Karachi - Pakistan's central bank on Tuesday raised its benchmark interest rates by one per cent, the third such move since January to fight galloping inflation and to stop alarming government borrowing.
"Our inflation is reaching alarming levels mainly due to borrowing," said State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Shamshad Akhtar while announcing the monetary policy for the fiscal 2008-09 (July-June).
Akher said raising the rate to 13 per cent would help in curbing rampant government demand as borrowing had doubled in six months, constituting 80 per cent of the entire fiscal deficit that was equivalent to 8.3 per cent of the GDP.
Peshawar, Pakistan - Islamic militants killed three intelligence officials and abducted 30 police and paramilitary troops in two separate attacks in the restive Swat valley of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, officials and Taliban said Tuesday.
More than a dozen heavily armed rebels opened fire on a vehicle carrying the three intelligence officers near the village Bishbanr in the Matta area of Swat district on Monday. The officers died on the spot.
Major Farooq, a spokesman for the Pakistan Army in the region, confirmed the killings.
Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan accepted responsibility for the attack.
Islamabad, July 29: Several reasons are being cited in Islamabad for the sudden U-turn by Pakistan government of putting back the intelligence agency ISI under the purview of the country’s prime minister. But, the ultimate conclusion is that the Pakistan government’s image has received a dent in the fiasco, which was later described as a ‘misunderstanding’ on the part of the federal government, said an editorial in the Daily Times.
According to one theory, the federal government did it on the eve of the prime minister’s visit to Washington to please the Americans who are unhappy with the ISI’s role in Afghanistan.
Islamabad, July 29: The scheme to set up women-only police stations in Pakistan seems to have fallen flat, as the first police station inaugurated by late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Islamabad, on January 25, 1994, today stands shut down for lack of proper trained female staff to run it.
After 14 years, the City Police formally ordered the women-only police station last October to stop registering cases. By October 31, 2007, when the police station closed its register, it had registered a total 69 cases in the year.
Islamabad, July 29 : If sources in the Pakistan Petroleum Ministry are to be believed, the export of subsidised diesel for the consumption of NATO forces in Afghanistan and the fuel smuggling across the Pak-Afghan border were causing massive losses to the national exchequer and straining fuel supplies in Pakistan.
It has been learnt that Pakistan was losing around Rs 32.5 million daily due to such exports and smuggling.
Lahore, July 29: Following threats from “intolerant elements” propped up by the previous government, the Gilani government has ensured safety for the management and staff of two national dailies - Daily Times and Daily Aaj Kal.
Federal Information Minister Sherry Rehman said that it was the responsibility of the government to protect and support the two newspapers, reported the Daily Times.
She said that Daily Times and Aaj Kal Editor-in-Chief Najam Sethi understands that intolerance resulted from wrong policies of the previous government.
She hoped that in future the papers would not succumb to the threats of ‘intolerant elements’.
Islamabad, July 29 : If sources in the Pakistan Petroleum Ministry are to be believed, the export of subsidised diesel for the consumption of NATO forces in Afghanistan and the fuel smuggling across the Pak-Afghan border were causing massive losses to the national exchequer and straining fuel supplies in Pakistan.
