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  • Direct taxes target predicted at Rs2,560 billion for FY 22-23

    In an attempt to meet the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) revenue collection target of Rs7,255 billion for the upcoming fiscal year, the direct taxes target has been predicted at Rs2,560 billion, up from Rs2,182 billion in 2021-22.

    According to Brecorder, the indirect taxes (net) estimates were predicted at Rs4,695 billion in the macroeconomic framework for 2022-23. Direct taxes forecasts included income tax and withholding taxes, whereas indirect taxes projections included sales tax, customs duty, and Federal Excise Duty (FED).

    The indirect tax goal for 2022-23 has been set at Rs4,695 billion, up from Rs3,647 billion in 2021-22, representing a Rs1,048 billion rise. The indirect tax revenue for the fiscal year 2021-22 was Rs3,440 billion.

    The entire collection of indirect taxes in 2020-21 was Rs3,008.2 billion. Direct taxes are expected to reach Rs2,560 billion in the next fiscal year, up from Rs2,182 billion in 2021-22, a Rs378 billion increase.

    Read more: PM Shehbaz directs to eliminate taxes on raw materials used by export industries

    During the first 11 months of the current fiscal, the FBR collected roughly Rs1.9 trillion in direct taxes. In the fiscal year 2020-21, direct tax collections totalled Rs1,726.0 billion. Withholding taxes account for 72 per cent of the total direct tax collection.

  • Dogs being abducted, tortured for medical experiments

    Trigger warning: Animal Abuse

    Videos and pictures from Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University (PMAS-AAUR) in Rawalpindi have gone viral on social media in which dogs can be seen in inhumane conditions.

    As per an animal rescue organisation, ACF: “Veterinary universities in Punjab are Butchering stray dogs and torturing animals to learn medicine.”

    “How are the vets being trained mentally? They are becoming serial killers. This is slaughter without death,” the post added.

    According to media reports, veterinarian students have been snatching healthy dogs and experimenting and operating on them in brutal, immoral, and terrifying ways. Dogs are being used to perform surgeries.

    A protest also took place outside Islamabad Press Club on June 7 against animal brutality.

  • Coming budget 22-23 will improve Pakistan’s IT sector

    Coming budget 22-23 will improve Pakistan’s IT sector

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif emphasised the importance of drafting an economic strategy during the day-long Pre-Budget Business Conference on Tuesday, stating that all stakeholders should work together to develop a framework for attaining economic growth.

    During his speech, the PM stressed the importance of financial management in order to boost exports and agricultural yields. The meeting was attended by senior economists, industrialists and was organised by the government to explore avenues of consensus-based economic initiatives, according to APP.

    “All of us will have to move collectively. The government will need guidance from stakeholders and experts. The government will form a taskforce on agriculture and exports for formulating comprehensive plans,” he said.

    PM Shehbaz stated that his government had about 15 months to implement short and medium-term economic initiatives.

    He was disappointed that Pakistan was lagging behind other countries, despite the fact that the rest of the world had excelled by following their development plans. He claimed that Pakistan was endowed with talented individuals capable of replicating India’s success in the IT sector.

    PM Shehbaz announced that he had assigned Minister of Information Technology Aminul Haque the objective of increasing IT exports to $15 billion in the next two years. “We cannot progress until we set ambitious targets,” he stressed.

    Syed Amin Ul Haque pledged on Tuesday to increase information technology exports to $5 billion by the end of 2023.

    For the coming fiscal year, several IT and telecommunications programmes have been proposed in this regard.

    According to sources, these projects include 31 existing and two new ones, for which the Pakistani government would give Rs4,438.696 million and foreign aid will provide Rs1,042 million.

    Budget allocation for IT sector

    Reportedly, an amount of Rs100 million is proposed for IT professional certification through the Pakistan Software Export Board, while Rs80 million is planned for Crime Analytics and Smart Policing. In Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, Rs50 million has been suggested for demand-driven industry, while Rs179 million has been earmarked for the building of a data centre to provide cloud-based services.

    PM Shehbaz warned that development plans could not be implemented unless political stability was achieved. The premier also stressed the importance of concentrating on exports and developing the agricultural sector.

    He went on to claim that he was aiming to ‘fix’ friendly country relations that had deteriorated during the previous administration’s tenure. “I have invited China, Japan, Turkey, and other countries to invest in Pakistan,” he said. He invited the corporate community to join him in this endeavour.

    Meanwhile, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail stated that the government will require $41 billion in the next 12 months and that he is ‘confident’ that this can be achieved.

    The Shehbaz Sharif government, he added, has re-engaged with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “We spoke with them and are extremely optimistic that we will reach an agreement with the IMF soon. That is something we are extremely certain about”.

    Moreover, he explained that the present coalition administration had made difficult measures to help the economy stabilise. “It is difficult for any prime minister to authorise a fuel price hike of twice the amount we have, but we were losing Rs84 per litre on diesel and Rs69 per litre on petrol”.

  • PM Shehbaz directs to eliminate taxes on raw materials used by export industries

    PM Shehbaz directs to eliminate taxes on raw materials used by export industries

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif, urged authorities to abolish all taxes on raw materials used in the export industry and to set up task teams to attract investment in a variety of local industries.

    The new government has been attempting to put in place a long-term plan to resuscitate Pakistan’s struggling economy, with the premier reaffirming his plea for increased exports to alleviate the country’s growing cash constraint yesterday.

    The premier met with a team from the American Business Council, which included officials from the pharmaceuticals, food processing, IT, e-commerce, retail, textile, sports, and logistics sectors, according to APP.

    Federal ministers Syed Naveed Qamar, Makhdoom Murtaza Mahmood, and Marriyum Aurangzeb were also present at the meeting.

    Task groups were constituted by the prime minister to solicit investments in a variety of areas. Tourism, pharmaceuticals, information technology, e-commerce, large-scale manufacturing, and agriculture will all have task teams constituted.

    He reminded the team that the government was working hard to guarantee that high-quality agricultural products were produced for export. The government was pushing for policy consistency for the first time, he said, because “subjects of the national economy and public welfare are above politics”.

    Shehbaz Sharif also asked the secretary of trade and the secretary of the Board of Investment to guarantee that the investors’ concerns were addressed immediately, and he requested a compliance report within a week.

    Business representatives, on the other hand, told state media that government initiatives had helped them regain investor confidence, and that the pre-budget dialogue with stakeholders was a “positive step”.

    PM Shehbaz has called all stakeholders to get together on Tuesday, ahead of the budget declaration on June 10, to finalise a long-term plan to rebuild the ailing economy. Top businessmen, agriculturists, and economists attended the day-long pre-budget meeting, where they offered advice on how to lift the country out of its unparalleled economic crisis.

    During the meeting, the premier pledged that their suggestions would be taken into consideration and that separate plans for agricultural, industrial, and financial expansion would be developed.

    PM Shehbaz also stated that political stability cannot be attained without economic stability and that it was past time for the elite class to make sacrifices and for non-productive assets such as real estate to be taxed. He advised businesses to invest in renewable power rather than relying on the country’s vast coal reserves for power generation.

    The prime minister also emphasised the importance of reducing imports while increasing exports, assuring attendees of the government’s full support in expanding local business and eradicating any barriers.

  • ‘A large part of the army wants elections’: Sheikh Rasheed

    ‘A large part of the army wants elections’: Sheikh Rasheed

    Former Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed has said that the establishment wants early elections to take place in the country.

    “The army itself is saying that elections should be held. A large part of the army is of the positive opinion that elections should be held,” said Rasheed, adding that a preception is being given that the military establishment is backing the sitting government.

    Rasheed was speaking to Channel 24.

    Read more: ‘Refrain from commenting on Pakistan’s nuclear programme’: Gen Nadeem Raza responds to Khan’s comment

    Veterans of Pakistan, an organisation of former military officers, held a press conference in Islamabad on June 6, where Brig (R) Mian Mehmood claimed that when the situation in Pakistan started to deteriorate, their team led by General Ali Quli went to meet the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

    “General Bajwa very clearly promised that he would hold elections in 90 days to make the situation in Pakistan better. Today we ask Gen Bajwa: where did his promises go?”

  • Court allows The Minor to decide where she wants to live

    Court allows The Minor to decide where she wants to live

    The Sindh High Court has announced its verdict in The Minor case. “The Minor is entitled to make her own decision, and live with whoever she wishes,” says the verdict.

    Talking to The Current, lawyer and activist Jibran Nasir said,”The judgement in The Minor case is extremely problematic. To start off with, the Honourable Divisional Bench has completely disregarded established jurisprudence of the Sindh High Court in such matters. Wherever it is proven that the girl is under 18, her marriage is deemed Child marriage, she is only given two options, i.e. whether to reside with parents or go to shelter home and if the child is sent to a shelter home, she is under no circumstances allowed to meet her alleged husband and alleged in-laws who orchestrated the crime of child marriage.”

    “This judgement also negates our jurisprudence under Criminal Law and Family Law with regards to rights of minors and parents,” he added.

    “The court also failed to realise that the Sindh High Court has already held that where NADRA documents are present, they are to be preferred over any medical report as ossification report gives an estimate ranging from 1 to 2 years as opposed to specific date. The court also failed to realise that to determine age, a medical board of senior doctors is formed, which was not done in this case.”

    “As a whole, what our courts are consistently failing to realise that a minor girl under 16 years of age can be enticed away from guardianship of her parents and that is kidnapping under section 361 PPC. The Advocate General Sindh also failed to realise this when he told the court that this is not a case of abduction.”

    Jibran Nasir said that another aspect the courts are failing to appreciate are the recent penal laws introduced in 2016 for protection of children where seducing a child is a crime under 292A PPC. “If seducing a child is a crime, then how can the resulting marriage be justified.”

    “It is also ignorant of the amendment made to Hudood Laws by the Women’s Protection Act 2006. Under Hudood Laws, there existed a concept of a 13-year-old girl getting married and resulting marital relation not being considered as rape. However, after 2006 Women’s Protection Act, no such exception exist and any sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 is strict liability rape.”

    “This judgement will not do our children any good, if anything it has made the jurisprudence more confusing and our children more vulnerable to predators.”

    A medical examination report ordered by the Sindh High Court (SHC) to determine The Minor’s age has revealed that her real age is between 16 to 17 years. However, The Minor’s father Mehdi Ali Kazmi has termed the report fake and has decided to challenge it.

    Mehdi Ali Kazmi wrote a letter to Sindh’s Health Secretary in which he indicated that he married in 2005 and The Minor was born three years later, and that it is incorrect for The Minor to be between the age of 16 and 17.

    As per media reports, The Minor told her mother that she wants to come home during a meeting arranged at the orders of the Sindh High Court (SHC).

    The Minor along with her husband Zaheer Ahmed was produced in the Sindh High Court on Monday, June 6.

    The Minor went missing on April 16. The same month she was found in Lahore. Three videos of The Minor also surfaced in which the girl can be heard saying that she married out of her own free will, and claimed that she is 18 years of age. However, her father claims that she is not 18.

  • Virat Kohli becomes first Asian to cross 200 million Instagram followers

    Virat Kohli becomes first Asian to cross 200 million Instagram followers

    Former Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli became the first Asian to reach 200 million Instagram followers on Tuesday.

    Kohli is one of the world’s most-followed cricketers and the third most followed professional athlete after Cristiano Ronaldo (451M) and Lionel Messi (334M).

    Kohli took to Instagram to thank his supporters.

    “200 mil strong. Thanks for all your support insta fam,” Kohli wrote along with a montage of his Instagram posts.

    Meanwhile, Pakistan cricket team captain Babar Azam has 2.1 million followers on Instagram.

    READ MORE: Five million people follow PM Khan on Instagram.

    Former premier Imran Khan’s Instagram family grew to a staggering over seven million followers.

  • Mahira’s ‘Aik Hai Nigar’ wins ‘Best Asian Film’ at the prestigious Septimius Awards

    Mahira’s ‘Aik Hai Nigar’ wins ‘Best Asian Film’ at the prestigious Septimius Awards

    Mahira Khan’s production and acting venture Aik Hai Nigar has won the ‘Best Asian film’ at The Septimius Awards.

    It is a prestigious award ceremony, with strong emphasis on discovering and encouraging new independent talent, and has a wide range of attendees which include Oscar, Emmy and Grammy winners.

    2022 is the year for Pakistani entertainment industry and international feats. The biopic honouring the life and works of Major General Nigar Johar, the first female officer to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, won big at Amsterdam! Aik Hai Nigar, a telefilm starring Mahira Khan in the lead, has won in the category of Best Asian Film at the prestigious Septimius Awards.

    Along with shedding light on Lt General Nigar’s professional achievements, Aik Hai Nigar also highlighted her personal life, a huge part of which is her husband, Johar Ali Khan, played by actor Bilal Ashraf.

    The category for Best Asian Film included eight films in total, such as Farha, a film about a 14-year-old girl in 1948 Palestine watching catastrophe consume her house from a locked cellar; 218: Behind the Wall of Silence, an Emirati film on three women sharing an apartment 218 and their tales of domestic violence, nostalgia for a lost past and the pursuit of revenge; Sermon on the Mount, a documentary on black experiences and Paka (River of Blood), an Indian Malayalam drama based on a river that swells with the blood of two feuding families and a young couple that tries to overcome this hatred with their love.

    Earlier the Raees diva has won accolades at UK Asian Film Festival and  Distinctive International Arab Festivals Awards.

  • Shehbaz Sharif bans weddings after 10pm in Islamabad

    Shehbaz Sharif bans weddings after 10pm in Islamabad

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday during a pre-budget business conference stressed the need of signing a ‘Charter of Economy’ for economic stability and progress in the country.

    “Charter of Economy will remain unchanged. It will become our sacred trust, which will not change,” the prime minister said, adding: “We need this.”

    If there will be no political stability, there will be no economic stability

    Shehbaz said, “If there will be no political stability, there will be no economic stability.”

    “It’s about time the elite class had to make sacrifices and non-productive assets like real estate would have to be taxed. Until now, the hard time has been faced by the poor but today it’s the turn of well-off people to take the burden,” said Shehbaz.

    Shehbaz stressed that the enhancement of exports, agricultural yield, and financial management should be the major components of the plan. “The government will form a task force on agriculture and exports for formulating comprehensive plans,” he said.

    The premier said that since Pakistan’s inception 75 years back, the economic development in the initial 25 years and the economic development after that have a “stark” difference.

    We must go for special export industrial zones

    Comparing the country’s Information Technology (IT) industry with that of India’s, the premier said that India generates around $200 billion while Pakistan’s industry is hovering around $2.5 billion. “We must go for special export industrial zones,” he added.

    The PM went on to say that the government will make well-structured industrial zones. “To increase the export, the developed zone should be handed over to the investors to work on it. We need to fix ambitious targets.”

    Government bans wedding ceremonies after 10pm in Islamabad

    The government has banned wedding ceremonies after 10pm in the federal capital.

    According to media reports, permission to serve only one dish to wedding guests will be given, and a notification will be issued over this new restriction.

    The Islamabad police and administration have been informed to strictly implement the ban. In case of any violation, strict action will be taken.

  • ‘Take a plane for Tiktok videos’, Kangana Ranaut thinks Qatar Airways spoof video is ‘real’

    ‘Take a plane for Tiktok videos’, Kangana Ranaut thinks Qatar Airways spoof video is ‘real’

    Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut seems to have fallen for a spoof, again.

    Spoof video

    After Qatar rebuked India for the derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) made by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokespersons Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal, #BycottQatarAirways started trending on Indian Twitter.

    An Indian Twitter user ‘Vashudev’ posted a video calling for the boycott of Qatar Airways.

    Later, a spoof video with Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker replying to Vashudev’s boycott call in an interview with Al Jazeera went viral.

    “Vashudev is our biggest shareholder with a total investment of ₹634.50 rupees. We don’t know how to operate anymore. We have grounded all the flights … we are requesting Vashudev to take this call for boycott back. This is a special kind of boycott because it is b-y-c-o-t-t. Vashudev habibi, we are willing to give you one whole plane to make your TikTok videos or maybe we can give you two litres of petrol free. Please consider our offer and take the boycott back,” Qatar Airways CEO’s voiceover says in the spoof video.

    Kangana shares spoof video on Instagram

    After the spoof video went viral, Kangana Ranauat shared it on her Instagram stories, thinking the video is ‘real’.

    “This idiot of a man has no shame bullying a poor man mocking his insignificance and place in the world…Vasudev may be poor and insignificant for a rich man like you but he has the right to express his grief, pain and disappointment in whatever context it may be… remember there is a world beyond this world where we all are equal,” wrote Kangana in one of her Insta stories.

    She continued: “All so called Indians who are cheering this bully for making fun of a poor man remember this is exactly why you all are a big bojh [burden] on this over populated country.”

    Kangana later deleted her Instagram stories after journalist and fact-checker Mohammed Zubair informed her that it was a voiceover video made by an Indian.

    Kangana shares fake Shehbaz Sharif screenshot

    This is not the first time that Kangana has fallen for fake news.

    In May, Kangana shared a screenshot on her Instagram stories that featured Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s praise for her craft and performance in Dhaakad.

    However, the screenshot featured an imposter account of PM Shehbaz and not the real one.

    READ MORE: Did Shehbaz Sharif praise Kangana Ranaut? Indian actress shares screenshot