KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday dismissed reports claiming that its foreign exchange reserves had “dried up”, and clarified that neither the country’s banks had run out of US dollars nor the central bank had stopped import payments. The statement from the central bank comes amid reports of its reserves falling to an alarmingly low level along with the suspension of import payments. However, the SBP said its foreign reserves stood at $8.99 billion. “These do not include gold reserves, and are fully usable for all purposes.”Read More

DNA ISLAMABAD: PPP Senator Raza Rabbani on Tuesday suggested the formation of a parliamentary committee tasked with looking into the defence budget as he pointed out that the budgetary allocations for the military had never been considered for a discussion in the parliament. In the budget presented by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail on June 10, defence services were allocated Rs1,523 billion, which makes up 17.5pc of the total current expenditure and is 11.16pc higher than last year. In terms of expenditure, the defence budget is 16pc of the government’s plannedRead More

DNA ISLAMABAD, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Tuesday said Imran Khan and the former National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman should be behind bars for trampling upon the law and justice of the country. Responding to PTI chief’s statement, Marriyum said, “Imran’s corruption had been exposed for the entire country to see and he could no longer harp on false narratives and accusatory politics. The four years of incompetence and corruption were now known to people who had figured out Imran’s false narrative of accountability to persecuteRead More

ISLAMABAD, JUN 21 (DNA) — Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday announced to challenge the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Amendments Bill in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. In a live video broadcast, Imran Khan said the NAB amendments will be challenged in the top court this week, adding that corruption ‘enfeebles’ the foundation of a country. He said the changes in the accountability laws will pave way for corruption in Pakistan as the powerful people would not fear punishment now. Imran Khan said Maryam Nawaz, AsifRead More

ISLAMABAD, JUN 21: /DNA/ – Senate’s delegation participating in Global Parliamentary Conference on Migration at Istanbul Turkiye headed by Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati along with Senator Muhammad Tahir Bizinjo and Senator Anwar Lal Dean met with Prof. Dr. Mustafa Şentop the Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. The delegation congratulated him for the successful organisation of the Conference and conveyed gratitude on behalf of Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani, Chairman Senate of Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD, JUN 21 /DNA/ – Pakistan strongly condemns extra-judicial killing of four more Kashmiris in fresh acts of state-sponsored terrorism by Indian occupation forces in Pulwama and Baramulla Districts of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). Since India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, more than 636 Kashmiris have embraced martyrdom in fake ‘encounters’ and so-called ‘cordon-and-search operations’. This year alone, 113 extra-judicial killings of Kashmiris have been recorded. The intensified military crackdown and the rising numbers of extra-judicial killings in IIOJK are part of the extremistRead More