The cost of the ambitious Main Line-1 (ML-1) railway project has escalated more than 100 per cent due to delay in its execution, making it difficult for the government to find resources for the venture. Now, the cost of the project, which was conceived under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in 2016 with an estimated cost of $6 million and financial assurance from Beijing, has gone up to
The government is “definitely, constantly and continuously” engaged with the International Monetary Fund on the latest budget, the junior finance minister said on Tuesday, stressing that there was no reason for disappointment that the ninth review of an ongoing bailout package shouldn’t be completed. “We are constantly in touch with the IMF,” Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr Aisha G
Share prices moved in both directions on Monday as most analysts termed the federal budget announced last Friday a “neutral to negative” event for the Pakistan Stock Exchange. Topline Securities said the stock market initiated the week on a mixed note where the benchmark index of representative shares made an intraday high of 125 points or 0.3 per cent. However, banks, exploration and prod
THE PDM coalition may have failed to set a direction for the flailing economy in its rather unimaginative second budget, but trade and industry leaders have been quite clear about how they believe Pakistan can chart a way out of its present crisis. They have been pointing out some common-sense measures that successive governments have failed to implement, which include steps like fixing the cou
“The budget is alright, given the limited room for the government to manoeuvre and the constraints it had to deal with. If we don’t want to touch the ‘sacred cows’, sell the loss-making state-owned businesses (dragging down the government’s fragile fiscal house) or fix the power sector, then the (new) budget is fine,” observed Mian Mohammad Mansha, chairman of the Nishat Group, one of the country’