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Tuesday, 21 March, 2023 I 28 Shaban, 1444 Imran accuses govt of ‘viciously provoking’ army against PTI
Default watch: Is the government giving up?
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Rs 15.00 | Vol XIII No 262 I 08 Pages I Lahore Edition
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PM taKes PtI to tasK FoR 'launchIng sMeaR dRIve' agaInst aRMy chIeF g
urges overseas pakistanis to desist from campaign, defend integrity of army chief
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the country. he has called for decisive action to be taken against such individuals to preserve the integrity and stability of the nation. his statement came after supporters of former prime minister imran Khan took their protest to the streets of london, after staging a demonstration outside the house of pakistan muslim leaguenawaz (pml-n) supreme leader nawaz sharif. the protesters, numbering in the hundreds, gathered outside the residence of shehbaz sharif on edgware road where pro-Khan slogans were chanted during the protest.
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PTI did not run any campaign against army chief: Fawad Chaudhry LAHORE Staff rePort
pakistan tehreek-e-insaf (pti) vice president fawad chaudhry said on monday that his political party did not run any campaign against the army chief. fawad chaudhry, while talking to the journalists today, said that pti respects the army chief and it did not run any campaign against him. he said that the country cannot bear the consequences of ethnic riots. he asked the caretaker punjab chief minister mohsin naqvi to give his statements carefully instead of
PKR interbank rate weakens by Rs2 due to uncertainty surrounding IMF program g
rules out imposition of financial emerGency as debts pile up
playing with the fire. he said that naqvi should give balanced statements and refrain
Staff rePort
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on monday, the pakistani rupee faced a decline due to uncertainty around the revival of the imf program and a lack of confidence in the government. at 11:57am, the rupee was valued at rs283.7 per dollar, representing a depreciation of rs1.99 or 0.71% from the previous friday. the delay in the signing of the imf staff-level agreement and the absence of reassurances from friendly countries to fund a balance of payment gap have contributed to the lack of confidence in the government. the rupee is expected to appreciate once the imf loan program is revived, and higher inflows are expected during ramadan. the smuggling of dollars from afghanistan has also led to a shortage of dollars in the market. the delay in the imf agreement has raised concerns about pakistan’s ability to avoid default, as the imf has asked pakistan to arrange $7bn for debt servicing during the current fiscal year before releasing the $1.1bn tranche.
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interim Government constitutes Jit to probe violent clashes between police and supporters of imran Khan LAHORE
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from supporting the violence. chaudhry added that the chief minister should stop spreading hatred against a specific community. reacting to prime minister shehba sharif’s statement, he said that the premier’s statement is an attempt to create distance between the army and the nation. “pti has neither run any campaign against the army chief nor is planning to do it. pti respects the army chief.” the pti vice president said that imran Khan thinks if the military becomes weak then it will also make the country weaker.
Naqvi warns of stern action against future PTI ‘attacks’ on police g
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another audio-tape of former cJP saqib nisar surfaces
claims 'toxic politics' being spread through the diaspora
Staff rePort
he prime minister monday denounced a “vile campaign” that he claimed was initiated by the pakistan tehreek-e-insaf (pti) party to target the pakistan army and its chief, Gen. syed asim munir, in foreign countries. in a statement by the prime minister’s office (pmo), shehbaz sharif urged overseas pakistanis to speak out against this campaign and defend the honour and integrity of their country’s military. “the campaign against the army chief is intolerable and a continuation of the conspiracy against the institutions,” he declared. sharif, who has emerged significantly weakened from the political crisis, also claimed that “toxic politics” was being spread through the diaspora. he has also issued a call to “patriotic” citizens living abroad to reject and speak out against what he has called a “foreign-funded campaign” aimed at destabilising the country. the prime minister also expressed concern over the involvement of Khan in what he described as attempts to drag state institutions and their leaders into politics, which he said is in violation of the constitution. he has directed the interior minister, rana sanaullah Khan, to take strong action against those involved in anti-institution campaigns within
IHC suspends appointment of Director General PSQCA
the caretaker government of mohsin naqvi in punjab has formed a joint investigation team (Jit) to investigate the alleged torture of police personnel at the hands of pakistan tehreek-i-insaf (pti) supporters in lahore over the past week. announcing the decision in a press conference on monday, the interim chief minister also warned the opposition party of former prime minister imran Khan that any “future mistreatment” of law enforcement officials would be met with an “equivalent response.” intermittent clashes between Khan’s supporters and punjab police and paramilitary rangers personnel have erupted over the past few weeks. the clashes began when islamabad police attempted to arrest Khan at his Zaman park residence in lahore in connection with the toshakhana case. pti supporters resisted the arrest, resulting in several injuries among the police personnel.
another clash erupted on saturday when law enforcement agencies raided Khan’s house in his absence. pti workers reportedly clashed with police while trying to stop them from entering the house. naqvi expressed concern over the “mistreatment” of law enforcement officials and warned that the police will now respond to any mistreatment similarly. he also noted that the police had been unable to implement court orders due to their inability to enter the house. naqvi also criticised Khan’s “behaviour” and threatened to withdraw the security the government provided if he continues to verbally abuse police personnel. he declared that the police could not protect someone who mistreated them and expected the same force to safeguard them. he further said he had given full powers to the provincial police chief, usman anwar, to do what he deemed appropriate, and that no political party had reacted as aggressively as pti during its protest.
ISLAMABAD Staff rePort
a purported audio tape featuring a conversation between two voices believed to be that of former chief justice of pakistan saqib nisar and pti chief imran Khan’s lawyer Khawaja tariq raheem surfaced on monday. both former cJp nisar and lawyer raheem are talking about pml-n senior vice president maryam nawaz in the purported audio tape. while talking about maryam, raheem voice says: “the way she talks, she should be given a befitting reply. she must be sorted outside. this woman talks too much.” on this, former chief justice nisar replies: “do you know what i think. i remember what elder tarar sahib used to say. he would say if someone barks, stay away from him.” raheem: “that’s right. you have already given your reply on ary.” nisar: “alhamdulillah, i have got courage and i can bear this. i don’t want to get confused or depressed. if it’s necessary, i will let you know to explode something. then you should explode.” raheem: “Just let me know. i will do whatever you say.” nisar: “i will let you know.” raheem: “anytime you like.”
‘Rift’ with KP governor: ‘powerless’ caretaker cM mulling to resign PESHAWAR aziz Buneri
stark differences have cropped up between the caretaker chief minister of Khyber pakhtunkhwa (Kp) mohammad azam Khan and Kp’s Governor haji Ghulam ali and rumours were rife on monday that cm azam Khan was planning to resign from office due to governor’s overarching role and interference in his domain by governor and chief secretary Kp. though the Kp cm house spokesperson termed the reports regarding azam’s resignation as unfounded, he confirmed cm’s differences with Governor Ghulam ali. “the governor is biased. it is not possible to conduct a free and fair election with governor in the office,” the spokesperson said quoting caretaker cm azam. the reports of resignation of the cm were circulating on social media, quoting the chief minister saying: “when the governor has all the power, what is the need for me to get all the blame”. the spokesperson said that there was no truth in the reports about the resignation of the caretaker chief minister, “it is just a rumour”. further, reports of differences between the caretaker cm and the chief secretary were also being circulated on social media. a source close to the cm told this scribe that chief secretary Kp was also not implementing the orders of the cm and rather he was fully connected with the prime minister’s office, bypassing the chief minister. the source said that cm was planning to resign being powerless. pti moves sc against K-p governor, ecp pakistan tehreek-e-insaf (pti) leader mushtaq ahmad Ghani on monday filed a contempt petition against the K-p governor and the election commission of pakistan (ecp) for not announcing the date of elections in the province, saying it is a violation the supreme court (sc) order.
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Why the govt’s petrol cross-subsidisation scheme is a logistical nightmare g
Govt to introduce dual petrol rates; affluent customers set to be charGed rs 100 more whilst low-income Groups to be Given rs 100 discount LAHORE Daniyal ahmaD
on monday, minister of state for petroleum, musadik masood malik, announced that the government plans to increase petrol prices by rs100 for the wealthy and reduce them for low-income individuals in order to provide them with relief from fuel tariffs. during a press conference, he stated that the extra cost incurred by the affluent would be used to subsidise petrol for those in the low-income segment. this statement was made a day after prime minister shehbaz sharif declared a relief package for the poor, which includes a subsidy of rs50 for every litre of petrol. the subsidy will only be provided to
low-income consumers who own motorcycles, rickshaws, 800cc cars or other small cars. malik further elaborated on the subsidy today, revealing that the pm had ordered an increase in the subsidy to rs100, and stating that “the rich will be charged rs100 more and the poor will be charged rs100 less”. the petroleum subsidy programme is expected to be implemented within the next six weeks without any provision of subsidies. What is cross subsidisation? a cross-subsidy refers to a scenario where a particular group of customers or clients is charged a higher price for a product or service to offset a lower price provided to another group. Why is there a hesitance to call it a subsidy?
malik has steered clear of using the word ‘subsidy’ particularly to disassociate the current scheme from the petrol subsidy provided by the previous government last year. the subsidy was additionally carried by the incumbent government, until it eventually came to an end in June. the subsidy was a bone of contention between the previous Government, and the imf. as the current government looks to negotiate a staff level agreement with the imf, their reluctance to use the world subsidy is understandable. whether the imf seeks to scrap this ‘cross-subsidisation’ or not will be made evident in the days to come. Will this work? profit sought to examine whether any situation existed where the government’s scheme would work. the answer we found was that, yes it would. however, it would do so only under the most specific of terms, and that too primarily due to the lack of data available surrounding the entire endeavour. the oil companies advisory council (ocac) reported that the transport
sector consumed 654,110 metric tons or 654,110,000 litres of motor spirit (ms). at a weighted average price of rs 218 for the month of January, a total of rs 142.7 billion was generated in sales. the ocac does not provide a breakdown of sales within the transport sector based on the type of vehicles. however, profit was able to confirm with a senior source in the industry that total industry-wide consumption has a 35:65 between two and three wheelers, and four-wheelers respectively. a rs 100 fuel difference price would boil down to rs 172 and rs 372 at today’s petrol price based on the cross subsidy. assuming any given month with these prices sees the exact same demand as January, then the cross subsidy would generate rs 197.54 billion in total proceeds. this would be against the rs 177 billion that would be generated with January demand levels, if the cross subsidy would not be in place. the cross-subsidy would in this case pay for itself. however, this is just one aspect of the story.
from July 1 to december 31 2022, total consumption in the transport sector fell to 3.83 billion litres against the 4.52 billion litres over the same period in the previous year. the difference is a result of the average weighted price of ms from July 1 to december 31 being rs 229.14/litre against the rs 129.37/litre seen across the same period, the year prior. the 77.13% led to a 15.12% reduction in sales. similarly, utilising the 35:65 split, the weighted average price of petrol based on the cross subsidy would work out to be rs 302/litre. a 9.93% increase in the price of ms would then theoretically lead to 1.95% dip in the sales of ms. factoring in the dip in sales, the cross subsidy would then generate rs 197.5 billion. it would thus, still pay for itself. it is only under these circumstances that profit found the subsidy to work, and if the government has utilised similar statistics then they are in for a rude awakening.
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