This Ramazan providing food to the needy at Sehr/Iftar and distribution of ration bags individually and through charities at mosques, offices, bus stops, sidewalks, empty plots, green belts and dedicated spaces has been more visible than before in cities, particularly in Karachi. In the current stressful environment, when the 24/7 news cycle has been adding to the public anxiety and businesses
The government has officially clipped the size of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) by a quarter to just Rs600 billion compared to the Rs800bn allocation, citing fiscal constraints. This will be the second year in a row that the country’s underfunded infrastructure development will remain constrained by drastic cuts even in funds allocated by the parliament. In the previous fi
The inordinate delay in the signing of a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) resulted in another day of losses for equities on Tuesday. The index of representative shares opened on the higher side but slipped into the negative territory after struggling to maintain its momentum, said Arif Habib Ltd. Share prices bounced within a short range afterwards as poor engage
IN the last six months since October, we have witnessed an unmistakable deterioration in the country’s economic fundamentals, with gloom overtaking whatever little hope the people had regarding their future. Global rating agencies have downgraded Pakistan’s credit score further into junk territory, saying Pakistan is hurtling towards sovereign default because of its balance-of-payments crisis a
Despite mounting pressure on banks to go digital, the number of e-commerce transactions declined in the first half of the current fiscal year while the total e-banking value in the first quarter also dipped. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday issued both the first and second quarterly reports on the Payment System for 2022-23. The reports reflect that despite all efforts electronic pay