the academic’s nomination, saying in categorical terms that it will “not bow to extremists”.
“Pakistan belongs as much to minorities as it does to the majority,” Chaudhary had said earlier this week, amidst a vicious online campaign targeting Atif Mian for his faith.
A social media smear campaign had erupted against the economist’s appointment, with many calling for his removal.
On the other hand, there were a large number of supporters who defended Atif Mian’s appointment on the social media, saying that one’s religion should not factor into their professional qualifications or employment.
Atif Mian served as a professor of economics, public policy and finance at Princeton University and as director of The Julis-Rabinowitz Centre for Public Policy and Finance at Woodrow Wilson School. He is the only Pakistani to be considered among the International Monetary Fund’s “top 25 brightest young economists”.
Ahmadis were declared non-Muslims in Pakistan through a constitutional amendment passed on September 7, 1974 during the tenure of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
This measure was later followed with General Ziaul Haq making it a punishable offence for Ahmadis to call themselves Muslim or to refer to their faith as Islam.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : Pakistan on Sunday kicked off the “Plant for Pakistan” campaign by Prime Minister Imran Khan who in the drive planted a sapling in the country’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
The campaign “Ten Billion Trees Tsunami” aims at combating the effects of climate change by planting over ten billion trees across the country during the five-year tenure of the current government.
After planting the sapling, the prime minister took to twitter to motivate people to plant trees. “Today we launch our tree plantation drive #Plant4Pakistan across the entire country. I want everyone to join this #GreenPakistan drive so we can counter the twin threats of climate change and pollution confronting our future generations,” the Prime Minister tweeted.
Khan’s advisor on climate change Malik Amin Aslam said that trees were planted and distributed freely across the whole country with an objective to motivate the general public to make Pakistan greener.
An estimated 1.5 million trees will be planted in the first phase in various cities of the country including the capital city Islamabad, by students, government employees, workers of Imran Khan’s political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and volunteers.
—IANS
