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MAKKAH DEFENCE PACT HERALDS REGIONAL PEACE, MUSLIM UNITY: PM
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Tuesday, 11 August, 2026 | 27 Safar, 1448
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PM SHEHBAZ SAYS PAKISTAN-SAUDITÜRKIYE ACCORD IS PURELY DEFENSIVE, NOT AIMED AT ANY COUNTRY LEADERSHIP PRAISED FOR SAFEGUARDING NATIONAL INTERESTS AND ENHANCING PAKISTAN'S GLOBAL STANDING
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Rs 50.00 | Vol XVII No 137 | 48 Pages | Lahore Edition
CABINET HAILS PACT AS LANDMARK DIPLOMATIC AND DEFENCE DEVELOPMENT NATIONAL HOUSING POLICY 2026 APPROVED TO PROMOTE AFFORDABLE, SUSTAINABLE AND ENERGY-EFFICIENT HOUSING
Makkah Accord defensive, not directed against any country: Dar ISLAMABAD
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ISLAMABAD MIAN ABRAR
RIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday described the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia-Türkiye defence agreement as a significant step towards regional peace, stability and progress, stressing that the accord was purely defensive and not directed against any country. Chairing a meeting of the federal cabinet, the prime minister said the agreement, signed in Makkah on Friday, was significant not only for the three participating countries but also for the wider
Muslim Ummah. He said the accord was signed by himself, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reflecting the three countries’ shared commitment to peace and security. The prime minister noted that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia had already signed a bilateral defence agreement last year, while Islamabad and Ankara had maintained defence cooperation for decades. He thanked Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir for their efforts in
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday reiterated that the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye was purely defensive and not aimed at any country, saying the pact sought to strengthen collective deterrence against external aggression. In a message to the nation, Dar described the accord, signed in Makkah on August 7, as a “significant milestone” in Pakistan’s longstanding strategic ties with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye. He said the agreement reflected the three countries’ “brotherly bonds, shared values and common commitment to peace, security and stability” while providing a frame-
finalising the agreement after several years of negotiations. Referring to recent terrorist attacks, the prime minister paid tribute to security personnel who lost their lives in the line of
work to address evolving regional security challenges. Dar stressed that the pact was “defensive in nature” and “not directed against any country”, adding that its purpose was to enhance collective deterrence and strengthen the three countries’ ability to protect their sovereignty, territorial integrity and peoples. Under the agreement, an armed attack against any one of the three countries would be regarded as an attack against all three, consistent with the right of individual and collective selfdefence recognised under Article 51 of the UN Charter. The foreign minister emphasised that Pakistan remained committed to the peaceful settlement of disputes, respect for sovereignty and international law, and the promotion of regional peace, stability and prosperity.
duty, including Major Hafiz Ehsan Ilahi, Captain Hamza Akram and DSP Dayar Khan, and prayed for the departed souls.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 03
Dar briefs Iran's Araghchi on Makkah Defence Pact, reaffirms regional peace focus ISLAMABAD
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday briefed his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on the key contours of the recently signed Makkah Joint Defence Agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, stressing that the pact was aimed at strengthening strategic cooperation and promoting regional peace and security. According to the Foreign Office, Dar spoke with Araghchi by telephone and exchanged views on regional and international developments, with particular focus on the evolving security situation and efforts to promote peace and stability. Dar shared the key aspects of the trilateral agreement and underscored its objectives of strengthening strategic cooperation and contributing to regional peace and security. Araghchi thanked him for sharing the details, while the two ministers agreed to remain in close contact on matters of mutual interest. The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, signed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye on Friday, establishes a framework for collective security and defence cooperation under which an armed attack against any one of the three countries would be considered an attack against all three. The agreement builds on the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement signed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in September 2025, which contained a similar mutualdefence commitment. Iran has cautiously welcomed the trilateral arrangement, with Tehran closely watching developments amid heightened regional tensions. Separately, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said Araghchi and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf had been invited by Pakistan to visit Islamabad for talks. He said the visits would take place at an appropriate time, describing reciprocal visits and exchanges as a natural part of growing relations between the two neighbouring countries. Dar also held a telephone conversation with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, during which they discussed bilateral and multilateral cooperation as well as regional developments. The two ministers stressed the importance of continued close coordination at bilateral and international forums.
02 NEWS
Tuesday, 11 August, 2026 | LAHORE
Nepra approves 30-year 9.3843 Us ceNts/kWh tariff for GUlpUr hydropoWer project
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HE National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has approved a levelised tariff of 9.3843 US cents per kWh for a period of 30 years for the 102MW run-of-the-river Gulpur Hydropower Project, being established by Mira Power Limited (MPL), Business Recorder reported. According to Nepra's determination, the generation tariff will be Rs17.3751 per kWh for the first 12 years and Rs8.2686 per kWh for years 13 to 30, resulting in a levelised tariff of Rs14.8507 per kWh. The reference tariff was calculated based on a net contracted capacity of 100.98MW and net annual energy production of 474.996 GWh. The tariff will remain applicable for 30 years on a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer basis, commencing from the Commercial Operation Date. Debt servicing will be completed during the first 12 years of operations. Mira Power Limited, a subsidiary of Korea South-East Power Company (KOEN), developed the project on River Poonch in District Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K), under the
Power Generation Policy 2002. KOEN holds 76% shareholding in the project, DL Holdings holds 18%, and Lotte Engineering & Construction holds 6%. Sponsors received a Letter of Intent from the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) on March 12, 2005. Nepra had earlier approved a levelised tariff of 9.0241 US cents per kWh in a 2015 decision, along with applicable indexation and adjustment mechanisms, and directed the Central Power Purchasing Agency-Guarantee (CPPA-G) to submit
federal govt limits Balochistan flood rehabilitation scheme to 69,000 homes despite 134,000 verified families PROFIT
MONITORING REPORT
The federal government has capped the housing component of the Rs115 billion Integrated Flood Resilience & Adaptation Project (IFRAP) in Balochistan at around 69,000 homes despite 134,000 verified families and declined an additional $180 million in World Bank financing that could have supported reconstruction for more flood-hit households, Dawn reported. The decision was taken by the project steering committee (PSC), chaired by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal and Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti, at its June 22-23 meeting. The committee decided to redirect remaining housing funds towards roads and irrigation. The move comes amid investigations into alleged record tampering, duplicate claims and multiple payments for the same housing units. The steering committee also noted attempts to obstruct investigations. More than 134,000 flood-affected families had been surveyed and verified for assistance. The housing component has an allocation of $155 million and was designed to rebuild homes destroyed in the 2022 floods through a community-led, owner-driven model. The PSC also raised concerns over discrepancies in reported construction. Ahsan Iqbal noted that 15,000 completed houses had been presented to the prime minister, while official reports showed 8,694. The planning minister and Balochistan chief minister ordered an independent high-level inquiry. The Planning Commission has proposed satellite imagery to verify construction progress. The Planning Commission said the housing programme had not been stopped, with around 75,000 fully damaged houses under construction, including 26,000 completed. It said the original Ecnec-approved housing component covered 68,922 homes. Of the project's $400 million total financing envelope, $245 million has been signed, according to the commission. The commission said the project also covers education, health, public health engineering, irrigation, bridges, roads, livelihoods and youth skills development, and alleged that vested interests sought to divert funds from these areas towards housing. The Economic Affairs Division recorded World Bank concerns over changes in project leadership arrangements. Sources said Ahsan Iqbal and World Bank Country Director Bolormaa Amgaabazar have held at least two meetings to resolve the issues. The Planning Commission also rejected comparisons with Sindh's Sindh People's Housing for Flood Affectees (SPHF) programme, which involves around $3 billion and more than 2 million homes. It said IFRAP is a federal-budget project financed through a single World Bank loan, while the Sindh programme is directly borrowed by the provincial government from multiple lenders and implemented through a Section 42 entity.
an amended Power Purchase Agreement. MPL subsequently sought revision of that decision, citing severe liquidity constraints since its tariff was indexed at Rs104.85/USD while debt repayments were being made at rates around Rs150/USD. In response, Nepra's March 2021 decision allowed interim modification of the EPC-stage tariff based on an exchange rate of Rs158.25/USD, the rate prevailing at COD on March 10, 2020, subject to final adjustment.
The project also faced delays due to force majeure events, leading to extended timelines and additional cost claims. In an additional note, Member (Tariff and Finance) Amina Ahmed said the COD adjustment request, filed in March 2022, had been delayed for over three years and should have been decided earlier. She disagreed with the majority decision to disallow exchange rate variation on the entire EPC cost, arguing Nepra's reasoning was inconsistent with past precedents where such variations had been allowed. She agreed, however, with keeping civil works costs in PKR based on the specific escalation mechanism in the reference tariff. Ahmed said the electrical and mechanical (E&M) component of the EPC cost, worth $9.55 million, should have qualified for exchange rate indexation since it was incurred in foreign currency and was not covered under the approved PKR-based escalation mechanism. She cited the Laraib Energy project as precedent, where similar onshore EPC costs were treated as USD-based and allowed exchange rate variation. "There is no justifiable reason to deny Mira Power exchange rate variation on this component," she said.
Turkish Petroleum to invest in offshore drilling as Pakistan seeks energy security through regional cooperation PROFIT NEWS DESK
Pakistan is looking to strengthen its energy security through regional cooperation, domestic exploration and expanded refining capacity, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik said Sunday, highlighting planned Turkish investment in offshore drilling as part of efforts to reduce the country's reliance on imported energy. Speaking to media in Lahore, Malik said Turkiye's state-owned Turkish Petroleum will undertake offshore drilling in Pakistani waters, with an expected investment of $120 million, as part of efforts to develop indigenous resources. The minister said Pakistan currently imports around 90% of its energy needs, with domestic oil production covering only a fraction of demand. He put the country's daily oil requirement at roughly 500,000 barrels, against domestic production of about 70,000 barrels a day. Malik said Pakistan should leverage its deepening strategic and economic ties with Saudi Arabia and Turkiye to pursue sustainable growth, describing the recently signed Makkah Joint Defence Agreement between the three countries as a source of national pride, comparable to Pakistan's earlier
emergence as a nuclear power. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar separately described the pact as "purely defensive," intended to promote regional peace and stability rather than target any country. Malik said Pakistan had played a role in efforts to end the US-Iran conflict and should now focus on consolidating economic gains. He said the country had emerged as a "net security provider" in the region, with Saudi Arabia's economic strength, Turkiye's development experience and Pakistan's defence capabilities seen as complementary. On fuel prices, Malik said international oil markets had seen sharp volatility during the US-Iran conflict, but Pakistan avoided the fuel shortages and long queues seen elsewhere in the region, crediting government planning and the prime minister's directive to ensure roundthe-clock fuel availability. He suggested consumers could see relief in the coming days if international prices hold steady, noting that per-barrel rates had fallen from $112 to $108 and then to $100 over recent days, based on Ogra's weekly pricing average. Malik said the government had made the pricing mechanism more transparent by publishing relevant
pricing sheets on Ogra's website, and that the prime minister had committed to a "fair and transparent" system for setting fuel prices. The minister questioned why Pakistan had remained dependent on imported energy for decades without adequately developing domestic oil and gas resources, and why petroleum levies had been collected for years without building adequate strategic reserves. He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir had tasked a major international company with developing a mechanism to address the country's long-term energy challenges, to be presented to leadership in the coming months. Malik said the federal cabinet had already approved a refinery policy aimed at strengthening domestic refining capacity, while questioning whether international companies could be expected to invest in Pakistan given more than Rs1.5 trillion in alleged unpaid dues to local oil companies over the years. He added that the LPG tendering process was scheduled to open Monday, alongside new arrangements for gas connections to address longstanding issues in the sector.
Pakistan receives $3.63 billion in remittances in July, up 13% YoY PROFIT
NEWS DESK
Overseas Pakistanis sent $3.631 billion in remittances in July 2026, marking a 13% year-on-year increase and a 4.5% month-on-month rise, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday. The July remittances of $3.63 billion are the second-highest monthly inflow shown in the FY26 trend, behind the $4.25 billion recorded in May 2026. Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif expressed his satisfaction over the receipt of $3.6 billion in remittances from overseas Pakistanis in July 2026. “Remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis increased by 13% year-on-year in July 2026, which is highly encouraging,” the prime minister said in a statement issued by the PM Office. The prime minister said that the consistent and positive contribution of overseas Pakistanis to the stability and growth of the national econ-
omy is highly commendable. He noted that the overseas Pakistanis were a valuable and integral part of the national economic mainstream. Country-wise breakdown Pakistanis working in Saudi Arabia sent the largest amount in July, with inflows reaching $914 million, up 11% from $824 million in July 2025. On a monthly basis, Saudi remittances increased 10% from $830 million in June 2026. Remittances from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) rose 11% year-on-year to $737 million in July from $665 million a year earlier. However, UAE inflows declined 7% month-on-month from June. Overseas Pakistanis in the United Kingdom sent $555 million during July, an increase of 23% from $450 million in the same month last year. Remittances from the United States stood at $317 million, up 7% month-on-month from $296 million in June. Inflows from other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries
rose to $336 million, increasing 14% year-on-year from $296 million and 5% month-on-month from $321 million. Inflows from European Union (EU) countries reached $462 million in July, registering an 11% increase from $415 million in June. Among other sources, remittances from Australia reached $83 million, up 6% year-on-year; Canada contributed $64 million, up 9%; Malaysia sent $13 million, up 1%; while inflows classified as Others amounted to $148 million, increasing 11% year-on-year. The July inflows also follow a strong performance in the previous fiscal year, when workers’ remittances rose 9% to $41.6 billion during July-June FY26, compared with $38.3 billion recorded in FY25. Remittances remain an important source of foreign exchange for Pakistan, supporting the country’s external account while contributing to economic activity and household incomes.
pakistan airports authority marks two years with major airport expansion projects PROFIT
MONITORING REPORT
The Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) has embarked on a multibillion-rupee expansion and modernisation drive as it completes two years since its establishment, managing 26 operational airports and serving more than 22 million passengers annually. The New Gwadar International Airport has been completed at a cost of Rs55 billion, while Karachi airport's main runway has been reconstructed at a cost of Rs10 billion. The authority has also completed rehabilitation and upgradation of airports at Dera Ismail Khan, Parachinar and Turbat. Major expansion projects are under way at Lahore and Skardu airports, with Rs43 billion allocated for Lahore and Rs70 billion for the Skardu development programme. Islamabad airport has been converted into the country's first fully cashless airport. Other projects include a cargo village at Karachi airport, a new air traffic control tower at Peshawar airport, and a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Islamabad airport, alongside spending on modern security-screening systems, egates and air traffic management systems. The authority is considering new greenfield airports at Sukkur, Faisalabad and Dera Ismail Khan. PAA has secured a development budget of more than Rs69 billion for FY2026-27, a 110% increase.
Bank of punjab proposes rs30b share issuance to Government of punjab PROFIT
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The Bank of Punjab (BOP) has proposed the issuance of ordinary shares to the Government of Punjab against an equity subscription of up to Rs 30 billion, the bank disclosed to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday. The disclosure was made in accordance with Section 96 of the Securities Act, 2015, Clause 5.6.1 of the PSX Rule Book, and Regulation 5(2) of the Companies (Further Issue of Shares) Regulations, 2020. BOP said its Board of Directors, in their 334th (Emergent) meeting held on August 7, 2026, approved the proposal, subject to obtaining all applicable regulatory and corporate approvals. The shares will be issued otherwise than by way of a right issue. The subscription will be undertaken in two tranches: up to Rs 20 billion by December 31, 2026, and the remaining balance by June 30, 2027. The price for the proposed issue has been set at Rs 38.20 per ordinary share. Should the prevailing market price of the bank's shares at the time of issuance exceed Rs 38.20, the applicable issue price will instead be the prevailing market price plus a 5% premium. The bank said the proposed issuance remains subject to obtaining all requisite approvals, including from shareholders through an Extraordinary General Meeting, as well as from relevant regulatory authorities, including the State Bank of Pakistan and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. BOP said further developments in this regard would be communicated to the PSX in accordance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
pakistan railways seeks lte-r band for karachi-sukkur Ml-1 section PROFIT
MONITORING REPORT
Pakistan Railways is pursuing allocation of the Long Term Evolution for Railways (LTE-R) band for the Karachi-Sukkur section of the ML-1 railway project as the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) works on expanding modern communications infrastructure along major transport corridors, Business Recorder reported. The LTE-R initiative forms part of a broader strategy to improve mobile coverage and quality of service (QoS) along railway routes, motorways, highways, tourist destinations and other underserved areas. Under the plan, cellular mobile operators (CMOs) will be required to accelerate network expansion by establishing additional base transceiver station (BTS) sites and introducing 5G services in phases. The Universal Service Fund (USF) will focus on commercially unviable locations, including transport corridors where private operators may have limited incentives to invest.
PSX erases early gains as uncertainty lingers over US-Iran peace deal, Strait of Hormuz reopening PROFIT
NEWS DESK
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) opened on a bullish note but slipped into selling territory, weighed down by uncertainty over a US-Iran peace deal and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran insisting Washington must satisfy several demands before the waterway can reopen. According to the PSX website, the benchmark KSE-100 Index climbed over 700 points to an intraday high of 182,347.50 in the early minutes of trading. The market held its positive momentum
for part of the session, supported by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data showing remittances from overseas Pakistanis rose 13% year-on-year to $3.631 billion in July 2026, up 4.5% month-on-month. However, it came under selling pressure after 12:00 pm, shedding over 500 points at one point. Selling was seen across automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, and power generation. The index settled at 181,310.28, down by 119.74 from the previous close. During the previous week, ended Friday, the PSX staged a strong recovery as progress in diplomatic talks between Iran and Oman
over the Strait of Hormuz shipping, along with expectations of a broader US-Iran agreement, eased geopolitical concerns and boosted investor sentiment. The KSE-100 gained 5,335.89 points, or 3%, week-onweek, to close at 181,430.02 points. Three brokerage firms said in separate notices that Pakistan's equity market is expected to build on its recent momentum, with improving economic indicators, easing geopolitical tensions and an ongoing corporate earnings season serving as key supports for the KSE-100 in the coming weeks, even as risks tied to the Middle East conflict and domestic political developments continue to
weigh on sentiment Global equities inched higher on Monday as oil prices held broadly steady after Iran said it was nearing a final pact with Oman defining new shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz, but reiterated that the waterway would only reopen once the United States met other conditions. Europe's continent-wide Stoxx 600 index rose 0.1% while futures for the U.S. S&P 500 climbed 0.2% and those for the tech-focused Nasdaq were up 0.4%. Asian shares rose overnight, tracking Wall Street stocks, which hit a record high on Friday after a weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report caused traders to cut their bets
on Federal Reserve rate hikes. Japan's Nikkei rose 2.1%, while South Korea added 0.7%. Overall, the MSCI index of global stocks climbed 0.1% on Monday. Brent crude futures stood at $83.74 a barrel, up 19 cents, by 0807 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 3 cents at $78.21. Both benchmarks fell more than 7% last week on hopes that Iran and Oman were close to reaching a deal that would result in a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which carried a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas before the Middle East conflict that began at the end of February.
NEWS 03
OICCI MEMBERS INVEST OVER $23B IN PAKISTAN IN A DECADE
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OREIGN companies affiliated with the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) have invested more than $23 billion in Pakistan over the past decade, surpassing the country’s cumulative net foreign direct investment inflows of $21 billion during the same period. The figures were reported in OICCI’s Members’ Contribution to the Economy 2025 report, released on Monday, which
Pakistan, Russia seek deeper cooperation in agriculture, livestock PROFIT
Web Desk
Pakistan and Russia have agreed to explore practical avenues for expanding cooperation in agriculture and livestock, including the supply of farm machinery, fertilisers, pesticides, vaccines and related technologies. The development came during a meeting chaired by Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain with Nikita Buzanov, a representative of Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development. Buzanov said Russian companies and institutions were interested in expanding agricultural cooperation with Pakistan and were prepared to explore opportunities to supply machinery, fertilisers, pesticides and vaccines. He also pointed to opportunities to increase bilateral trade in agricultural products and strengthen institutional links between the two countries. Rana Tanveer said Pakistan attached significant importance to its relations with Russia and wanted to expand trade, technology and technical cooperation in areas connected with food security and agricultural productivity. The minister highlighted the need for modern agricultural machinery to increase farm productivity, lower production costs and accelerate mechanisation, while seeking greater Russian cooperation in the sector. He also called for improved access to quality fertilisers and pesticides at affordable prices, saying stronger cooperation with Russia could contribute to higher agricultural productivity and food security. Cooperation in livestock and animal health was also discussed, with Rana Tanveer stressing the importance of access to quality vaccines and modern technologies for disease prevention and improving livestock productivity. Both sides agreed to maintain consultations and identify mutually beneficial projects aimed at improving agricultural productivity, access to farm inputs and Pakistan’s broader food security.
Meezan Bank’s GHTA housing finance disbursements cross Rs3bn PROFIT
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Meezan Bank has crossed Rs3.05 billion in cumulative disbursements under the government’s Wazir-e-Azam Apna Ghar Programme – Ghar Ho Tu Apna (GHTA), as demand for subsidised housing finance continues to build. The bank said it has so far approved more than 3,000 housing finance applications under the programme, with the total approved financing exceeding Rs22.557 billion. The GHTA initiative, launched by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on April 30, 2026, is designed to expand access to affordable, long-term housing finance for low- and middle-income households. The programme also seeks to support economic activity by encouraging construction. Meezan Bank said the latest disbursement milestone reflects demand for its Shariahcompliant housing finance products and its participation in the government’s affordable housing drive. The programme was formulated following consultations with the private sector, the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). Ahmed Ali Siddiqui, Group Head – Consumer Finance & Digital Banking at Meezan Bank, said affordable home ownership remained among the bank’s strategic priorities. “With more than 3,000 approved applications in the pipeline, we remain committed to supporting the Government’s affordable housing agenda and enabling thousands more Pakistani families to own a home through ethical Islamic financing,” he said.
conditions. Their profit before tax (PBT) grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26% in rupee terms between 2021 and 2025, down from 35% in the previous reporting period. OICCI attributed the moderation primarily to exchange rate movements and a higher base effect. In dollar terms, PBT recorded a CAGR of 11%. Turnover increased at a CAGR of 21% in rupee terms and 6% in dollar terms during the period. The report showed that foreign-invested companies maintained a significant presence across several major segments of Pakistan’s economy.
highlighted the continued investment and reinvestment by foreign-owned businesses operating in Pakistan. OICCI member companies recorded gross revenue of Rs13.1 trillion during FY2025, while their total assets stood at Rs42 trillion. The companies also spent Rs615 billion on capital expenditure (CAPEX) and contributed Rs3.2 trillion in government levies, according to the report. The report also examined the performance of 51 OICCI member companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), showing continued operational and financial resilience despite difficult macroeconomic
Transport strike threatens Pakistan textile production, export shipments g
PAKISTAN’S TEXTILE INDUSTRY WARNS A NATIONWIDE TRANSPORTERS’ STRIKE IS DISRUPTING COTTON SUPPLIES AND EXPORT CONTAINERS. APTMA AND PTC URGE PM SHEHBAZ TO BROKER A SWIFT DEAL WITH TRANSPORT SECTOR DEMANDS PROFIT
Web Desk
Pakistan’s textile industry has urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to intervene in the nationwide transporters’ strike, warning that prolonged disruption could affect production, export shipments and the sector’s supply chains. The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) and Pakistan Textile Council (PTC), in separate letters to the prime minister, called for an urgent resolution to the deadlock between the government and transport sector. The strike began on August 8 after goods transporters and oil tanker operators suspended services following unsuccessful
negotiations with the government. The transporters are seeking the withdrawal of the government’s decision to revise diesel prices on a daily basis, reversal of the recent increase in toll taxes and restoration of toll rates to their June 30, 2024 level. They are also demanding a reduction in withholding tax from 7% to 2%. APTMA said the disruption had affected the availability of export containers, imported cotton containers and trucks used to transport locally sourced cotton. It warned that mills were already holding low cotton stocks towards the end of the season and that delays in the arrival of imported and locally sourced cotton could interrupt production, with potential consequences for exports, employment and for-
Web Desk
Switzerland-based energy trading company Gunvor Group has expressed interest in supporting Pakistan’s refinery modernisation drive and expanding cooperation in the country’s petroleum sector. A Gunvor delegation led by Global Head of Portfolio Shahb Richyal met Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Cheema on Monday to discuss investment and cooperation opportunities in the energy and petroleum sectors, according to a government statement. The delegation also included Corporate Affairs Director Seth Thomas Pietras
eign exchange earnings. The association also pointed to previous transport disruptions, saying they had resulted in delayed export shipments, financial losses and interruptions to mill operations. PTC Chairman Fawad Anwar said the strike was disrupting the movement of raw materials and export consignments across Pakistan. The council said the textile and apparel industry depended on uninterrupted transport to move imported and locally sourced inputs to manufacturing facilities and deliver finished goods to ports. According to the PTC, export containers are facing movement restrictions, imported raw materials are being delayed at ports, while locally procured cotton and other essential inputs are struggling to
Makkah Defence Pact heralds regional peace, Muslim unity: PM CONTINUED FROM PAGE 01
On the situation in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Shehbaz said polling had concluded in Mirpur and Muzaffarabad divisions, while voting was under way in two districts of Poonch division. He said the PML-N had secured substantial public support in the completed phases and, along with reserved refugee seats, was close to forming a majority. The prime minister described the electoral outcome as a vote of confidence in PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and thanked the people of AJK for their support. He stressed that no civilised society could tolerate lawlessness and urged political forces to resolve their differences through dialogue. Referring to an All Parties Conference held in Muzaffarabad, he said political parties had been advised to raise unresolved issues, including the allocation of refugee seats, before the new assembly. The prime minister also reviewed preparations for Independence Day on August 14 and reaffirmed the government's commitment to building Pakistan
in accordance with the vision of Quaidi-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
CABINET LAUDS LEADERSHIP OVER DEFENCE ACCORD: Meanwhile, the federal cabinet unanimously passed a resolution commending Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir for their “wise and far-sighted leadership”, enhancement of Pakistan’s global standing and defence of national interests. The cabinet termed the trilateral defence agreement with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye a landmark diplomatic and defence development and an important step towards strengthening unity and consensus among the Muslim Ummah. The cabinet also approved the National Housing Policy 2026 and its implementation plan, aimed at ensuring sustainable, safe and quality housing for citizens. It directed authorities to ensure compliance with zoning laws, promote vertical housing for efficient land use and incorporate energy-efficiency codes
into housing projects. The cabinet was also briefed on the Prime Minister’s Apna Ghar scheme, under which banks have approved loans worth Rs220 billion, with more than Rs32 billion already released to successful applicants. The cabinet approved withdrawal of the notice terminating the 1981 Bilateral Investment Treaty between Pakistan and Sweden on a summary submitted by the Board of Investment. It also approved the Pakistan Information Security Framework 2026, describing it as a key document for strengthening cybersecurity and establishing uniform information-security standards under the CERT Rules 2023. The cabinet further ratified decisions of the Cabinet Committee on Energy, including proposed amendments to the Pakistan Oil Refining Policy 2023 aimed at upgrading oil refineries and improving the country’s energy security. Decisions taken by the Economic Coordination Committee on July 27 and August 4, as well as those of the Cabinet Committee on Legislation on July 24, were also ratified.
reach textile mills. The council acknowledged that the transporters’ demands required coordination between various government departments and levels of administration. However, it warned that the economic cost of the prolonged impasse would continue to rise. PTC called on Prime Minister Shehbaz to bring relevant government authorities and transport-sector representatives to the negotiating table to reach an early settlement. The disruption comes as Pakistan’s textile exports recorded marginal growth in the recently concluded fiscal year. According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data, textile exports increased 0.26% to $17.93 billion in July-June 2025-26, compared with $17.88 billion in 2024-25.
Govt keeps petrol, diesel prices unchanged for Aug 11 amid non-publication of Platts prices ISLAMABAD
AhmAD AhmADAni
The government has neither increased nor decreased the ex-depot prices of petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) for August 11, keeping both rates unchanged due to the nonpublication of Platts prices on August 10. According to the Petroleum Division, the exdepot price of HSD will remain at Rs380.86 per litre, while the price of Motor Spirit (MS), commonly known as petrol, will continue at Rs327.62 per litre on August 11. The latest clarification states that the same ex-depot prices applicable from August 8 to 10 will remain unchanged for August 11 because Platts prices were not published on August 10, 2026.
BankIslami appoints Deputy CEO Imran Haleem Shaikh as President and CEO PROFIT
PTCL says target of proposed majority stake acquisition remains undecided PROFIT
Web Desk
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has said it is too early to identify the company targeted under its proposed acquisition of a majority stake, stressing that the binding offer remains under negotiation and no final decision has been taken. The clarification was issued on Monday in response to an enquiry from the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) following media reports linking PTCL’s proposed investment to a particular digital wallet. PTCL said its Board of Directors had initially authorised the company to explore investment opportunities in Pakistan’s microfinance sector. The board subsequently approved the submission of a binding offer related to the
acquisition of a majority shareholding in an unnamed target company. The company said reports identifying a specific target were speculative, adding that information regarding the proposed majority stake acquisition may already be circulating publicly. “Any inference identifying a specific target is premature and speculative,” PTCL said, adding that the binding offer was still being negotiated and its finalisation remained underway. The company also referred to its earlier communication to the PSX dated July 21, 2023, through which it had informed the exchange that its board had authorised exploration of potential investment opportunities in Pakistan’s microfinance sector. PTCL said that mandate remained valid and that it continued to assess potential opportunities as part of its ordi-
Gunvor Group signals interest in Pakistan refinery upgrades, petroleum reforms PROFIT
fidence of member companies in Pakistan’s long-term economic prospects. He said OICCI members had continued to reinvest, expand operations and contribute to the economy despite challenging conditions. According to Aleem, the more than $23 billion invested by members over the past decade represented a significant vote of confidence in Pakistan’s future. He added that consistent policies, greater regulatory predictability and a more supportive business environment could encourage foreign investors to contribute further to economic growth, exports, innovation and employment.
Oil, gas and energy companies accounted for 36% of total government levies paid by OICCI members. Meanwhile, banking, insurance, finance and leasing companies represented 75.6% of total assets and 25% of overall turnover. Telecommunications companies accounted for 33% of total CAPEX, while OICCI members operating in food and consumer products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, automobiles, engineering, shipping and airlines also recorded substantial contributions. OICCI Secretary General M. Abdul Aleem said the report demonstrated the con-
and Head of Corporate Affairs Kashif Mayo. During the meeting, Gunvor officials informed Cheema that Parco Gunvor Limited (PGL) was expanding its business and network in Pakistan. The minister welcomed the plans and assured the delegation that the government would facilitate legitimate business and investment activities by international companies. The two sides also discussed Pakistan’s efforts to upgrade and modernise its oil refineries. Cheema said the government was pursuing measures to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of the petroleum sector, while the Gunvor delegation expressed willingness to support refinery
upgrades and explore further areas of cooperation. Oil price deregulation was another key issue discussed during the meeting. Cheema said the government’s proposed deregulation policy could soon be approved by the Cabinet, describing the move as an important step towards developing a more competitive and efficient petroleum market. Gunvor Group welcomed the proposed policy, saying deregulation could encourage greater competition among oil marketing companies (OMCs) and improve efficiency across the sector. The minister also briefed the delegation on reforms involving Pakistan State
nary business activities. The clarification follows PTCL’s disclosure last Friday that its board had approved submission of a binding offer to acquire a majority stake in an unnamed company. The disclosure prompted speculation in market and industry circles that the target could be a digital wallet. PTCL, however, reiterated that no specific target could be identified at this stage and that the transaction had not been finalised. The company said it would immediately notify the PSX of any material development or final decision concerning the proposed transaction in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements. PTCL also noted that transactions of this nature are subject to competitive bidding, meaning any outcome at the current stage would not be definitive.
Oil (PSO), stressing the need to strengthen the state-owned oil marketing company through institutional and operational changes. Gunvor officials, meanwhile, appreciated the government’s efforts to maintain fuel supplies during the recent Gulf crisis. According to the statement, they noted that adequate fuel remained available in Pakistan despite difficult international conditions. Cheema said maintaining fuel supplies and stable prices during the crisis had been challenging, adding that the government worked with the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and other stakeholders to ensure uninterrupted supplies and minimise disruptions for consumers. The minister also highlighted OGRA’s role in regulating and overseeing the petroleum sector, while outlining the government’s wider reform agenda focused on improving transparency, efficiency, competition and investment in the energy market.
Web Desk
BankIslami Pakistan Limited has appointed Shahid Hussain Jatoi as chairman of its Board of Directors for a three-year term, effective August 10, 2026. The appointment was made at the newly elected board’s first meeting on August 10, according to a notice issued by the bank to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The bank also announced a change at the top management level, with Deputy CEO Imran Haleem Shaikh set to become President and chief executive officer (CEO) for a three-year term beginning September 29, 2026. Shaikh’s appointment remains subject to the required regulatory clearance from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). Rizwan Ata, who currently serves as President and CEO, will remain in the position until the end of his existing threeyear term on September 28, 2026. The board recognised and appreciated his contributions, the bank said in a separate notice. BankIslami Pakistan Limited was incorporated in 2004 as a public limited company by Jahangir Siddiqui & Company Limited and the Randaree family. Dubai Bank subsequently became a founding shareholder in 2005.
Govt appoints Muhammad Ali Malik as SBP deputy governor PROFIT
Web Desk
The federal government has appointed Muhammad Ali Malik as Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for a fiveyear term with immediate effect. The appointment was made under Section 11A(2) of the State Bank of Pakistan Act, 1956, as amended in 2022, according to a notification issued by the Finance Division on Monday. The notification stated that the federal government had appointed Malik to the position for five years, effective immediately. The order was issued by the Internal Finance Wing of the Finance Division and signed by Deputy Secretary Amna Shabbir. Malik assumes the role as the central bank continues to oversee monetary policy, regulate the banking sector and maintain financial stability amid changing economic conditions.
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04 COMMENT
The art of taxing the powerless
Tuesday, 11 August, 2026
Unquiet youth
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HE Cockroach Janta Party may sound like the invention of an internet prank, but the anger animating India’s young protesters is anything but frivolous. Gen Z has brought memes, irreverent names and digital organising to the street. In Jharkhand, however, the response has been brutally conventional: tear gas, water cannon and police batons. Thousands of students and unemployed young people marched towards the state legislature on Monday after more than two weeks of protests over alleged irregularities in civil service examinations, including paper leaks. Some demonstrators pushed through barricades and scuffled with police. Yet this cannot obscure the substance of their demands: clean examinations, cancelled disputed tests and an impartial investigation. These are not abstract political slogans. They concern access to scarce public employment in one of India’s poorer states. Nor is the agitation an isolated disturbance. It follows weeks of demonstrations in Delhi over leaked national examination papers, which forced two million candidates to retake tests and ultimately contributed to the education minister’s resignation. Student anger in India is clearly far from spent. Each scandal confirms the same suspicion: that even after studying, competing and waiting, young people may find the path to employment distorted by corruption. The wider region should recognise the pattern. In Bangladesh, a student movement that began over publicsector job quotas widened into a revolt against repression and brought down Sheikh Hasina’s long rule. In Nepal, Gen Z mobilisation against corruption, nepotism and restrictions on social media rapidly became a national political crisis. The idiom may be new, shaped by memes, platforms and deliberately unconventional symbols, but the grievances are rooted in bread-and-butter questions of fairness, dignity and the future. India’s case carries an additional warning. Its increasingly authoritarian political climate has made coercion a recurring answer to dissent. The Jharkhand government is run by an opposition party, but the reflex extends beyond one state or administration. In Delhi, police and paramilitary forces also met young protesters with tear gas, pellet guns and batons. A democracy cannot preserve its legitimacy by treating every march as a security problem and every angry student as a threat. Youth movements seldom emerge from youthful impatience alone. They gather force when education no longer promises mobility, recruitment loses credibility and employment becomes an indefinitely postponed reward. Governments that focus on the spectacle of protest will miss its message. Humour can organise anger, but it does not make that anger unserious. South Asia’s young are asking whether the systems they will inherit contain a place for them. Batons cannot supply the answer.
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Dr Zafar Khan safDar
here is an ancient principle of just taxation, articulated across every serious tradition of political philosophy from Ibn Khaldun to Adam Smith, that a state must tax what it can fairly reach rather than simply what it can most easily find. The distinction matters enormously, because the easiest things to tax are rarely the fairest things to tax, and a fiscal system built on convenience rather than equity does not merely collect revenue. It redistributes the burden of the state downward, onto those least able to carry it, while releasing upward those most able to contribute. Pakistan’s electricity bill has become the most eloquent illustration of how completely that principle has been abandoned. Federal Board of Revenue informed the Senate this week that it collected Rs 476 billion in taxes through electricity bills in FY2026 alone. Across the previous fiscal year it collected Rs 562 billion through the same mechanism, and Rs 515 billion the year before that. The four-year cumulative total approaches Rs 1.9 trillion, extracted not through a broad, equitable tax system applied across the economy but through a single monthly document that arrives in every household regardless of income, regardless of tax liability, and regardless of whether the person paying it has ever been assessed for taxation at all. The collections in FY2026 included Rs 351 billion in sales tax and Rs 124 billion in income tax, with income tax drawn from industrial consumers, commercial users, non-filer domestic consumers, and even ordinary household consumers under Section 235 of the Income Tax Ordinance. The architecture of this system rewards evasion and penalises compliance with a consistency that would be remarkable if it were not so familiar. In inflation-adjusted terms, Pakistan’s tax collection in 2024 was at the same level as in 2008 and 2016, despite increases in the minimum income tax rate from five percent to fifteen percent and rising rates for the salaried class, a damning indictment of a system that has repeatedly raised rates on those already paying while failing to bring new taxpayers into the net. Between Rs 400 billion and Rs 500 billion in adjustable income tax withholding goes unclaimed annually, meaning that people outside the formal tax net are content paying indirect taxes embedded in their utility bills rather than entering
Dedicated to the legacy of late Hameed Nizami
Arif Nizami (Late)
a system they neither trust nor benefit from, while those not liable to pay income tax at all continue absorbing withholding deductions because the state has found it easier to collect first and adjudicate liability never. A parliamentary panel member described tax collection through electricity bills as tantamount to coercion, a characterisation the FBR chairman did not dispute, instead warning that electricity may face additional taxes on the grounds that it receives the highest concessions. The concessions argument deserves examination because it reveals the moral logic of the system with uncomfortable clarity. Pakistan’s retail sector, comprising an estimated 3.5 million retailers, has been offered a fixed tax scheme with no audit provisions, an arrangement one parliamentarian accurately described as a tax amnesty for those who have never paid. The National Assembly panel cleared this scheme on the grounds that the government must start somewhere to bring retailers into the tax net, while the salaried class, which has no such exemption from audit or accountability, continues to be withheld from at source with no equivalent consideration. Agriculture, contributing nearly a quarter of GDP, remains substantively untaxed. Real estate, absorbing enormous domestic liquidity, contributes a fraction of what comparable economies extract from property transactions. The informal sector, estimated at between 35 and 40 percent of the total economy, operates largely outside the fiscal system entirely. The electricity bill taxes everyone who cannot afford to opt out, which is to say it taxes Pakistan’s formal working and middle classes, and then presents the resulting revenue figure as evidence of fiscal effort. This is not merely an injustice, though it is
M. A. Niazi
Babar Nizami
Editor Pakistan Today
Editor Profit
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Zeeshan hayat
HE recent release of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Yearbook 2026 has once again underscored India’s military frenzy. As per SIPRI, India is the 5th largest military spender in the world with expenditure of around US$92.1 billion. At the same time, it is the world’s second-largest arms importer only after Ukraine, a position largely influenced by extraordinary Western military assistance to Kyiv because of its war with Russia; otherwise India would have retained its long-standing position as the world’s largest arms importer. These figures are more than statistics. They reflect an ambitious military modernization programme with the aim of achieving regional hegemony and global fire power. This unprovoked modernization has received considerable technological, diplomatic and political support from the West, especially US and its allies under their strategy of making India a counterweight to China in Asia Pacific. However, India has failed to play its expected role, which raises an important question: Is the West making a threat for itself in coming years? Over the years, India’s defence procurement from US and its allies has expanded significantly in both scale and diversity. US has become a key defence partner, supplying P-8I maritime patrol aircraft, C-17 Globemaster III strategic airlifters, C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft, AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters, MQ9B armed drones, M777 ultra-light howitzers, and advanced maritime surveillance systems, while cooperation has also expanded to intelligence sharing, logistics, joint exercises, and technology collaboration under iCET— Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology. France has strengthened India’s military modernization through Rafale fighter aircraft for Air Force, Rafale-M fighters for the Navy, Scorpène-class submarines, advanced radar systems, missile cooperation, and next-generation combat aircraft and submarine technologies. Israel has supplied Phalcon airborne early warning aircraft, Barak-8 air defence missiles, Heron and Searcher UAVs, Spike anti-tank guided missiles, precision-guided munitions, electronic warfare systems, advanced surveillance equipment, and border security technologies, significantly enhancing India’s intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and indigenous defence capabilities. Despite the West opening its technological gates and military hardware to India, New Delhi is playing a double game. Although portraying China as a threat, the bilateral annual trade between India and China has reached $135 billion. Interestingly, while being considered a strategic
ally of the US and the West, India has remained silent on the Russian Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine and avoided criticizing Russia. New Delhi has also abstained from successive votes in the UN Security Council, General Assembly, and Human Rights Council that condemned Russian operation in Ukraine. India is also a member of BRICS – which has condemned U.S./Israeli strikes on Iran and criticized US tariff policies – and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), both of which are viewed with concern by the West. Furthermore, New Delhi has also denied President Trump mediatory role in establishing a ceasefire in May 2025 conflict between India and Pakistan. Such Indian positions should be considered a disappointment and eye opener for the US and its allies because it signals a sharp divergence on multiple important issues. More concerning for the West should be India’s military development that can threatened and target them. India’s strategic nuclear capabilities continue to expand. Its pursuit of the Agni-VI intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), as stated by the Chairman of India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation, with a reported range of up to 12,000 km, is not merely a technological milestone. It is a strategic signal to the West. A missile with a 12,000 km range signals a potential inflexion point in New Delhi’s nuclear thinking—one that may extend beyond focusing on regional dominance to global nuclear blackmailing. Agni VI’s range is not built to deter regional actors but to reach Washington, London and Paris. Interestingly, former Indian Major General Gagan Deep Bakshi (Retd) in a live TV has already threatened to nuke New York and Washington—two main cities of the US—with nuclear weapon using Agni-VI ICBM and K-5 SLBM. India now operates three nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs)—INS Arihant, INS Arighta and INS Aridhaman—and
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The writer is Ph.D in Political Science and visiting faculty at QAU Islamabad. His area of specialization is political development and social change. He can be reached at zafarkhansafdar@yahoo.com and tweet@zafarkhansafdar.
The National Assembly panel cleared this scheme on the grounds that the government must start somewhere to bring retailers into the tax net, while the salaried class, which has no such exemption from audit or accountability, continues to be withheld from at source with no equivalent consideration.
India’s Military Frenzy: A strategic challenge for West Founding Editor
plainly that. It is a strategic failure with compounding consequences. A tax system perceived as coercive and inequitable generates the compliance resistance that produces the low tax-to-GDP ratio that produces the fiscal pressure that produces the coercive collection mechanisms that reinforce the perception of inequity. Pakistan’s tax-to-GDP ratio sits at approximately 10 to 11 percent, among the lowest for any country of comparable size, not because the country lacks taxable economic activity but because the political economy of taxation has consistently chosen the path of least resistance over the path of greatest fairness. Taxing a retailer requires political will. Taxing an electricity bill requires a formula. Genuine fiscal reform does not begin with finding new things to embed in existing bills. It begins with the recognition that a state unable to distinguish between a taxable citizen and a non-taxable consumer has not built a tax system. It has built a collection mechanism, and collection mechanisms do not produce the social contract that sustainable taxation requires. Ibn Khaldun observed six centuries ago that excessive and unjust taxation destroys civilisation by destroying the productive activity that taxation is meant to support. Pakistan is not yet at that point. But a state that has chosen the electricity meter as its primary instrument of fiscal reach is not moving away from it.
two additional SSBNs, INS Arisudan and S5 are in pipeline. SIPRI Yearbook 2026 has highlighted that India could be shifting in the direction of mating some of its warheads with their launchers in peacetime and may have started to deploy a small number of nuclear warheads on a single SSBN conducting occasional deterrence patrols. This is a worrisome development from a global stability perspective and a recipe for disaster because a country with evident nuclear command and control failure—BrahMos missile fire in Pakistan in 2022—is putting mated weapons at sea. Furthermore, SSBNs— equipped with mated nuclear warheads—could operate in international waters, including near Europe and the US, thus creating a potential threat for them. Capabilities with intercontinental reach inevitably extend beyond regional contingencies. While India’s declared focus remains deterring China and Pakistan, military capabilities are inherently flexible. Strategic systems developed today can serve different political objectives tomorrow under changing geopolitical circumstances. This is where Western policymakers should undertake a more rigorous assessment of upcoming risks. History repeatedly demonstrates that states build military capabilities according to their own long-term national ambitions rather than the expectations of external partners. Strategic alignments evolve and national interests diverge. The assumption that India will indefinitely remain aligned with Western strategic objectives deserves closer scrutiny. The rapid expansion of India’s conventional forces, strategic nuclear arsenal, blue-water navy and longrange missile programme suggests ambitions extending beyond immediate regional defence requirements.
The writer is Senior Research Associate at Strategic Vision Institute, Islamabad
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Where is SME support?
THE federal budget for 2025-26, passed recently with a substantial outlay of Rs17.573 trillion, regrettably lacks a dedicated development package for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It fails to create the enabling policy environment necessary for their sustained growth. Although some allocations have been made under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for youth entrepreneurship and digital initiatives, a comprehensive financing framework or facilitation mechanism specifically tailored for the SMEs is noticeably absent. Despite the introduction of various credit schemes by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the monetary policy stance has not been supportive of SME financing. Even with a recent cut in the policy rate to 11 per cent — down from a peak of 22pc — the SMEs receive only 6-7pc of total private sector credit, far below the policy target of 17pc. Furthermore, the liquidation of SME Bank, which was established to cater to this critical sector, has caused a significant institutional void. Although the SBP has recently revised its regulations to encourage SME lending, much remains to be done as nearly half of all formal SMEs lack access to formal credit. Besides, the current tax regime continues to impose a disproportionate burden on small businesses. While digitisation has improved transparency in tax filing, the process remains complex and inaccessible to many SMEs, which often lack financial and digital literacy to ensure compliance. A simplified tax structure and meaningful relief for SME taxpayers should be a priority. Technological backwardness also severely limits productivity among manufacturing SMEs. Most enterprises lack access to modern machinery, digital tools, and trained human capital. Moreover, deficiencies in management practices, marketing strategies, and production processes further erode their competitiveness. Targeted initiatives by the government for technical upgradation, skills development, and market linkages are urgently needed to enable the SMEs to reach both domestic and international markets. Additional structural challenges, such as high production costs, inadequate infrastructure, unreliable utility services, and restricted market access, also constrain SME development. With the national population exceeding 241 million, strengthening SMEs is vital to tackling rising unemployment and poverty. Pakistan has over 5.2 million SMEs operating across both formal and informal sectors in manufacturing, trade and services. These businesses represent about 90pc of all private enterprises, employ nearly 80pc of the non-agricultural workforce, contribute roughly 40pc to the national gross domestic product (GDP), and account for about 25pc of total exports. Yet, they continue to face chronic challenges. The National SME Policy 2021 had set ambitious goals with emphasis on regulatory reforms, industrial infrastructure development, entrepreneurship promotion, and improved access to finance. HUSSAIN AHMAD SIDDIQUI ISLAMABAD
Cruelty, not correction
THOUSANDS of children are being held in Pakistani jails under inhumane conditions — an alarming reality that demands urgent action. In 2023 alone, 385 children were reported to be imprisoned across the country. Many of them were only 18, while over a 100 were younger than 16. These young individuals are not being guided or rehabilitated; instead, they are treated like criminals and forced to live in cruel and degrading conditions. According to The State of Children in Pakistan, during 2021-22, at least 540 children were arrested in Punjab, 510 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 260 in Sindh and 55 in Balochistan. This is a deeply disturbing situation. Children are the future of any nation, but when they are locked up and stripped of their dignity, we damage not only their lives but also the future of our society. The authorities concerned must take immediate and effective steps to address this issue. If left unaddressed, the psychological and social damage to these children will leave long-term consequences for them and also for our nation. ZARGUL GOHRAM SATELLITE TOWN, BALOCHISTAN
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COMMENT 05
From Mamdani to El-Sayed: Reshaping America’s Politics Tuesday, 11 August, 2026
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QamaR BashiR
HE political rise of Zohran Mamdani in New York City and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan represents a significant development in American democracy. Their stories are not identical, and their political offices carry very different powers, but both have challenged the traditional assumption that Muslim candidates must soften their identities, dilute their convictions or seek approval from powerful political establishments before becoming electorally acceptable. Mamdani has already completed the more difficult half of his journey. After winning New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary in 2025, defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo, he won the general election on November 4, 2025, and became mayor on January 1, 2026. El-Sayed, by contrast, has won Michigan’s Democratic nomination for the United States Senate but must still defeat Republican Mike Rogers in the November 2026 general election. His primary victory was narrow—less than one percentage point—but politically remarkable because he overcame a nationally supported establishment candidate and tens of millions of dollars in outside spending. Some factual distinctions are essential. New York City is not one of America’s 50 states. It is a city within New York State, governed through five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. Nevertheless, its population, financial power, media influence and global diplomatic presence give its mayor an international profile unusual for a municipal official. The city hosts the headquarters of the United Nations and receives presidents, prime ministers and diplomats from across the world. Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to filmmaker Mira Nair, who was born in India, and Mahmood Mamdani, a prominent Ugandan academic of Indian ancestry. He later became an American citizen. El-Sayed was born in Michigan and is the son of Egyptian immigrants. Therefore, Mamdani is himself an immigrant, while ElSayed is a native-born American from an im-
migrant family. Both, however, embody the experience of Muslim families establishing themselves within American society. Their professional beginnings were also different. Mamdani worked as a housing counsellor, helping homeowners facing foreclosure, and participated in electoral campaigns before winning a seat in the New York State Assembly in 2020. He defeated an established incumbent in the Democratic primary and was subsequently reelected. His political identity developed through tenant advocacy, public transportation campaigns and democratic-socialist organizing. El-Sayed followed a more academic and administrative path. He studied medicine and public health, became an epidemiologist and served as Detroit’s health director before later leading health and human-services work in Wayne County. His first major electoral campaign was an unsuccessful run for governor of Michigan in 2018. Instead of disappearing after that defeat, he remained active through public-policy work, writing, broadcasting and grassroots organization. By the time he entered the 2026 Senate race, he had converted a previous defeat into statewide recognition and a more experienced political operation. Both men have been notably open about their Muslim faith. However, sincerity of belief is ultimately personal and cannot be scientifically measured by journalists or political opponents. What can be examined is consistency. Neither candidate hid his Muslim identity when it became politically inconvenient. Both discussed how faith influenced their understanding of justice, economic inequality and public service. Their campaigns did not present Islam as a demand for special treatment; rather, they situated Muslim identity within the broader American principles of equality, dignity and constitutional citizenship. This openness became more important because both faced opposition connected to their criticism of Israeli government policies. Mamdani was attacked over his views on Palestinian rights, while El-Sayed called for
ending American military assistance to Israel and described the destruction in Gaza as genocide. AIPAC and aligned organizations became deeply involved in the Michigan primary. Reports estimated that pro-Stevens and anti-El-Sayed outside spending reached tens of millions of dollars, making the contest one of the most expensive Democratic primaries in American history. Rather than retreating, El-Sayed used the intervention to argue that Michigan’s political choices should not be controlled by billionaires or outside lobbying organizations. Nevertheless, it would be inaccurate to say that all Democrats and Republicans united against either candidate. Mamdani received substantial support from progressive Democrats, democratic socialists, tradeunion members, young voters and immigrant communities. El-Sayed was endorsed by national progressive figures, including Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Their victories were rebellions against particular party establishments, not victories achieved entirely without political allies. The strongest similarity between the two campaigns is their economic populism. Mamdani built his mayoral campaign around making New York affordable. His proposals included expanded child care, rent protections, affordable housing, improved buses, higher wages and publicly supported grocery initiatives. After taking office, his administration announced child-care funding, housing reforms designed to accelerate affordable construction, stronger action against irresponsible landlords and a grocery discount programme covering essential foods. His administration has also set a long-term goal of producing 200,000 affordable homes over ten years. These actions demonstrate both the possibilities and limitations of municipal power. A mayor can influence housing enforcement, city services, transportation, child care and business regulation. However, major tax changes, transit financing and many housing policies require cooperation from the New York governor, state legislature and city
El-Sayed’s agenda is similarly focused on affordability but operates at the federal level. His stated priorities include removing private money from politics, reducing household costs and passing Medicare for All. He also supports affordable or free child care, stronger taxation of billionaires, labour rights and an end to American military assistance for Israel.
council. Mamdani is therefore discovering that winning an election is different from converting every campaign promise into law. El-Sayed’s agenda is similarly focused on affordability but operates at the federal level. His stated priorities include removing private money from politics, reducing household costs and passing Medicare for All. He also supports affordable or free child care, stronger taxation of billionaires, labour rights and an end to American military assistance for Israel. As a senator, however, El-Sayed would not possess the direct executive authority available to a mayor. He could introduce legislation, vote on federal budgets, question administration officials, confirm judges and executive nominees, and use Senate committees to investigate healthcare companies, military expenditure and corporate power. But Medicare for All or sweeping campaignfinance reform would require support from the House of Representatives, a Senate majority and the president. His success would consequently depend on coalition-building, negotiation and the balance of power in Washington. There are also important differences in political philosophy. Mamdani is publicly identified with democratic socialism and has emphasized public provision of essential services. El-Sayed is a progressive Democrat but is not generally presented as a formal member of the Democratic Socialists of America. His politics combine universal healthcare, anti-corporate populism, publichealth expertise and institutional reform. Mamdani emerged primarily from urban grassroots activism; El-Sayed rose through academic achievement, public administration and statewide campaigning. Their electoral environments are equally different. New York City strongly favours Democrats, meaning that Mam-
dani’s greatest obstacle was the Democratic primary. Michigan is a genuine swing state. El-Sayed must win independents, union households, suburban voters, Arab and Muslim Americans, African Americans, young progressives and some moderate Democrats while facing an experienced Republican opponent. His primary victory was historic, but the general election will be the decisive test. If elected, El-Sayed would become the first Muslim member of the United States Senate. Mamdani has already become New York City’s first Muslim mayor. Their rise does not prove that prejudice has disappeared, nor does it guarantee that progressive economic programmes will succeed. It does show that American voters can support candidates who openly identify as Muslim, defend immigrants and challenge powerful financial and foreign-policy interests. Mamdani broke an important barrier. ElSayed has reached the threshold of another. Their shared message is that Muslim politicians need not choose between religious identity and American citizenship. They can declare both openly, submit their programmes to the voters and be judged by their ability to improve ordinary lives. Whether El-Sayed completes the journey will be decided in November. But his primary victory, following Mamdani’s breakthrough in New York, has already established a larger truth: a new generation of American Muslim leadership is no longer asking merely to be accepted. It is seeking— and increasingly winning—the authority to govern.
The writer retired as Press Secretary the President, and is former Press Minister at Embassy of Pakistan to France and former Shalimar Recording & MD, Broadcasting Company Limited
As Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan primary, is it the end of AIPAC? Abdul El-Sayed’s victory underscores a deepening divide within the Democratic party as progressives take on corporate donors and AIPAC in US elections
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THE NEW ARAB
RiChaRd silveRsTein
HERE is a fierce struggle within the Democratic Party between powerful competing factions. The first has financial power and represents corporate elites who view their economic privilege as under threat. It also includes the Israel Lobby, whose supporters and donors largely overlap with the corporate faction. The second is the progressive left represented by the Democratic Socialists of America, which represents left-wing populism. The resonance of the progressive message derives in part from the extremism of Donald Trump and the quiescent response of the moderate Congressional leadership to it. The majority of Americans are disgusted with the wreck of a nation the president has handed us. They are hungry for change; for restoration of human and constitutional rights; for a renewed commitment to democracy. The oligarchs have money. The socialists have people. It’s an age-old struggle between capital and class. Often it’s a pendulum swing: sometimes money wins when it floods the airwaves with smears and attack ads. Other times, the Party’s left-wing harnesses the anger or passion of voters in a mass movement for change. The midterm elections are shaping up as one of those “corrections” in reaction to Trump’s trashing of American democracy. Tuesday’s primary elections saw progressive Democratic candidates score major victories. The most important was the Michigan senate race in which Arab-American, Dr Abdul El-Sayed defeated AIPAC’s chosen candidate, Haley Stevens. The Israel Lobby group spent an unprecedented $32 million in attack ads against El-Sayed. Other stealth PACs funded by corporate interests funnelled the rest into the race. They did have some impact given the close outcome. But it wasn’t enough. Now he will face a MAGA Republican in the November general election. Spending promises to surpass that of the primary. The conflict between Stevens and ElSayed was stark. He was endorsed by Bernie Sanders. Though not a DSA member, he espouses many of its policies. As a medical doctor, he supports single-payer federal health insurance, also known as Medicare for All. He calls for an end to military aid to Israel, declares Gaza a genocide, and calls for getting money out of politics. Given the
astronomical sums spent to defeat him, this issue resonated with voters. For the Lobby, he is a four-alarm fire. The AIPAC PAC, United Democracy Project, poured tens of millions into attack ads smearing El-Sayed. Other dark money PACs financed by GOP billionaires poured a similar sum into the race. They outspent ElSayed 10 to 1. A respected political forecasting website gives El-Sayed a 62% chance of beating the Republican nominee in the November general election. This is one of those races where the passion and commitment of voters appears to be holding off the power of the monied class. Indeed, this primary was a watershed moment in the battle between the left and the Lobby. The latter has gone all in. It had to win, and it failed. This will further discredit the Lobby in the eyes of any candidates who align themselves with pro-Israel policies. Some of its donors may reconsider the strategy AIPAC has adopted altogether. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they’ve given up on promoting Israel. But it does mean they will have to devise new strategies.
THE LOBBY VS THE PEOPLE: Years ago, Bernie Sanders rode this wave in his two presidential campaigns, which led to the resurgence of DSA. Currently, the Party’s left is ascendant, with major wins in Congressional and mayoral races in multiple states. The pro-Palestinian PAC, A New Policy, established by a State Department diplomat who resigned over Biden’s refusal to denounce Israel’s genocide, noted that 14 Congressional candidates it supported won their primaries. DSA’s membership has swelled to 120,000 from its early days when it hovered between 10,000-20,000. A recent poll found that one in three Democrats considers themselves a democratic socialist. These are heady days for the democratic left. Compared to the Republicans, the Party has fewer billionaire oligarchs (with the exceptions being George Soros, JB Pritzker, and Tom Steyer). This has created an opening for Republican billionaires to plough hundreds of millions into Democratic primaries via PACs and dark money.
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES HELPING THE US IN IRAN: The Lobby is fighting back with a torrent of campaign cash. Often their funds are funnelled via AIPAC. And, total Lobby spending could reach an unprecedented $200 million during the 2026 election cycle. The goal, of course, is defeating candidates calling Israel’s war on Gaza a genocide; and those voting to restrict or eliminate military aid.
The Israel Lobby group spent an unprecedented $32 million in attack ads against El-Sayed
For too long, Democrats have permitted Republican billionaires and AIPAC to sabotage not only the Party, but American democracy. Only in the past few months has AIPAC and Israel itself fallen into such disfavour that a number of former allies have foresworn accepting their donations. Similarly, Peter Beinart argues that “establishment Jewry has abandoned liberal democracy in the US.” AIPAC is a poster child of this phenomenon. One of the most prominent of the left’s earlier victories was the New York primary in which Zohran Mamdani and three other insurgents defeated the Party machine in electrifying victories. They did so despite tens of millions ($21 million on Mamdani’s race alone) spent by Wall Street oligarchs to defeat them. It was like a lightning bolt striking both the Party and American domestic politics.
ISRAEL’S PROSPECTS PLUMMET IN US: There has been a corresponding backlash by the corporate elite in league with the Israel Lobby. They employ Red Scare cries of “communism” and a new charge of antiSemitism, based on the left’s critique of Israeli genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing. The Lobby and Party mandarins have adopted a tacit loyalty oath demanding that candidates endorse “the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.”
Another charge is that slogans like “from the river to the sea” are a call for the eradication of Israel. Similarly, the pro-Israel backlash has attempted to demonise the Gword (genocide) as a blood libel (an ancient anti-Semitic calumny charging Jews with killing Christian babies). The emptiness of these charges seems self-evident not only to those on the left, but to most Americans. Yet the Party’s rightwing has sought to transform these slogans into a campaign to discredit Mamdani in particular and the left in general. It is a strategy of death by a thousand paper cuts, seeking to accumulate enough momentum to destroy his appeal to the electorate. The problem with this strategy is that the majority of Americans and even Jews disagree with the Lobby and agree with Mamdani. In fact, 44% of American Jews view him favourably. Which means one thing: the Israel Lobby may have the money, but they don’t have the truth. Jews know the truth and can’t be bought with the money. They see through the claims, which further discredits Zionists and buttresses Mamdani’s support. DSA has been tarred with the “communist” moniker by no less than Trump himself and pro-Israel “Democrat” Sen. John Fetterman, among others. It’s accused of seeking to destroy the American way of life. Party centrists like Matthew Yglesias have even blamed the media for the group’s
rise in popularity, stating that there are “very strong financial incentives throughout the media to tell an unrepresentative group of highly engaged, educated, younger progressives what they want to hear.” Somehow the democratic left has become the issue du jour, which the press promotes to bring eyeballs (and hence ad revenue) to its newscasts. This places the focus on anything but the actual populist policies the progressive wing espouses, which resonate with the American public beset by the gut punch of Trumpism. Ultimately, Israel faces a downward trend among Americans. There is little prospect it will abandon its genocide and occupations of Lebanon, Syria and Palestine any time soon or ever. What a CNN pollster called “mammoth” and a “generational change” in plummeting support for Israel means it can likely never recover its former popularity. That will translate into declining Congressional support for tens of billions in weapons, which Israel has employed to kill nearly 100,000 people in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. It will also embolden nations and international bodies like the UN and the International Criminal Court to hold Israel and its leaders accountable for their crimes. All this will mark a fateful decline in Israel’s power domestically (in the US), regionally and globally. The only good to come out of the genocide is that it will weaken Israel, end its impunity, and bolster the pro-Palestine struggle for national rights.
Richard Silverstein is a freelance journalist specialising in exposing secrets of the Israeli national security state.
Trump considers privatising the Iran war SATIRE
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NEWS BISCUIT TiTus
RESIDENT Donald Trump has denied that the US armed forces are running out of weapons and ammunition in their fight against Iran, despite having completely defeated and then utterly destroyed the state of Iran several times, repeatedly, in the last few months. Even the US National Guard, he claimed, still has plenty of weapons, at least, enough for crucial tasks like ensuring law-and-order in confused, chaotic US states which might be in danger of failing to vote Republican. ‘We just thought, with all their guns, the valiant citizens of the USA might like to join in, and help our troops’ suggested the President. ‘Iranistanshire isn’t all that far away and is easy to get to. To get there, you don’t need to go through the Straits of
Hormuz. No-one wants to go through the Straits of Hormuz - horrible place. No use to anyone.’
Trump announces bid for presidency of FIFA NEWS BISCUIT ChipChase
More bizarre ramblings today in a White House press briefing. Trump announced he intends to run for the Presidency of FIFA next year while also hinting he can easily fit the job in alongside his intended third term as tinpot dictator of the free world. ‘Time for Jaa-neee to go,’ said the megalomaniacal commander in chief. ‘I gave him a chance to make us both a lot of money. Not to mention extended members of my family, too. Lots of money. Helluva
lot of money. But he lost his nerve. He blew it. He chickened out. He’s a sad guy. So sad. A low intelligence person. He’s a loser. A lot of people tell me that. Now I’ll be going to that vote session next year and along with some hand-picked ICE guys we’ll get the job done. No need for a vote at all. ‘You know,’ further mused the strangely ochre-tinted walking disaster, ‘I like soccer ball. It’s kinda neat but what we want in the game is more pazazz. Cheerleaders, short skirts and pompoms. And hotdog guys on the sidelines. That would put such a badly failing game on map. As president I’ll create a world series with maybe just four US sides taking part. All the other countries’ teams can have time off. That’d be swell. As a matter of fact, you know...’ Trump never finished his remarks as at that moment a nurse with a Big Mac dangling from a fishing rod entered the Oval Office and enticed from the room.
06 NEWS
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RANIAN President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was in “full physical health” following a seven-hour meeting. “We met with the leader of the revolution and discussed all manner of issues. Physically, he was in full health,” Pezeshkian said during a meeting cited by the semi-official Tasnim news agency. “He offered his guidance, and I raised the concerns and problems. He listened to what I had to say with ease,” he added. The official IRNA news agency earlier reported that Khamenei and Pezeshkian held a seven-hour-long meeting to discuss challenges facing the country. "Maintaining unity and cohesion was the most important advice that the Supreme Leader of the Revolution emphasised," Pezeshkian said. He added that the meeting
Police use water cannons as Jharkhand exam protest heads to assembly
NEW DELHI agencies
Police used water cannons on Monday to disperse thousands of young protesters who marched towards the state legislature in India’s eastern state of Jharkhand over alleged irregularities in civil services examinations. The demonstrators, made up of students and unemployed youth, have been protesting since late last month in Ranchi, the state capital, over claims including question paper leaks in public service recruitment tests. On Monday, crowds moved towards the assembly, climbed over police barricades, waved the Indian flag and raised slogans amid heavy security. Their demands include an overhaul of Jharkhand’s examination system, the cancellation of some tests and a federal police investigation into the alleged wrongdoing. The state government has held talks with the protesters and said most of their demands have been accepted, while indicating it remained open to further negotiations. Jharkhand, one of India’s poorer states, is governed by a regional party opposed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The unrest there follows weeks of youth-led demonstrations in New Delhi over leaks in the national medical entrance test, protests that ended with the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan last month. The latest mobilisation is being seen as part of wider anger among young people over corruption in education, limited job opportunities and unemployment.
IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER IN ‘FULL PHYSICAL HEALTH’, PRESIDENT SAYS
primarily focused on people’s livelihoods, employment and housing, as well as "the problems caused by sanctions”. IRAN SAYS TIES WITH PAKISTAN ‘EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THAN BEFORE’: Iran said on Monday that bilateral ties between Islamabad and Tehran have become “even more important than before” since the war began, with Pakistan serving as the key mediator. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf were invited by Pakistan to visit Islamabad for talks, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said. Araghchi and Ghalibaf will visit "at an appropriate time," he said in statements carried by Iran's state-run Press TV. He did not provide further details as to when the visit will take place. "Reciprocal visits and exchanges are a natural part of the growing ties between the two neighbouring countries. The relationship between Iran and Pakistan is a very important one,” he added. Baghaei further said that he sees no reason to be concerned that a new security pact between Pakistan, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia
ing transit through the Strait of Hormuz are progressing "smoothly and constructively.” "An understanding has been reached about the shipping traffic map and consultations are continuing to finalise some technical points in the joint statement," Baghaei told a weekly news conference, as cited by the semi-official Tasnim news agency. He said mechanisms will be established to ensure safe maritime traffic, protect the environment and address “maritime crimes.” "It has also been emphasised that for the provision of maritime services to vessels, related costs and fees are charged," he added. The spokesman said the primary objective of the ongoing talks between Tehran and Muscat “is to reach a lasting understanding that ensures complete security in the strait.” Discussions with Oman "is just a bilateral process to determine the safe route of international shipping and has nothing to do with political differences," he added. Baghaei also asserted that the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until Washington meets Tehran's demands, including an end to its naval blockade of Iranian ports.
is "directed against Tehran". According to Al Jazeera, he stated that the regional military alliance reflected growing awareness that the US cannot guarantee security and is itself a source of insecurity in the Middle East. He said the "Makkah Joint Defence Agreement" reflected a shift in regional countries' approach to security, with a shift away from reliance on US power. "Any plan that is based on the geopolitical and historical realities of the region, is comprehensive and inclusive, and correctly identifies the enemy and the threat, has a chance of helping to strengthen security and prevent instability and abuses by the Zionist enemy and its allies," he added, referring to Israel. He added that Iran would not hold talks with the US as long as Washington continued to "violate the interim deal", according to Al Jazeera. Baghaei said Iran has demanded compensation for damage caused by the US-Israel war and that the Strait of Hormuz could reopen if no third party interferes, according to Al Jazeera, and that the US was the cause of major insecurity in the Middle East. Baghaei also said that negotiations with Oman regard-
MOHSEN REZAEI APPOINTED AS
Iran says Makkah defence pact reflects waning faith in US security role ISLAMABAD
staff report
Iran said on Monday that the new defence agreement among Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye points to a broader shift in how regional states view the United States as a security guarantor, while also insisting Tehran does not see the pact as being directed against it. Speaking at a weekly press conference in Tehran, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said, "The countries of the region have realised that security is not a commodity that can be bought from false brokers," referring to the US. He added that countries in the region could no longer rely on security claims made by Washington in the way they once did. His remarks came days after Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement during the Makkah Al-Mukarramah Summit for Joint Defence, attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday. Under the agreement, an armed attack on any one of the three states will be treated as an attack on all of them. Pakistan’s Foreign Office said the pact reflects
the three countries’ shared commitment to strengthening collective security and promoting peace, security and stability in the region and beyond. The Foreign Office said the agreement is intended to bolster collective deterrence against aggression and also provides for broader defence cooperation among the three countries. Iran, however, said it had no immediate concerns about the arrangement. Baqaei said there was "no reason to worry that this treaty will be against Iran," and pointed to what he described as deep religious, historical and civilisational ties with
Iran used Donald Trump’s own metaphor on Monday to push back against his comments on Tehran, with foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei saying Iranians had shown they are “professional chess players”. Baghaei made the remark at
DAR HOLDS FOLLOW-UP CALLS: Separately, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar spoke with several foreign counterparts after the signing of the trilateral agreement.
DHAKA
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Bangladesh has told India that better conditions are needed to move bilateral relations forward, as Dhaka simultaneously renewed its demand for the extradition of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina during a meeting between Prime
Minister Tarique Rahman and India’s new high commissioner, Dinesh Trivedi. Rahman raised the matter on Monday in his first meeting with Trivedi, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office. The statement said the premier “emphasised the need to create a conducive environment to further advance the bilateral relations
between the two countries”. The exchange comes as Bangladesh seeks to steady ties with its largest neighbour while pressing New Delhi on issues that have remained contentious since Hasina was removed from power in August 2024. Rahman has previously signalled that he wants a workable relationship with India, but Monday’s remarks marked his first public emphasis on the need to improve the overall atmosphere for deeper engagement. Dhaka also asked India to speed up Hasina’s extradition, the Prime Minister’s Office said. Hasina has been in India since the collapse of her government and is facing legal proceedings in Bangladesh. She was sentenced to death in November. The extradition demand gained fresh urgency days after Hasina spoke publicly for the first time since leaving Bangladesh. In an online audio conference, she said she would return to Bangladesh in December, drawing renewed attention to her continued stay and political activity from India.
and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq”, the lifting of a US counterblockade on Iranian ports, the removal of sanctions, the release of frozen Iranian assets and compensation for wartime damage. Baghaei repeated that position on Monday, saying that “as long as the US naval blockade continues... as long as other violations by the United States continue, the necessary conditions for saying that the Strait of Hormuz has become a safe waterway will not exist”.
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Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan. The pact was signed against the backdrop of a five-month war between the US and Iran that has pulled in neighbouring states and disrupted regional shipping routes. Analysts have said the deal is aimed at deterring an emboldened Iran while also compensating for uncertainty over US reliability.
Dhaka links stronger India ties to ‘conducive environment’ in envoy meeting
Iran calls itself a chess player as Trump talks up pressure
agencies
SECRETARY OF IRAN'S TOP SECURITY BODY: Iran has changed its secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, appointing former Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsen Rezaei as second-incommand on the body that coordinates the country's security and foreign policy. Rezaei is more of an outspoken public figure than his predecessor, Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr. The appointment was announced late on Sunday by President Masoud Pezeshkian's deputy director of communications. Zolqadr had only been appointed as SNSC secretary in late March, after his predecessor, Ali Larijani, was killed in an air strike during the war pitting Iran against the US and Israel. No reason was given for the change, and it was not immediately clear if it would herald any policy change. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that Iran and Oman were "very close" to an agreement on a new shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz — which has been all but closed during five months of war — but reopening it would depend on other conditions, including US compensation to Iran.
his weekly press conference after Trump said the United States was “low-keying it” with Iran and described the standoff as “like a chess game”. The US president also said Washington was “only semi-negotiating” and was watching Iran’s “huge inflation” and lack of money. Trump’s comments came as Iran continued to link any return to normal shipping
through the Strait of Hormuz to a wider change in US policy. The waterway has remained largely closed since the start of the Middle East war in late February. Over the weekend, Iranian official Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr set out Tehran’s conditions for reopening the strait. They included an end to what he called “war and aggression against Iran
STRAIT TIED TO BROADER CONFRONTATION” Trump signalled on Sunday that he was prepared to let economic pressure on Iran build rather than move immediately toward further military action. His remarks appeared to mark a step back from additional strikes after Tehran laid out its demands on Hormuz. The exchange underlined how the dispute over the strategic waterway is now bound up with a broader confrontation over sanctions, military pressure and regional conflict.
The Foreign Office said Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber AlAhmad Al-Sabah congratulated Dar on the pact during a late-night call, and the two discussed the regional situation, including Occupied East Jerusalem. Dar also spoke with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan. The Foreign Office said they discussed matters of mutual interest, including multilateral cooperation and regional developments, and underscored the importance of continued close coordination both bilaterally and at multilateral forums.
US wants stronger Asian allies, says Pentagon’s Colby MANILA
agencies
The United States is not pulling back from Asia but is instead increasing its commitment in the Indo-Pacific while urging allies to take greater responsibility for their own defence, US Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Elbridge Colby said on Monday. Speaking in Manila, Colby sought to reassure regional partners about Washington’s role, saying, "America is definitely not disengaging from Asia. We are not leaving; in fact, we are digging in to ensure a favourable balance of power where it matters most." He said maintaining that balance required what he described as a "posture of deterrence by denial along the First Island Chain," an area stretching from Japan through Taiwan and the Philippines to Borneo. Colby also pointed to what he described as a growing US military commitment in the region. At the same time, he stressed that the strategy could not depend on American forces alone and called for greater burden-sharing by partner states.
NEWS 07
Tuesday, 11 August 2026 | LAHORE
CM PUNJAB VOWS TO EXPAND Bank Alfalah and WWF EDUCATION REFORMS BEYOND PUNJAB Pakistan Mark Pakistan's
CORPORATE CORNER
Independence Day with Alfa Forest Mangrove Plantation Drive KARACHI
STAFF REPORT
Bank Alfalah, one of Pakistan’s leading commercial banks, partnered with WWF-Pakistan to carry out a mangrove plantation drive at the WWF-Pakistan Wetland Centre in Karachi, commemorating Pakistan’s Independence Day.The activity was held under Alfa Forest, Bank Alfalah’s digital initiative available through the Alfa App that enables customers to contribute to tree plantation through their banking transactions. Bank Alfalah colleagues, WWF-Pakistan representatives, environmental experts and volunteers participated in planting mangroves.Out of 1.4 million active Alfa App customers, over 1 million have participated, enabling the plantation of a mangrove tree on their behalf.Muhammad Yahya Khan, Chief Digital Officer, Bank Alfalah, said: “Through Alfa Forest, our customers contribute to conservation simply by banking digitally. This partnership translates participation into on-ground action for Pakistan’s coastal ecosystems.”Rab Nawaz, Senior Director-Programmes, WWF-Pakistan, added: “Mangroves protect coastlines, capture carbon and support livelihoods.
Minority Rights Not a Favour, But a Fundamental Right and Measure of Equal Citizenship: Sukhdev Hemnani KARACHI
STAFF REPORT
Sindh Government Spokesperson Sukhdev Hemnani, on the occasion of National Minorities Day, said the Sindh Government remains committed to protecting the rights, dignity and equal citizenship of religious minorities, with its commitment reflected through progressive legislation, political representation, employment opportunities, institutional support and welfare measures.Hemnani said the declaration of August 11 as National Minorities Day by President Asif Ali Zardari in 2009 was a landmark step that gave national recognition to Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s vision of equal citizenship. He said the decision reflected the principle that the rights of minorities are not a favour but a fundamental part of Pakistan’s democratic identity.He said the PPP-led government under President Asif Ali Zardari took several historic measures for minority communities, including establishing a dedicated Ministry for Minority Affairs, introducing the 5% employment quota for minorities, expanding political representation by increasing number of reserved seats in Parliament, and strengthening welfare and educational support for minority citizens.
CUI Chinese Computer Science PhD Scholar Defends Doctoral Thesis Through Online Examination
ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
Ms. Ma Yinghua, a Chinese PhD scholar in the Department of Computer Science, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Abbottabad Campus, successfully defended her doctoral thesis through an online doctoral examination conducted by the University today. The doctoral defence was conducted in accordance with the University’s prescribed examination procedures, with the participation of senior University officials, and a panel of local and international examiners. Prof. Dr. Raheel Qamar, Rector, COMSATS University Islamabad, attended the defence, along with the Controller of Examinations, Chairperson of the Department of Computer Science, and Dean, Faculty of Information Science and Technology. The thesis was examined by a panel comprising distinguished national and international experts from Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Pak-Austria Fachhochschule: Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (PAF-IAST), Edith Cowan University, Australia, and Politecnico di Torino, Italy. The thesis, titled “A Deep Manifold Learning for Multi-Omics Data Integration and Analysis,” was supervised by Dr. Ahmad Khan, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, CUI Abbottabad Campus.
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LAHORE
STAFF REPORT
HIEF Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif has said that she wants to serve not only the people of Punjab but also those of Sindh and other provinces, adding that she genuinely feels the difficulties being faced by the people of Karachi and Sindh. She was speaking during a meeting with a delegation of Oxford University Press (OUP) Pakistan, which appreciated the steps taken by the chief minister to improve the quality of education in Punjab. The OUP delegation termed the Nawaz Sharif School of Eminence project commendable and offered full cooperation for the promotion of education. Ms Sharif welcomed the offer of collaboration with the Punjab School Education Department. It was decided during the meeting to launch a pilot project of the Oxford University Press curriculum at the Nawaz Sharif School of Eminence. Under the proposed collaboration, OUP will provide assistance in digital training programmes for teachers, capacity building, teaching guides and other areas. The chief minister said, “I want to serve not only the people of Punjab but
also those of Sindh and other provinces. I genuinely feel the difficulties being faced by the people of Karachi and Sindh.” She said the participation of thousands of students in the entrance test for admission to the Nawaz Sharif School of Eminence was a reflection of public confidence. “By the grace of Allah Almighty, people can now be seen striving to secure admission to government schools,” she said. The OUP delegation appreciated CM Punjab’s vision and efforts for the promotion of education and said that the stan-
dard of the Nawaz Sharif School of Eminence was remarkably high. Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif pays tribute to Dr Ruth Pfau on death anniversary Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif paid tribute to Dr Ruth Pfau for her invaluable services to leprosy patients in Pakistan and appreciated her spirit of humanitarianism. In her special message issued on the death anniversary of German-Pakistani physician Dr Ruth Pfau, the chief minis-
PPP had to field three women to criticize Punjab’s performance: Azma Bokhari LAHORE STAFF REPORT
Punjab Information and Culture Minister Azma Zahid Bokhari, reacting to the press conference of PPP leaders, said, “Oh God! They had to send three women to take on me and criticize the performance of Punjab.” Azma Bokhari said the women belong to the same province where they are unable to handle the doubledealing in the Mir Raza case. Addressing the PPP leaders sarcastically, the Punjab Information and Culture Minister said: “You simply won’t be able to do it.”
LAHORE A delegation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), led by the Country Director and Deputy Country Director, visited the headquarters of the Punjab Water & Sanitation Authority (P-WASA) today. Director General P-WASA
Tayyab Farid welcomed the delegation and briefed its members on the mandate and institutional structure of P-WASA, its ongoing initiatives, key development priorities and challenges related to improving water supply, sewerage and drainage services across Punjab. During the meeting, the participants discussed ADB’s ongoing
ISLAMABAD
engagement under the DREAMS Project, institutional strengthening, operational priorities, investment requirements and potential areas for technical and financial cooperation. The DG P-WASA highlighted the authority’s efforts to improve the efficiency and sustainability of water and sanitation services and to strengthen institutional capacity for better service delivery to the people of Punjab. The meeting also provided an opportunity to explore further areas of collaboration aimed at supporting reforms, capacity building and investment in the water and sanitation sector. The ADB delegation expressed keen interest in further strengthening collaboration with P-WASA and supporting initiatives aimed at improving water supply, sewerage and drainage services across Punjab. ADG (HQs) Zameer Hussain, ADG (Operations) Sohail Qadir Cheema and Principal Al-Jazzari Academy (AJWA) Dr. Souman Khalid also attended the meeting.
Tobacco Farmers Trapped in Procurement Crisis as PTB Policy Failures Deepen Market Uncertainty ISLAMABAD
STAFF REPORT
Tobacco farmers across major growing districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are facing mounting financial pressure as delayed procurement, alleged below-price buying and uncertainty over the Minimum Indicative Price (MIP) push the tobacco market deeper into crisis. Growers say they are struggling to sell their harvested crop despite having entered into agreements with local tobacco companies and purchasers. Several local buyers, they claim, have yet to begin procurement, leaving farmers with unsold stocks while their production costs and financial liabilities continue to rise. The situation has put the Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) under growing scrutiny, with farmers accusing the regulatory body of failing to enforce procurement rules effectively and protect growers from practices that undermine their bargaining position. Some local purchasers and dealers are offering around Rs400 per kilogram, far below the reported minimum price of approximately Rs720 per kilogram. The sharp price disparity is forcing financially strained growers to consider distress sales simply to recover part of their investment and meet immediate expenses. The problem has been compounded by PTB enforcement ac-
tion against some local purchasing companies and dealers. With formal procurement channels disrupted, growers fear they are increasingly being pushed towards informal or back-channel transactions, where they have little negotiating power and are more exposed to exploitation by middlemen and dealers. The crisis is also creating uncertainty across the wider tobacco industry. Apart from the two major multinational companies, most local companies and purchasers have yet to begin procurement on the scale expected during the season. This has raised concerns over the fate of surplus tobacco and the ability of the existing procurement system to absorb the crop produced by farmers. Adding to the uncertainty is the lack of clarity surrounding the Minimum Indicative Price for the current season. Without a clear and effectively enforced price framework, growers are left vulnerable to market practices that can drive prices well below the level they expect under the regulatory system. For farmers, however, the issue goes beyond the price offered by individual buyers. The real concern is whether the regulatory framework is capable of ensuring that companies entering into procurement agreements fulfil their commitments and that tobacco is purchased through a transparent and enforceable system. The situation is equally con-
BISP marks world breastfeeding week 2026, reaffirms commitment to maternal and child nutrition
STAFF REPORT
ADB delegation visits Punjab water & sanitation authority headquarters
STAFF REPORT
ter said Dr Pfau’s services for eliminating the incurable disease of leprosy would always be remembered. CM Maryam Nawaz vows to ensure clean drinking water for every person Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has reiterated her commitment to ensuring access to clean drinking water for every individual and household under the province’s drinking water supply programme. Chairing a special meeting on Monday to review ongoing clean drinking water projects in various districts, the chief minister approved the launch of a pilot project for the supply of potable water through pipelines in selected districts. The meeting was informed that clean drinking water was currently being supplied through filtration plants, bottledwater facilities and water bowsers. Six districts from South, Central and North Punjab have been selected for the pipedwater pilot project. The selected districts are Rajanpur, Lahore, Faisalabad, Chakwal, Rawalpindi and Murree/Kotli Sattian. Maryam Nawaz directed the authorities to consult the deputy commissioners, WASA officials and Public Health Engineering Department experts of the relevant districts before implementing the pilot project.
cerning for legitimate businesses operating within the formal tobacco sector. Inconsistent procurement and weak enforcement can distort competition, encourage informal trading and disadvantage companies that operate within the regulatory framework. Farmers and industry representatives are now calling for immediate intervention by the PTB and other relevant authorities. They want clarity on the MIP, the resumption of procurement by companies that have committed to buying tobacco, a workable mechanism for handling surplus production and stronger action against alleged purchases below the prescribed price. The crisis has exposed a growing gap between regulatory policy and its implementation on the ground. For tobacco growers, the priority is no longer simply an official announcement; they want a procurement system that works in practice, protects the value of their crop and ensures that legally binding commitments are honoured. With harvested tobacco stocks accumulating and farmers under increasing financial strain, the pressure is now on the PTB to restore confidence in the procurement process. Failure to address the situation promptly could deepen losses for growers and further destabilise an industry already struggling with uncertainty.
The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), with the support of UNICEF, World Health Organization (WHO), World Food Programme (WFP) and Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination, organized the World Breastfeeding Week 2026 Launch Ceremony at the BISP Headquarters. The event brought together senior government officials, representatives of development partners, health professionals and nutrition experts to reaffirm their collective commitment to promote, protect and support breastfeeding as a cornerstone of maternal and child health.Addressing the ceremony, Chairperson BISP Senator Rubina Khalid highlighted that breastfeeding is a natural and essential practice that provides every child with the healthiest start in life. She said breastfeeding is fundamental to child survival, family well-being, human capital development and national progress. She encouraged mothers to exclusively breastfeed their infants during the first six months of life and advised against the unnecessary use of formula milk and bottle feeding.Senator Rubina Khalid underscored the vision of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto for improving the health and well-being of women and children, particularly through landmark initiatives such as the Lady Health Workers Programme. She said that the Benazir Nashonuma Programme carries forward this vision by promoting maternal and child nutrition and providing essential health and nutrition services to pregnant and breastfeeding women.Senator Rubina Khalid said that BISP has established a unique mechanism to reach pregnant and lactating mothers during one of the most critical stages of their lives.
Chairman FBR bids farewell to Nadeem Hussain Rizvi, a senior officer of IRS (BPS-22) who retires from Government Service
ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
Senior officer of the Inland Revenue Service, Mr. Nadeem Hussain Rizvi, IRS (BS-22), retired from government service today after a distinguished career spanning several important assignments in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).A farewell ceremony was held during the meeting of the Board-in-Council, chaired by Chairman FBR Mr. Rashid Mahmood Langrial. On the occasion, the Chairman appreciated the meritorious services rendered by Mr. Rizvi during his career and acknowledged his professionalism, dedication and valuable contributions to the tax administration. The Chairman also presented a memento to the retiring officer as a mark of recognition for his services.Mr. Nadeem Hussain Rizvi was promoted to BS-22 in 2023 and served in a number of key positions during his career, including Chief Commissioner, Corporate Regional Tax Office Lahore; Member (Tax Policy/TPA), and Member
ACHAKZAI URGES PM TO INITIATE APPOINTMENT OF NEW CEC, ECP MEMBERS
Tuesday, 11 August, 2026
PRAYER TIMINGS
NEWS
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ISLAMABAD
STAFF REPORT
ATIONAL Assembly Opposition Leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai on Monday urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to immediately initiate the constitutional process for appointing a new chief election commissioner (CEC) and two Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) members representing Sindh and Balochistan. In a letter to the prime minister dated August 10, Achakzai termed the appointments a “critical constitutional duty”, pointing out that the five-year terms of incumbent CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja and the ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan expired on January 26, 2025. He said filling the vacant positions was essential to ensure the operational continuity, independence and credibility of the electoral commission. Achakzai cited Article 213(2A) of the Constitution, under which the prime minister, in consultation with the opposition leader, is required to forward three names for appointment of the CEC to a parliamentary committee for considera-
tion and confirmation. He also referred to Article 218(2)(b), arguing that the appointment of ECP members from provinces was subject to the same constitutional process of consultation between the prime minister and opposition leader. The opposition leader urged Shehbaz to meet him immediately and begin the ap-
Pakistan envoy urges stronger economic partnership with US ISLAMABAD
Pakistan, US make significant progress on reciprocal trade framework ISLAMABAD
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
NEWS DESK
Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, has called for deeper bilateral engagement centred on trade, investment and broader economic cooperation during a commemorative event hosted by the Pakistani American Press Association. The gathering marked two milestones — the 250th anniversary of US Independence and Pakistan’s 79th Independence Day — and brought together community figures, media professionals, public officials and other guests. Addressing the event, Ambassador Sheikh said Pakistan-US ties should be reinforced through stronger commercial and economic links. He also highlighted fairness, objectivity and impartiality as essential principles of journalism. The event celebrated what participants described as enduring shared values between Pakistan and the United States and their long-standing friendship.
Minister calls for coastal communities’ knowledge in marine policy ISLAMABAD
STAFF REPORT
Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry has urged policymakers to bring the traditional ecological knowledge of coastal communities into official planning, saying it can help improve climate adaptation, protect marine environments and support sustainable fisheries. In a statement issued on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, observed on Sunday, the minister said generations of coastal residents had built practical knowledge about tides, fishing areas, marine species, weather patterns, mangroves and broader coastal ecosystems. Chaudhry said communities from Karachi and the Indus Delta to Gwadar and Jiwani remain closely tied to fisheries, mangroves, wetlands and other marine resources. He said, "Traditional knowledge is not merely a legacy of the past. It is a living resource that can contribute to climate resilience, sustainable fisheries." The minister also pointed to mounting pressures along the coast. He said fishing communities in Karachi’s coastal settlements were facing urbanisation, pollution and habitat degradation, while people in the Indus Delta were dealing with freshwater shortages, saline intrusion, erosion and shifts in fisheries.
NAB opens inquiry into Yellow Line graft suspect KARACHI
STAFF REPORT
pointment process without further delay. The issue was also discussed during a meeting of the Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeeni-Pakistan (TTAP), which Achakzai heads. According to a statement issued by the party, the meeting expressed concern over the continued tenure of the CEC and two ECP members despite the expiry of their constitutionally prescribed terms.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Monday that Pakistan and the United States had made considerable progress in negotiations on a reciprocal trade framework, with Islamabad seeking greater market access, expanded export opportunities and increased bilateral trade. The minister made the remarks during a meeting with US Chargé d’Affaires Natalie Baker at the Finance Division, where the two sides reviewed bilateral economic relations and prospects for deeper trade and investment cooperation. According to the Finance Ministry, Aurangzeb expressed Pakistan’s interest in taking the framework forward on a mutually beneficial basis, building on recent discussions with the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR). The finance minister also briefed the US diplomat on his recent visit to Washington, where he met the US Treasury secretary and
senior officials of the International Monetary Fund, US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and US Export-Import Bank (EXIM). He highlighted the constructive engagement with US institutions and discussed opportunities to expand financial cooperation, investment and financing for commercially viable projects in Pakistan. Aurangzeb said Pakistan was also working to strengthen its position in international capital markets and diversify its financing sources. He outlined government efforts to build foreign exchange reserves, improve the country’s sovereign credit profile and secure longerterm financing to support economic stability and sustainable growth. The two sides discussed greater participation by US financial institutions, particularly the DFC, in Pakistan’s investment landscape. Aurangzeb stressed the need to identify investment-ready projects and develop appropriate financing structures to attract US companies and financial institutions.
Discussions also covered ports and logistics, energy, telecommunications, digital technology, artificial intelligence and other emerging sectors. Aurangzeb said the government was focused on creating a more conducive environment for private-sector investment and welcomed increasing interest from US companies in Pakistan. He reiterated the government’s emphasis on fiscal discipline, export-led growth, structural reforms and strengthening institutional frameworks. The minister also briefed Baker on measures being taken to manage the evolving economic situation, including the recently introduced daily petroleum price revision mechanism aimed at aligning domestic fuel prices more closely with international market conditions. Baker appreciated Pakistan’s efforts to navigate the economic impact of the recent regional conflict, particularly rising energy prices, while maintaining economic and financial stability.
Five terrorists killed in Panjgur IBO QUETTA
STAFF REPORT
Security forces killed five terrorists, including a key commander identified as Wazir, son of Jamal, during an intelligence-based operation in Balochistan’s Panjgur district under Operation Radd-ul-Fitna-3, security sources said on Monday. The operation was conducted in the Sarkeni and Chedgi areas after security forces received intelligence regarding the presence of terrorists belonging to Fitna al-Hindustan, according to the sources. During the operation, troops effectively engaged the terrorists, killing five of them, including commander Wazir. Security forces also recovered four motorcycles, machine guns, heavy weapons and
ammunition from the militants. The sources said the eliminated terrorists were involved in robbery, extortion, kidnapping and attacks targeting local traders and civilians in Panjgur. A clearance operation was subsequently launched to eliminate any remaining terrorists in the area, with security forces maintaining that efforts would continue until the militant network was dismantled. The operation is part of the ongoing Radd-ul-Fitna-3 campaign, under which security forces have intensified intelligence-based operations against militant groups operating in Balochistan. On Sunday, security forces killed 15 terrorists in separate intelligence-based operations conducted across Mastung, Bolan,
Washuk, Awaran, Sibi, Khuzdar, Harnai and Noshki districts. Large quantities of weapons and ammunition were also recovered. Earlier, 12 terrorists were killed during intelligence-based operations in Washuk and Mastung districts, according to the military’s media wing. Balochistan has remained a major theatre of militant violence, with security forces continuing operations against groups the state describes as foreign-sponsored proxies. The latest operations come amid an increase in terrorist attacks targeting civilians, security personnel and installations across the province. Security forces have vowed to maintain the counterterrorism campaign until the threat posed by militant networks in Balochistan is eliminated.
Sindh delays judicial commission move in Mir Raza Ali case KARACHI
STAFF REPORT
The National Accountability Bureau has opened an inquiry against senior bureaucrat Zameer Abbasi over allegations of assets beyond known sources of income as well as alleged illegal appointments and promotions in the Sindh government.
The meeting stressed that an impartial and independent Election Commission was essential for ensuring free, fair and transparent elections. The terms of CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja and the ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan expired on January 26, 2025. Under Article 215(4), their successors were required to be appointed within 45 days, by March 12, 2025. However, a proviso added to Article 215(1) through the 26th Constitutional Amendment allows the CEC and ECP members to continue functioning until their successors are appointed. The three officials have therefore remained in office under the amended provision. The delay in initiating the appointments had earlier been partly attributed to the absence of an officially notified opposition leader in the National Assembly. Achakzai’s demand comes amid continued political debate over the independence and credibility of electoral institutions. The Election Commission had, on July 30, declined to recognise him as chairman of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), citing the party’s failure to conduct intraparty elections.
The Sindh government has put off a decision on forming a judicial commission to investigate the murder of Mir Raza Ali after his family expressed confidence in a newly constituted
police team. Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan announced the development on Monday in a post on X. He said Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab had spoken to Ali’s family, which wanted the fresh police team to continue the investigation.
"Therefore, the decision of establishing a judicial commission has been deferred for the time being," the minister said. The case concerns the murder of Mir Raza Ali, and the provincial government had been considering whether to order a judicial commission for a separate probe.
FAJR SUNRISE
ZUHR
ASR MAGHRIB ISHA
5:22
1:30
5:15
4:40 IN TODAY’S ISSUE
PESHAWAR
Police in Swat repelled a late-night assault on a police post near Jarogo Waterfall in Upper Swat, with District Police Officer Mushtaq Ahmad saying more than 12 terrorists had surrounded the facility and opened fire from multiple sides. He said personnel at the Chatkekal post responded immediately and forced the attackers to withdraw. Initial reports suggested two terrorists were injured in the exchange of fire. Mushtaq Ahmad praised the deployed officers for their response, saying, "Such cow-
ardly attacks cannot demoralise Swat Police. Our personnel know how to respond effectively to terrorist attacks." He added that Swat police remained at the forefront of the fight against terrorism. Security personnel have stepped up surveillance in the area as authorities work to establish further details. The attempted attack came a week after a suicide bombing near Kabal Police Station in Swat district killed 17 people, including seven policemen. The blast occurred while a protest against lawlessness was under way at the adjoining Kabal Chowk. On Friday, thousands of people from across Swat gathered at Nishat Chowk in
Mingora to condemn the bombing and reaffirm support for peace in the valley. Bannu operation In a separate development, one terrorist was killed and several suspects were detained during a joint intelligence-based operation in the Miryan area of Bannu, the Counter-Terrorism Department said in a press release. The operation was carried out on the directives of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General Zulfiqar Hameed under the supervision of Bannu DPO Capt (retd) Mohammad Furqan Bilal in Khanni Kala, Barkazai and nearby areas. The CTD said law-enforcement personnel exchanged fire with terrorists,
8:45
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Leopard killings in KP spotlight habitat loss and weak wildlife enforcement
irfan.farooq@pakistantoday.com.pk
PESHAWAR
STAFF REPORT
A leopard killed in Bajaur last month has sharpened concern over a wider pattern of retaliatory killings across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where shrinking habitat, dwindling prey and weak enforcement are pushing the protected species deeper into contact with people. The latest case took place on July 20 in Bajaur’s mountainous Mamund area near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where residents shot a common leopard. Shahid Khan, a resident of Bajaur, said some people kept the animal’s skin after the killing and did not hand it over to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Wildlife Department. Officials say action is being prepared. Naveed Ahmad, Divisional Forest Officer for the merged districts in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Wildlife Department, said photographs had helped identify those allegedly involved in the Bajaur incident. He said, "We have identified those involved, and they will not escape legal action," adding that rough terrain and poor internet connectivity often make contact with field teams difficult, but the case is being pursued. He said the accused would be prosecuted under the KhyberPakhtunkhwa Wildlife and Biodiversity Act. Killings reported across multiple districts The Bajaur case follows similar leopard deaths reported from Kohat, Swat, Darra Adam Khel, Kurram, Mansehra and Tirah Valley. Wildlife experts say the recurring clashes reflect pressure on the animal’s natural range, with leopards entering villages in search of food and then being killed after attacking livestock. Earlier incidents point to the same trend. In September 2019, residents in Darra Adam Khel shot a leopard after efforts to capture it alive did not succeed. In July 2020, another leopard in Kurram district was first attacked with hunting dogs and then shot dead. The Wildlife Department later imposed a Rs150,000 fine on six people in that case, but no arrests were made. In March 2023, leopard cubs were reportedly killed in Tirah Valley, while another leopard was shot in Landi Kotal after it was accused of attacking livestock. Conservationists have cited such cases as evidence that legal protections have not translated into consistent punishment.
Outgoing AJK government fills Public Service Commission posts, drawing criticism MUZAFFARABAD NEWS DESK
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) has appointed seven members to the AJK Public Service Commission days before leaving office, prompting objections from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) over the timing of the move. A notification issued by the Services and General Administration Department said the appointments were made under Article 48(2) of the AJK Interim Constitution, 1974, read with Section 4(3) of the AJK Public Service Commission Act, 1986. The appointees are former secretaries Munir Hussain Chaudhary, Dr Chaudhry Liaqat Hussain and Mohammad Zahid Abbasi from the quota of retired government servants in BS-20 and above; former professor Dr Abdul Qadoos Khan and former vice chancellor Dr Abdul Hameed from the quota of educationists; former additional chief secretary Midhat Shehzad from the quota of women; and retired medical specialist Dr Mohammad Saleem Khan from the quota of professionals. The notification said the new members will serve for three years and receive pay and allowances as prescribed. Their appointments will take effect from the date they take oath of office under Section 4-A of the AJK Public Service Commission Act, 1986. Under the law, the commission’s seven members are to be drawn from retired civil servants or other persons of established reputation holding at least a graduation degree from a recognised university. Three members are to come from among educationists or scholars with at least 10 years of teaching or administrative experience, or both. Shahid Mehmood Wani, a senior PML-N leader and member of the party’s election manifesto committee, questioned the decision, saying, "Without questioning the competence or credentials of the individuals appointed, the propriety of making such appointments at this stage is certainly open to question. A government continuing in office as a transitional arrangement after the expiry of the assembly’s term, and having lost the people’s mandate, should ordinarily leave decisions of such long-term institutional consequence to the incoming elected government."
Swat police repel midnight assault as Bannu operation kills one terrorist NEWS DESK
6:55
killing an unidentified militant. A Kalashnikov, three magazines and a bandolier were recovered from the dead terrorist, while the identification process was under way. The CTD said further investigation was continuing after search and raid operations in the area. Mohammad Furqan Bilal praised the personnel who took part in the operation and said intelligence-based operations would be intensified to make Bannu peaceful and eliminate terrorism and crime. He also urged residents to report suspicious persons or activity to police without delay. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has seen a rise in
Published by Asad Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore, for PT Print (Pvt) Limited. Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk
militant violence in recent months. Deaths among security personnel in the province excluding merged districts rose from 12 in June to 38 in July, while terrorist deaths increased from 37 to 108, a rise of 192pc. Civilian deaths fell from 26 to seven, a decline of 73pc, and one peace committee member was also killed. Bannu has seen repeated security incidents in recent months. Last month, security forces killed 24 terrorists in Bannu district and adjoining areas, while police later said another terrorist was killed as the operation entered its third day. On July 23, security officials said the number of suspected militants killed during that operation had risen to 48.