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ECP seeks 353,000 additional troops for Punjab, KP elections

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The PSO debt spiral continues g COurT ADjOurnS CA Se FOr TwO weeKS AFTer Serving nOTiCeS TO igP, Dig, SP

LegAL, SHO AnD APPLiCAnT OF CA Se

I m ra n u rg e s n a t i o n to s t a n d u p a g a i n s t ‘c ro o ke d r u l e r s , r i s i n g fa s c i s m’

power consumers to pay additional rs14.24/unit

g new SurCHArge TO Be ADDeD TO BiLLS A S DeFerreD FCA

Giving t e m p o r a r y r e l i e f t o P T i C h a i r m a n i m r a n K h a n t h e B a l o c h s t a n H i g h C o u r t ( B H C ) o n Fr id a y s u s p e n d e d t h e n o nb a i l a b l e a r r e s t w a r r a n t s a g a i n s t h i m i s s u e d b y a l o c a l c o u r t i n h a t e s p e e c h c a s e

The former prime minister had moved BHC after a local court n Quetta on Thursday ssued a nonbailable arrest warrant for imran Khan in a case pertaining to incit ng public against state institutions During the hearing the BHC judge suspended imran Khan s arrest warrants for two weeks and issued notices to the igP Baloch stan Dig SP egal and SHO

The high court also sent notice to plaintiff Khaleel Kakar and ad- journed the hearings for two weeks

The development came hours after Quetta pol ce on Friday morning reached Lahore to arrest the former premier imran Khan in the hate speech case

The Quetta judicial mag strate issued non-ba lable arrest warrant for the PTi chief following a case promised funds of $20.073b face delays g wB’S PreDiCTiOn OF unDiSBurSeD FunDS FOr juLy TO SePTemBer COme TO LiFe

As the cash-strapped nation eyes ass stance from friend y countries and the international monetar y Fund (imF) the economic Affairs Div sion (eAD) has revealed that the balance of undisbursed funds stands at $20 073 b llion from September 2022 n the quarter y report the division noted that the undisbursed balance was $21 121 b llion as of end june 2022 During july-September 2022 disbursement was $2 238 billion including $1 166 billion from the imF which was committed in the seventh and eighth review The undisbursed funds is the amount outstanding from the agreement made by the ender Back n October 2022 the world Bank had predicted a delay n disbursement of at least nine projects Th s also included a potential cancellation of $730 mi lion project and concessionar y financ ng of $400 mi lion due serious problems n their design and execut on t was noted that the cancel ation of the projects can be utilized n f ood-related projects t fo lows proper and timely execution

During the months of ju y to September 2022 a total of $421 16 m llion comm tments were made including $412 60 m llion loans and $8 56 mi lion grants Bank of Ch na also committed 200 mil ion as commercial loans Fore gn-funded pro ects often rema n behind schedule and are restructured due to mplementation-related chal enges These pro ects have mostly been designed by international consultants who are not always n touch w th the ground root problems or falling into a d sagreement about pol cies with the government registered at the Bijli ghar police station The case was f led against imran Khan for ma gning the national inst tutions The Baloch stan police registered a case against the PTi chairman on the complaint of a citizen – named Abdu Khalil Karak Kakar had a eged that the PTi chief s statement was an attempt to destroy public peace and order g QueTTA POLiCe TeAm HAD reACHeD LAHOre TO ArreST FOrmer Premier in THe CA Se QUETTA s ta f f r e p o r t

The PTi chairman was booked under Pakistan Penal Code – Sect on 505 [Statements conducing to public m schief] Section 124-A [Sedition] and Section 153-A [Promot ng enmity between different groups] Quetta police team reaches l ahore: On the other hand a team of Quetta police on Friday reached Lahore to arrest the former premier and Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTi) chief imran Khan

The Quetta police team led by Super ntendent Police (SP) City nadeem reached Lahore with the arrest warrant of imran Khan The team led by the SP City includes a sub-inspector, two guards and a driver Sources privy to the development said CCPO Lahore Bilal Siddiq has been informed about the presence of Quetta pol ce in Lahore for imran Khan s arrest

amends to NaB law afoot regarding retur ned references: law minister

iSLAMABAD s ta f f r e p o r t

Federal min ster for Law and justice Azam nazeer Tarar on Fr day said that the government had proposed amendments to section-iv and v of the nAB law with regard to the references returned by the accountabi ity courts

An ordinance would be issued until the Parliament in session to empower accountab lity courts to transfer references to relevant forums if these do not fall in their jurisdict ons Law minister Azam nazeer Tarar said while addressing a press conference here on Fr day

The m nister said that there had been rumors about the future of the references returned by the accountability courts recently adding that indeed these references were not quashed nstead only their forums had been changed

The min ster said that the nAB chairman wou d be authorized to send these inqu ries and reference to the relevant institut ons “ However investigations nto var ous cases could be c osed only f the court concerned recommend such a move he po nted out add ng that the nAB deputy cha rman would use all the powers of cha rman nAB in his absence

He sa d that prev ously nAB had been accused of pol tical eng neering and the apex court had also made such obser vation during Saad rafiq case

The leadership of PmL-n was acqu tted from nAB ref- erences by the courts under the previous laws he said

Azam nazeer Tarar said that PTi s government had used the nAB for political purposes add ng that imran Khan had introduced three ord nances dur ng h s tenure

To a quest on, the minister said that under Art c e 19 o f t h e c o n s t i t u t i o n To s h a k h a n a r e c o r d f r o m 2 0 0 0 t o o n w a r d w o u l d b e public soon on website or n p r i n t f o r m w i t h o u t d s c r m inat on after be ng compiled H e h o w e v e r s a d t h a t c o m p i l a t o n To s h a k h a n a r e c o r d s n c e 1 9 4 7 w a s a h u g e a n d t i m e - c o n s u m i n g e x e r c i s e To another questioned he sa d that there was a need for ever y institution to focus and introduce self-accountability system iSLAMABAD a h M a d a h M a da n i nat onal electric Power regulator y Authority

(nePrA) has al owed the power distribution companies (DiSCOS) and K-e ectr c (Ke) to recover a deferred fuel adjustment surcharge up to rs 14 24 per un t from the electricity consumers in eight months from march to October 2023

The regulator y authority has also allowed the Kelectric to recover deferred fuel adjustment charges from its consumers as we l For Karachi locals the surcharge would be up to rs 13 87 per unit The charges w ll be separate for each slab of consumers based on their consumpt on As per details the power companies wil recover rs 10 34 per unit from domestic protected consumers using 200 units or less per month rs 14 24 per un t from non-protected consumers us ng up to 200 un ts rs 14 24 per unit from those consuming 200-300 units per month and rs 9 90 per un t from private agricultural consumers whereas the breakdown for consumers in Karach is as follows rs 9 97 per unit wil be charged from domestic protect consumers using ess than 200 units per month rs 13 87 per unit from nonprotected consumers using up to 200 units rs 13 87 per un t from those consuming between 200 to 300 units per month and rs 9 90 per unit from private agricu tural consumers

The entire amount will be recovered from the electricity consumers in nstalments from march up ti October 2023 The government was to pass on th s fuel adjustment which was to be originally charged in the months of june and ju y last year However, pr me min ster Shahbaz Sharif had announced to defer it Accord ng to the dec s on of nePrA the ministr y of energy while justifying ts request submitted that rebasing of uniform tariff determined by the regulator which was recommended by it as fina tariff for publication in the off c al gazette was notified by the Federa government in order to not burden the consumers disproportionately in a sequence of rs 3 5/unit in ju y 2022 and rs 3 5/unit in August 2022

Consumers were h t by rs 9 89 per un t of fue charge adjustment (FCA) plus rs 7 per unit of rebasing simu taneously in August 2022 b lling This was an average increase of rs 16 90 per un t over and above the july 2022 rates These ad ustments n tar ff signif cantly increased the e ectricity bills for the months of August and September 2022 moreover, the extensive flooding also affected consumers across the countr y under these d ff cu t conditions the Prime minister of Pakistan decided to stagger the recover y of DiSCOs and K-e ectric FCAs, which were to be charged in August and September 2022 However the government had further deferred its implementat on

remittances slide 9.5pc to $2b in Febr uar y

Overseas workers remittances posted a decline of 9 5% to $2 billion on a year-on-year (yoy) basis n Februar y Fy23 as compared with the same month of prev ous year s nf ow of $2 2 b llion On month-on-month basis (mom), the remittances in Februar y Fy23 w tnessed an increase of 4 9% when compared with the nf ow of $1 9 bi lion recorded n januar y Fy23

Pakistan (SBP) on Friday remittances inflows during Februar y 2023 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia ($454 6 mi lion) un ted Arab emirates ($269 2 mi lion), united Kingdom ($324 0 million) and united States of America ($219 4 mil ion) recorded at $47 1 mi lion $33 9 mi lion $5 2 m llion $37 4 mill on $66 5 mi lion $25 3 million $5 3 mi lion $6 9 m ll on $9 7 mil ion and $8 1 mil ion respectively

During the corresponding month overseas Pak stanis living in Bahrain sent $35 6 m ll on from Kuwa t $63 1 m llion, from Qatar $67 8 mil ion whereas $75 0 mill on were dispatched from Oman Similarly the inflows from germany France The netherlands Spa n italy greece Sweden Denmark ire and and Be gium were

According to data re eased by State Bank of

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