Tag: Business

A meeting of federal cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is in progress in Islamabad.

It is discussing overall political and economic situation of the country.

Source: Radio Pakistan

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Thursday instructed banks to put further disbursements under Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar (MPMG) on hold.

The central bank also instructed banks to hold fresh disbursements under the Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (PMKJ-YES).

“Government of Pakistan is considering to review/revise features of subject Scheme in light of recent developments in macroeconomic scenario. Accordingly, banks/DFIs/MFBs are advised to put further disbursements under MPMG on hold from July 01, 2022, till August 31, 2022,” the central bank said in a circular.

However, the central bank said that in those cases where partial disbursements have already been made till June 30, 2022, banks/DFIs/MFBs may release the remaining disbursement under MPMG, it added.

In another circular, the central bank said that the government is considering reviewing/revising features of PMKJ-YES in light of recent developments in the macroeconomic scenario.

Accordingly, banks participating as executing agencies under the said scheme are advised to put on hold fresh disbursement from July 1, 2022, to July 15, 2022, it said.

The development will shatter the dreams of middle and lower-middle-class people who had planned or submitted applications to banks for purchasing a housing unit.

According to various studies, there is a deficit of over 12 million housing units in Pakistan with continuous growth in demand due to the rising population.

The scheme was launched by the previous government. All commercial banks and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) did extensive work to design a house financing scheme that could be affordable for people with no ownership of a house.

As per the latest data released by the SBP, commercial banks in Pakistan have approved Rs. 212 billion and disbursed Rs. 85 billion to customers across the country so far under the Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar scheme.

The scheme also aimed at stirring the economic growth and employment in the construction sector which comprises over 40 allied industries. The construction sector contributed 2.5 percent to GDP and 7.71 percent of the employed Pakistani labor force is engaged in the construction sector, according to the Economic Survey of Pakistan for FY21.

Source: Radio Pakistan

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has reaffirmed his government’s commitment to forge deeper economic, trade and investment cooperation with Bahrain.

He said this, while receiving a telephone call from National Guard Commander of Bahrain His Highness General Shaikh Mohammed bin Isa Al Khalifa on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister said Pakistan attaches great importance to its relations with Bahrain.

Lauding the successful measures by Bahrain against the global pandemic, Shehbaz Sharif thanked the Bahraini leadership for the measures taken by the Bahraini leadership to look after the Pakistani expatriates, especially during the pandemic.

He also welcomed the project of King Hamad Nursing University and Associated Medical Sciences Hospital in Islamabad, which is a testament to the close brotherly relationship between the two countries.

The Prime Minister added that he looks forward to welcome King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa to Pakistan at an early date.

The National Guard Commander of Bahrain extended his warm felicitations to Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on his assumption of office as the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

The Prime Minister thanked the National Guard Commander for his gracious gesture.

It is pertinent to mention that Bahrain is home to a large Pakistani diaspora in the Gulf Region. Pakistan and Bahrain enjoy close, cordial ties resting on the firm foundation of shared faith and values.

The two countries closely collaborate bilaterally, as well as on regional and global issues of mutual interest.

Source: Radio Pakistan

Chairman National Accountability Bureau Javed Iqbal says Pakistan and China are working together to ensure transparency in the ongoing China Pakistan Economic Corridor projects.

In a statement, he said Pakistan is the only country that has signed a memorandum of understanding with China to fight corruption.

The Chairman said NAB has no affiliation with any political party, group or individual rather it has affiliations with state of Pakistan.

Source: Radio Pakistan

The Pakistan delegation held several meetings with the IMF officials and discussed pathways to complete seventh review of the IMF programme.

The delegation led by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail laid out Pakistan government’s priorities and efforts to bring fiscal discipline while insulating the vulnerable from oil price volatility in the international markets.

The IMF expressed support to the Pakistan delegation.

An IMF mission lead by Mission Chief Mr Nathan Porter will visit Pakistan next month to discuss the issues around subsidies on petrol and electricity announced by the out going government.

The delegation also met Mr. Axel von Trotsenburg, Managing Director, Mr Hartwig Schafer, Vice President and other officials of the World Bank.

Progress of on-going program loans and projects as well as avenues for further assistance were discussed.

The Finance Minister thanked the Bank officials for the financial and technical support provided by the Bank throughout.

Source: Radio Pakistan

The National Assembly on Wednesday met briefly at the Parliament House in Islamabad with Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in the chair.

The House as per its tradition suspended its agenda to pay tribute to late MNA Iqbal Muhammad Ali.

The lawmakers commended services of late Iqbal Muhammad Ali for the cause of democracy, constitutionalism, and development.

Those, who spoke on the occasion, include Minister for Defence Khwaja Muhammad Asif, Minister for Communications Asad Mahmood, Minister for Health Abdul Qadir Patel,Engineer Qasim Khani, Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, Sheikh Salahuddin, Mohammad Aslam Bhootani, Naz Baloch, Usama Qadri, Khurram Dastgir Khan, Shagufta Jamani, Dr. Muhammad Afzal Khan Dhandla, Moulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, Dr. Darshan, Saira Bano, Tahira Aurangzeb, Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon and Agha Rafiullah.

It is pertinent to mention that late Iqbal Muhammad Ali was elected from Karachi on the ticket of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan.

The House will now meet tomorrow (Thursday) at 11 am.

Source: Radio Pakistan

The budget process for the next fiscal year has entered an important phase as the priority committee has started to review the budget proposals.

The Priority Committee Meetings have been scheduled from April 13th to 19th 2022. The Principal Accounting Officers (PAOs) are requested to attend the meeting in person to discuss Revenue, Receipts, current Expenditure including subsidies, Grants-in-Aid, KPIs, and targets of the Division/Department may be supported by the Head of Departments (HOD) and Officers concerned under his administrative control.

Sources told ProPakistani that the priority committee under the Finance Secretary has started its work to review the proposals from different ministries and departments. The Finance Ministry will present available resources before the committee while discussing the proposals of the departments and ministries for the next fiscal year.

The Committee will try to distribute the available resources among the federal ministries and departments despite the ministries and departments asking for more. They have been demanding trillions of rupees for their development funds but the priority committee will propose the development funds as per the available resources.

Sources said that the outgoing PTI government had agreed with IMF on some budget ceilings for the next fiscal year but it may be changed as per the priorities of the new government. The former government had agreed with IMF to provide Rs. 559 billion for the Federal Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) for the next fiscal year. The outgoing government has also promised that it will provide Rs. 12381 billion for total expenditures including the current and development budget.

Sources also believe that the new government will set budget targets under its priorities and big changes are expected in budget allocation. The proposals will be presented before the Annual Planning Coordination Committee (APCC) which is likely to meet next month under the chairmanship of the Federal Minister for Planning.

The federal and provincial officials will propose the development and nondevelopment budget for the next fiscal year to the National Economic Council which will meet under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister. Some federal ministers related to the economic side, four chief ministers, Chief Minister Gilgit Baltistan, and Prime Minister Azad Kashmir will attend the meeting.

Source: Pro Pakistan

American hardware maker Sabrent has officially released the world’s biggest PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSD. The Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus has a whopping 8TB capacity, which makes it bigger and faster than most rival offerings.

The new drive was originally announced in late 2021 but took four months to reach vendors. This is because the SSD is larger than others in the market and it took a lot of engineering to get everything to fit and tune the firmware, claims Sabrent.

Sabrent is the first company to ask Phison, the manufacturer behind the PS5018-E18 flash controller, to build this drive so that the Rocket 4 Plus earns the “full custom SSD” title. To get started, you will need a motherboard that supports PCIe Gen4 and M.2 2280 for laptops.

It has claimed performance speeds of up to 7GBps (read) and 6GBps (write), which is only slightly slower than the 4TB model. However, the random IOPS are a lot higher than the latter. It also comes with SK Hynix’s 1GB DDR4 memory, a fiver year warranty, Sabrent’s signature copper-colored heatsink, and a special edition of Acronis True Image disc cloning software.

The Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 8TB NVMe SSD will be available for a staggering $1500 around the globe.

Source: Pro Pakistan