Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif has directed his government to ensure that there is no loadshedding during Sehri and Iftar times in the holy month of Ramzan— set to start at the end of March.
He also gave directions that there should be minimum loadshedding in the upcoming summer season and directed authorities to accelerate the process of solarising government buildings.
He asked for the completion of all projects in the power sector and solarisation in the country within the stipulated time.
Earlier this year, Pakistan faced an energy crisis when a major power outage left the entire country without electricity for more than 12 hours.
Amid the energy crisis, last year, the premier formed a committee that worked on reducing electricity consumption in government offices by 30 per cent. He also ordered officials to convert federal government buildings to solar energy at the earliest.
In a meeting held today, the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) increased the policy rate by 300 basis points (bps) to 20 per cent as a measure to curb inflationary pressure.
The meeting’s result matched the market’s predictions, with analysts expecting the State Bank of Pakistan’s Monetary Policy Committee to implement a significant hike of 200-300 basis points.
During today’s meeting, the MPC acknowledged that recent fiscal adjustments and depreciation of the exchange rate have resulted in a significant deterioration of the near-term inflation outlook. This has also led to an increase in inflation expectations, as indicated by the latest survey results.
The committee anticipates that inflation will continue to rise in the coming months due to the impact of these adjustments, before gradually decreasing. The projected average inflation rate for this year is now estimated to be between 27 per cent to 29 per cent, compared to the November 2022 projection of 21 per cent to 23 per cent. Given this context, the MPC stressed the importance of stabilizing inflation expectations and implementing strong policy measures.
On the external front, the MPC acknowledged that while there has been a substantial reduction in the current account deficit (CAD), there are still some vulnerabilities present. In January 2023, the CAD decreased to $242 million, the lowest level since March 2021.
Tournament favourites Lahore Qalandars will face a team in trouble on Thursday. Quetta Gladiators are at the bottom of the points table while Qalandars are right on top.
Lahore Qalandars fans are excited to watch Lahore vs Quetta in their home ground, but they are likely relaxed too after their team performed extraordinarily well in their first 4 games.
Last time Lahore palyed against Quetta at the National Stadium, Qalandars thrashed the Gladiators, winning the match by 63 runs. Now Quetta Gladiators are ready to take revenge.
Experts say that there is a strong chance of Lahore Qalandars maintaining their winning streak, with a complete batting and bowling line up. Spinner Rashid Khan can change the game single handedly, Shaheen Afridi is famous for grabbing first over wickets and the king of seam, Haris Rauf.
Their batting line up is also strong in term of hitting in power play, with powerful hitters Fakhar Zaman and Kamran Ghulam.
Shaheen Afridi’s team heads into the fixture after thumping Islamabad United by 110 runs in their previous outing. Quetta Gladiators have managed to win just one match in the tournament so far, with their chances of qualifying for the knockout stages of the competition looking increasingly bleak with each passing game.
The past month, Assistant Commissioner Hazim Bangwar broke the internet with his larger than life personality and fashion choices. The government official has been a model, rapper and music producer in Hollywood.
Bangwar showed up on Mathira’s show, where the former singer opened up about why he had decided to leave behind his career in Hollywood and come Pakistan to do his CSS. Bangwar revealed that it was the realization that he wanted to help his country that made him want to come back: “I completed my Bachelors in Fashion Marketing, my second degree was LLB. My mind would keep fluctuating between art and academia…Then I got signed to a music label. So I was travelling, limousines, first class, this and that…So when I came to Pakistan, reality would hit me. I’m first class in Emirates and here people would get pushed around while travelling on buses. I’m eating the best food from the best restaurants, and here people don’t have anything to eat. So I would ask myself ‘What am I doing?’ I was disconnected from reality, and somehow felt like I was wasting my time. So while I was on my break, I came back to Pakistan and decided to stop complaining and take action.”
Bangwar also ta about how shocked other people in his life were when they found out about his decision to stay in Pakistan. “People would say to me ‘Why have you come back? You’re set in life go back! A government job?!’ Because of that I was absolutely determined to show them that why not? If someone wants to do something good for their country then why can’t they come back?”
We are all familiar with the token Pakistani drama formulae: boy meets girl, romance begins, saas intervenes, marriage, fights, divorce, forgiveness and then happily ever after. It’s such a prevalent formula that it’s no wonder that audiences crave a change with complex stories that can draw them in. However, once in a blue moon we have gotten interesting stories that deviated from the stereotypical shaadi drama to give us a heart-wrenching love story and left their audience completely devastated. Despite the ever-standing belief among drama creators that audiences need to keep being fed the same ‘Humsafar’ formulae, these dramas elevated themselves among the rest because they remind us that despite all our efforts, we never get the happy ending we crave and that is what life is all about. After a lot of careful searching, here are the five Pakistani dramas that deviated from the expected ‘happy ending’ and gave us a heart-wrenching love story audiences will never forget!
1 Daastan
Bano and Hassan’s love story was the epitome of what made Dastaan the timeless drama it remains today. Both fell in love when they met at Suraiya’s wedding. Both are engaged and Hassan immediately leaves for Rawalpindi to begin his job, promising that he would bring Bano along. However, this love story is torn apart by the violence of partition, after which Bano is forcibly married and Hassan believes her to be dead. When they meet up after years, Bano has a child, and because of the trauma of the violence she underwent and then at the hands of her abuser at her workplace, she gets admitted in a mental assylum.
2 Ye Dil Mera
Sajal Aly and Ahad Raza Mir broke hearts across the country when they chose to part ways, but real fans know that the couple had already been breaking hearts with this tragic drama about family trauma and long lost secrets. Aly plays Noor-ul-Ain, a student who starts interning at AK Oil Industry, whose CEO is Aman-Ullah Khan (Mir). Both get closer and are married in a few days, but are driven apart after Khan realizes that it was Noor’s father who had murdered his family. By the end of the drama, the couple decide to part ways in order to heal from their own wounds, and leave us unsure on whether they would come back together or not.
3 Pehli Si Muhabbat
Rakshi (played by Maya Ali) and Aslam (played by Shehryar Munawar) are childhood friends who start getting closer, but tragedy strikes when Rakshi’s father get’s married for the second time to Nargis, who was a former sex worker. Aslam’s elder brother, Akram, is the one who opposes this relation the most and orders the entire community to ostracize Rakshi and her family. Despite their efforts to convince their families to let them get married, Rakshi and Aslam are married off to other people. When they meet up years later at the marriage of their children, both reminisce their times together and say they were happy being each other’s first love.
4 Ishq-e-Laa
Shanaya (played by Sajal Aly) is a dedicated journalist who seeks to empower oppressed voices through her work, but her husband Azlan (played by Azaan Sami Khan) is unable to understand her passion for social issues and asks her to quit her job after marriage. However, when Shayana is killed while investigating a murder committed by the son of a rich man, Azlan is heartbroken and decides to fulfil her wish to fund Azka’s medical education. By the end of the series, when Azka and Azlaan are married, he goes to Shayana’s grave to tell her how much he loved her for influencing him to change his mindset.
5 Mata-e-Jaan Hai Tu
Haniya (played by Sarwar Gilani) and Ibad Uzar (played by Adnan Sami) are college students in America who fall in love and want to get married Ibad’s parents oppose the marriage. When Haniya’s grandmother passes away and she is distraught, Ibad decides to marry her. To convince his parents, Ibad flies back to Pakistan ten days after his wedding, but is killed on the day he is flying back. Haniya is distraught but decides to go back to Pakistan herself to start working for Ibad’s parents office. By the end of the drama, his parents and Haniya are incredibly close and are able to grieve together over the loss of their loved one.
The State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is expected to raise interest rates during an off-cycle review scheduled for today.
The decision to hold this meeting earlier than the previously scheduled date of March 16th was made in an effort to expedite efforts to secure the anticipated International Monetary Fund (IMF) tranche.
SBP’s MPC, established under the SBP Amendment Act, is authorized to make decisions based on macroeconomic fundamentals. Market expectations are for a benchmark interest rate increase, given the recent rise in treasury yields and growing investor concerns about rising inflation in Pakistan and globally.
Reports suggest that the coalition government has agreed to raise interest rates from 17 per cent to 19 per cent in response to one of the IMF’s key conditions for reviving the loan program.
Analysts recommend advancing the MPC meeting date to avoid the failure of the next T-bill auction. Discussions with the IMF have included the possibility of further monetary policy tightening and building up foreign exchange reserves by June 2023.
The IMF has urged the SBP to raise the policy rate by 300 to 400 basis points to achieve a positive trajectory. Pakistan is taking measures to secure IMF funding, such as raising taxes, removing blanket subsidies, and relaxing exchange rate restrictions.
While the government is optimistic about reaching a deal with the IMF, reports indicate that the lender expects interest rates to rise. Off-cycle rate reviews are not unusual in Pakistan.
After Supreme Court (SC) passed its verdict in the suo Moto case of election dates in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday announced that his party would end its “Jail Bharo Tehreek (voluntary arrest movement)” and launch its election campaign on March 4 (Saturday).
About the top court’s decision that elections will be held within 90 days, Khan praised the judiciary and said the nation stood with the court.
However, he expressed fears that elections may not be held in 90 days, claiming that Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar tried to divide the judiciary.
Slamming the federal minister’s views on the verdict, the PTI chief said: “His views on the Supreme Court verdict are shameful.”
Khan added that since his government’s removal in April 2022, his party has won 30 by-polls out of 37.
It is pertinent to mention that the elections in both provinces have been the core demand of PTI and the apex court’s verdict has been welcomed by the former ruling party.
A district and sessions court of Islamabad on Thursday discharged Defence Analyst Lieutenant General (retd) Amjad Shoaib.
The orders were issued by Additional District and Sessions Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra when he announced the verdict on the review plea filed by the former three-star general against his physical remand.
In a video Shoaib said, “Humanity is fully alive in the country.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, have been asked to vacate their British home, Frogmore Cottage, where they were allowed to live by the late Queen Elizabeth.
“We can confirm The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage,” a spokesman for the couple revealed in an email to The Washington Post.
The reason behind this decision has not been revealed, however it has come only a few weeks before King Charles’s coronation in May.
Media reports have said that the cottage is now being offered to Prince Andrew, who had been living on a larger property in Windsor grounds. However, Buckingham Palace has not confirmed this yet.
Harry and Meghan had shifted to Frogmore Cottage in 2018 after their wedding. In 2020 when they stepped down from their royal duties, the couple moved to California but the cottage remained their home during their trips to Britain. They have time till May to empty the home.
King Charles has long been a proponent of slimming down the monarchy and reducing its expenses. Prince Andrew, who was living at the 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor, has reportedly also been told that the monarchy will not pay for the upkeep of the residence.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said that he felt “embarrassed as a Pakistani to witness the depths” the country has “sunk to” due to the “imported regime of a cabal of crooks and their handlers”.
His comments came in reference to a photograph of defence analyst Lieutenant General (retd) Amjad Shoaib in a police cell, which went viral on social media platforms.
“In desperation to cling to power and muzzle all dissenting voices, they have jailed a respected, patriotic Pakistani on sedition charges,” tweeted the PTI chief.
I feel embarrassed as a Pakistani to witness the depths we have sunk to thanks to this imported regime of a cabal of crooks & their handlers. In desperation to cling to power & muzzle all dissenting voices, they have jailed a respected, patriotic Pakistani on sedition charges. pic.twitter.com/YCo9F371vU
Shoaib was arrested by Islamabad police after a first information report (FIR) was registered against him on February 25 at Islamabad’s Ramna Police Station.
According to the FIR, filed on the complaint of Islamabad Magistrate Owais Khan, the former army officer incited people to revolt against institutions and attempted to provoke disharmony and anarchy and create a law and order situation in the country through controversial statements he made on a TV show.
In the complaint, Magistrate Khan said that the retired general — in an interview on BOL TV’s show ‘Imran Khan Bol Kay Saath’ aired on Saturday — passed statements that “incited government officials and Opposition from performing their government and legal duties”.
