Tag: United States

  • DG Khan Cement to export 50,000 tonnes of cement to the United States

    DG Khan Cement to export 50,000 tonnes of cement to the United States

    Following long and complex certification processes, D.G. Khan Cement Company Limited (DGKCL), one of Pakistan’s largest cement producers, is set to export 50,000 tonnes of the building material to the sophisticated US market.

    This is a positive development for Pakistan, which is struggling to boost exports in the face of a burgeoning trade deficit that has steered the rupee to historic depths. The process took almost ten months for the renowned industrial group to complete the necessary certifications for delivering cement to US markets after winning the contract. TXDOT, LDOT, NCDOT, and SCDOT are among the certifications available.

    According to Brecorder, the company’s CFO, Inayat Ullah Niazi, stated that a ship was currently loading cement at a port in Karachi for delivery to Houston.

    It was not easy for the company to meet the contract for a monthly supply of 100,000 tonnes of cement to Texas. In August of last year, DG Khan Cement signed a contract with a US company for the year 2021.

    Since the United States lacks cement production, it imports it from Mexico, Canada, and Turkey.

    Finally. a Pakistani cement supplier has entered the US market for the first time, as demand for the construction material has risen dramatically, with buyers looking for other options in the wake of President Joe Biden’s $6 trillion infrastructure package.

    All of the mega infrastructure in the United States, including roads, bridges, and other structures, would be rebuilt as they were nearly a century ago under the announced package.

    Pakistan exported 4.971 million tonnes cement in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year (July-May), a negative growth of 43.32 per cent, according to export data. Cement exports to Afghanistan were only 813,493 tonnes during this time, a negative 65.04 per cent increase.

    With only 1.478 million tonnes exported, exports to other countries experienced negative growth of 27.2 per cent.

    As per industry insiders, after DG Khan Cement began discovering the US market for cement exports, other larger players began the certification process for their goods.

    According to the latest figures released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the country’s exports declined by 10.22 per cent on a monthly basis in May 2022, falling to $2.6 billion from $2.897 billion in April 2022.

    D.G. Khan Cement, one of Pakistan’s largest cement producers, earned Rs4.1 billion in the nine-month period ending March 31, 2022, a 26 per cent increase in profit. In the same period of 2020-21, the company made Rs3.25 billion in profits.

    It is worth noting that the business also received orders for cement export to the Philippines back in 2020.

    With a nearly 50 per cent (Rs300 per bag) increase in the last 12 months, more price increases would be required to offset the coal cost impact.

  • ‘Foreign minister’s views interpreted out of context’: FO says no change in Pakistan’s policy on India

    ‘Foreign minister’s views interpreted out of context’: FO says no change in Pakistan’s policy on India

    Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson has said in a statement that Foreign Minister (FM) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s remarks on India were being “interpreted out of context and portrayed incorrectly”.

    “There is no change in Pakistan’s policy on India on which there is a national consensus. Pakistan has always desired cooperative relations with all its neighbours, including India. We have consistently advocated constructive engagement and result-oriented dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues, including the core Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” the statement said.

    “India’s unabated hostility and retrogressive steps, however, have vitiated the environment and impeded the prospects of peace and cooperation. The onus, therefore, remains on India to take the necessary steps to create an enabling environment conducive to meaningful and result-oriented dialogue,” the FO statement said.

    Bilawal clearly articulated this perspective, “referring to India’s illegal and unilateral actions in the Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IOJK) since 5 August 2019, describing them as an assault on the rights of the Kashmiri people, as well as rising Islamophobia in India, that created an environment unconducive for meaningful engagement,” it added.

    “The foreign minister’s remarks are better understood in the overall context of his key message of conflict resolution that he emphasised in his address at the think-tank event,” the FO statement concluded.

    ‘Does it serve our objective that we have practically cut off all engagements with India?’: Bilawal Bhutto

    Bilawal advocated for re-engagement with India asking whether cutting ties with India served the country’s interests.

    “Does it serve our interests, do we achieve our objectives whatever they may be, be it Kashmir, be it rising Islamophobia, the Hindutva supremacist nature of the new regimes and the governments in India? Does it serve our objective that we have practically cut off all engagements,” asked Bilawal while speaking at the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad.

    Bilawal identified India and the United States (US) as countries with which Pakistan’s relations were problematic.

    The foreign minister contended that if Pakistan had achieved economic engagement with India in the past, it would have been in a better position to influence Delhi’s policy and prevented both countries from taking extreme positions.

    In May, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reached out to Bilawal soon after he took the foreign minister’s office and invited him to a food security conference. The two also met in New York on the sidelines of the forum.

  • Microsoft reduces profit estimation due to market volatility

    Microsoft reduces profit estimation due to market volatility

    Microsoft slashed its fourth-quarter profitability and earnings projections on June 2, becoming the latest U.S. corporation to notify of the impact of a stronger dollar.

    An aggressive Federal Reserve and increased geopolitical tensions have driven the dollar up 14 per cent against a basket of currencies in the last year, forcing companies like Coca-Cola Co and Procter & Gamble to lower their expectations for the rest of the year.

    A stronger dollar generally consumes the earnings of multinational corporations that have extensive global operations and convert foreign currencies into dollars. Microsoft has lowered its sales forecast for all three segments, which include Windows products, cloud services, and personal computing.

    Corporate hedging activity has increased as more businesses seek to protect their revenues from the impact of market volatility in the face of rising inflation. It’s indeed common for businesses to preserve themself from unusual currency transitions, however, the intensity comes after years of low forex fluctuation when market volatility had little impact on income.

    Revenue for the quarter is expected to be between $51.94 billion and $52.74 billion, down from a previous range of $52.40 billion to $53.20 billion. Microsoft reduced its profit forecast from $2.28 to $2.35 per share to between $2.24 and $2.32 per share.

    Considering Refinitiv data, analysts expect earnings per share of $2.33 on revenue of $52.87 billion. In April, the company forecasted double-digit revenue growth for the next fiscal year, owing to increased demand for its office software and cloud services as economies reopen and businesses shift to a hybrid model that allows employees to work from both the office and from home.

  • Miftah Ismail says no response by Russia for buying oil at discounted rates

    Miftah Ismail says no response by Russia for buying oil at discounted rates

    Finance Minister Miftah Ismail on Tuesday in an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson said that he does not know where former premier Imran Khan gets his numbers from, refuting Khan’s claims that Russia has not offered a 30 per cent discount on oil or wheat.

    “Let’s be clear. I don’t know where Khan gets these numbers from,” said Miftah.

    “Khan just makes it up as he goes along. He is the guy who was saying we (PDM) were brought in through an American conspiracy. And now he has come up with this new thing. If Russia was selling him cheap wheat and oil, then why didn’t he buy it? He did not,” said Miftah.

    Difficult for me to imagine buying Russian oil

    Miftah said that Western sanctions have made importing oil from Moscow impossible despite the Pakistani government’s request to buy wheat from Russia and Ukraine.

    “Russia has not offered us any oil either. It is difficult for me to imagine buying Russian oil,” said the finance minister.

     Raising oil prices was ‘a trap for us‘

    Talking about talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Miftah said, “We have had talks with the IMF in Doha recently. We are talking to the IMF and particularly the IMF is looking at the budget that I am going to present in early June and after that, I am hoping that we will reach an agreement with the Fund.”

    He said the IMF was looking for Pakistan to reverse the subsidies on oil, petrol and diesel in particular “that the previous government had given”.

    Miftah added that the IMF also wanted Islamabad to reverse electric tariff subsidies that the previous government had done.

    “Then it is looking at the budget that I will present. So, I am pretty confident that we should be able to get an agreement with the Fund but there would be some austerity in the budget, some measures to increase taxation in the next budget.”

    The minister said that raising oil prices by the previous government was “a trap for us”.

    “Imran Khan in the last days of his government did a few things to violate all these agreements with the IMF, including giving these unsustainably high subsidies. And he knew we could not sustain this.”

    “And when we came to power, he is now going city to city, trying to rally the people with his theories about conspiracies and all that for putting a lot of political pressure on us.”

    The new government, he said, was finding it difficult to raise the prices right away, but it took a very important step last week.

    Moscow had not even responded to the previous government’s letter

    Ismail said that Moscow had not even responded to the previous government’s letter seeking to buy oil at a discounted price from Russia.

    “The two sides had talked about it, but since Russia is under sanctions, and they have not yet responded to the request sent by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, there was no movement on this front.”

    However, he said Islamabad had approached both Ukraine and Russia, “whichever country is willing to sell us wheat we would be happy to buy it”.

    Hammad’s claims

    Former Energy Minister Hammad Azhar said, “Miftah sahib is claiming on national tv that no letter or proof exists of Russian oil talks. And who he should speak to. Russia was enthusiastic on selling discounted oil to us and he should have spoken to Energy Minister of Russia.”

    Miftah’s response:

    Miftah responded to Hammad Azhar’s tweet: “Bhai please listen to my interview again. I did say your govt wrote a letter. But I said no response ever came.”

    He added, “I didn’t say that you waited more than a month after IK’s visit to write the letter & then too when you knew you’d lose the VNC & that it was only done for politics.”

  • ‘Is say zaida Allah ki kya lanat hogi ke Madina mein aap ke khilaaf naray lagay’: Khan

    ‘Is say zaida Allah ki kya lanat hogi ke Madina mein aap ke khilaaf naray lagay’: Khan

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday said that the incumbent government was cursed by Allah to the point that even when they [governemnt officials] were in Madina, people couldn’t stop themselves from chanting slogans against these corrupt leaders. Khan was addressing a lawyers’ convention in Peshawar.

    “What was our [PTI’s] fault if ordinary people chanted slogans against these people in Madina? We had kept a Shab-e-Dua on the day it happened. We came to know through social media that slogans had been chanted against them,” said Khan.

    I am the chief executive of the country. Who is being addressed by the US, saying that Imran Khan needs to be removed?

    Khan once again criticised the government and blamed it for conspiring with the United States (US) to take him out of power.

    “This is the first time a democratic government was taken out of power. Since our government was not removed because of corruption, people took to the streets instead of distributing sweets,” said Khan.

    Khan explained the conspiracy against him and said that the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu threatened the Pakistani ambassador to the US that you need to remove Imran Khan.

    “When I saw the cipher, I thought to myself: I am the prime minister of the country. I am the chief executive of the country. Who are they addressing when they say that Imran Khan needs to be removed?”

    “When they say that once he [Imran Khan] is removed, you will be forgiven. I immediately got to know that forgiveness was being given to Cherry Blossom [ Shehbaz Sharif].

    They are compromised bootlickers

    Khan said that Pakistan has been ruled by the military but two political families [Sharifs and Zardaris] monopolised the political arena and remained in power for the last 62 years.

    “They [the then opposition] comprised bootlickers, that’s why the US wanted to bring them back to power.”

    “I ruled for three-and-a-half years and they started having issues with my government just because Pakistan wanted to maintain friendly relations with other countries but refused to fight their wars,” he said.

    “We had no relation with 9/11. I will not give Pakistan’s bases to America.”

    Khan also said that Pakistan neither wanted bad relations with any country nor did it want to become their slave.

    I have never seen anyone more filthy than this family

    “I have never seen anyone more filthy than this family,” he said, adding that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif killed a record number of people between 1997-1998 in police encounters.

    Khan took a jibe at the PML-N and said that the Supreme Court had rightly called the Sharif family a “Sicilian Mafia”.

    ‘I will come back … this Jihad for me’: Khan

    “If these people stay in the government, the rule of law in the country will be destroyed,” said Khan.

    Talking about PTI’s Azadi March, Khan said that the party has approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP).

    “We are approaching the SC tomorrow. We will be taking a ruling from the Supreme Court and ask them if we have a democratic right to protest or not. Why were we stopped? How can they stop the chief minister of KP and Gilgit Baltistan?”

    Khan said he decided to stop because of police brutality and shelling. “I was afraid that there would be bloodshed and people will die.”

    “If the Supreme Court gives us the protection that is one strategy, otherwise I am telling you, I will use my other strategy. We plan ahead for all the hindrances being planted our way. We were not prepared this time. This is Jihad for me. I will not accept this imported and corrupt government.”

    “

  • ‘Pakistan is likely to receive $1 billion from Saudi Arabia’: PM Shehbaz

    ‘Pakistan is likely to receive $1 billion from Saudi Arabia’: PM Shehbaz

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said that Pakistan is likely to receive an investment worth $1 billion from Saudi Arabia.

    During his speech, the PM asked businessmen to speak about their problems and said: “We need to analyse the economic situation with patience.”

    The premier then requested the business community to provide solutions as the local currency has lately been fluctuating significantly against the United States (US) dollar. “I am not here for political point-scoring,” PM Shehbaz clarified.

    “When I took the oath on April 11, the rate of United States (US) dollar against the Pakistani currently was 189,” said Shehbaz.

    “The Rs. 60-65 increase in the rupee value against the greenback wasn’t the coalition government’s fault,” Shehbaz said, adding that when the former government speculated that they would be ousted, they reduced the petroleum prices despite a price hike in the international market, thus going against the conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    “During the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) tenure loans worth Rs22,000 billion were taken which shows an 80 per cent increase from 2018,” he said, adding that “powerful echelons” in the country supported their “favourite” person.

    Shedding light on his decision regarding the ban imposed on the import of luxury and non-essential items, PM Shehbaz said that while he banned the import of certain items for some time, he did not increase the duties because the “elite class would have still purchased imported items after paying duties.”

    The premier said: “Pakistan cannot afford to purchase gas worth $20 billion; we have to slowly and gradually move towards solar and wind energy.”

    “If green energy comes to Pakistan, we will save Pakistan’s funds,” said PM Shehbaz.

    The premier arrived in Karachi earlier today on a day-long visit.

  • PM Shehbaz directs Interior Ministry to provide tight security to Imran

    PM Shehbaz directs Interior Ministry to provide tight security to Imran

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif has directed the Interior Ministry to provide water-tight security to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan at his home in Islamabad and during political rallies.

    A statement given by a spokesperson of the Interior Ministry said that the police and other law enforcement agencies have been directed to ensure the complete deployment of security personnel assigned to the former PM.

    94 security personnel of police and FC have been deployed for the security of Khan’s Bani Gala House. In addition, 36 personnel of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police and six personnel of Gilgit-Baltistan Police have also been deployed by their governments for Khan’s security.

    35 personnel of two security companies are also deployed for the security of Bani Gala House.

    During the movement of Imran Khan outside Islamabad, four vehicles and 23 personnel of Islamabad Police while one vehicle and five personnel of FC always accompany him.

    Under the supervision of the Interior Ministry, the threat assessment company is constantly reviewing matters pertaining to the security of Imran Khan.

    ‘I will tell you about poison added to food that causes heart attack’: Khan

    Imran Khan on Sunday said that if anything happened to him, the Pakistani nation will seek justice on his behalf. 

    Addressing a jalsa in Faisalabad, Khan said that the Supreme Court (SC) must take suo motu on the heart attack of Dr Rizwan, former director of the Federal Investigating Agency (FIA), who died of a heart attack. Dr Rizwan was an investigating officer in PM Shehbaz’s money laundering case.

    “I want the SC to take suo motu on the heart attack of Dr Rizwan. I will also tell you about the poison that causes a heart attack when mixed with food.”

     Khan claimed that he had recorded a video of the characters behind the “conspiracy” against his government, and if something happens to him, it will be released. 

    “If anything happens to me, the Pakistani nation will seek justice on my behalf,” said Khan.

    Criticising Foreign Minister (FM) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Khan said that since he is now going to meet United States (US) Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he will “beg him for money” so that “Imran Khan could not come back into power,” adding that the US never helps any country without seeing its own interest.

    “The US will tell Pakistan to stop talking about Palestine,” he said, adding that the US cannot dare to dictate India because it is a free country. 

    “The US has made Pakistan a slave without having to invade it,” Khan said. “The people of Pakistan will never accept this imported government.”

  • ‘Using threatening letter as evidence of coup meaningless’: Noam Chomsky

    ‘Using threatening letter as evidence of coup meaningless’: Noam Chomsky

    Renowned Scholar and Professor Noam Chomsky said that there is no meaningful evidence of a coup against former Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan.

    Responding to those who believe that such “threatening messages” are usually the way regime changes take place, Chomsky said, “By that logic, there are regime changes being planned constantly all over the world.” He added that the connecting of the dots was “meaningless.”

    Chomsky pointed out that he does not consider the cable of Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, Asad Majeed, as “substantial evidence” of American intervention for a regime change in Pakistan.

    According to Chomsky, “The US is powerful, but not all-powerful. There is a tendency to attribute everything that happens in the world to the CIA or some diabolical Western plan. There is plenty to condemn, sharply. And the US is indeed powerful. But it’s nothing like what is often believed.”

    Khan has multiple times said that US is behind his government dismissal and has used a piece of paper to support his claim.

    On the contrary, Washington has thoroughly denied the allegations.

  • Chinese astronauts return to Earth after six months in space

    Three Chinese astronauts landed in northern China on Saturday after 183 days in space, state broadcaster CCTV said, ending the country’s longest crewed space mission to date.

    The two men and one woman – Zhai Zhigang, Ye Guangfu and Wang Yaping – landed safely in a small capsule shortly before 10am Beijing time (02:00 GMT) after spending six months on the Tianhe core module of China’s Tiangong space station.

    “Shenzhou 13’s re-entry capsule successfully landed,” state broadcaster CCTV said.

    Barred by the United States from participating in the International Space Station (ISS), China has spent the past 10 years developing technologies to build the Tiangong, the only space station other than the ISS.

    The country aims to become a major space power by 2030 and rival the US and Russia. It has already landed a rover on Mars and sent probes to the Moon, and the country’s National Space Administration said it aims to launch a crewed lunar mission by 2029.

    Live footage from CCTV showed the capsule landing in a cloud of dust, with ground crew who had kept clear of the landing site rushing in helicopters to reach it.

    There was applause as the astronauts each took turns to report that they were “feeling good”.

    The Shenzhou-13 was the second of four crewed missions to assemble the Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace”.

    Wang became the first Chinese woman to walk in space last November, as she and her colleague Zhai installed space station equipment during a six-hour stint.

    Mission commander Zhai, 55, is a former fighter pilot who performed China’s first spacewalk in 2008, while Ye is a People’s Liberation Army pilot.

    The trio have completed two spacewalks, carried out numerous scientific experiments, set up equipment and tested technologies for future construction during their time in orbit.

    The incoming Shenzhou-14 is expected to be launched in the coming months.

    Astronauts will spend six months on the Chinese space station in future missions, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

  • Elon Musk is no longer joining Twitter board as the microblogging network is “dying”

    Elon Musk is no longer joining Twitter board as the microblogging network is “dying”

    The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk will not be joining the Twitter board of directors, according to Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal. Musk’s appointment on the board was supposed to start on April 9, however, he announced that he would no longer be joining.

    Agrawal posted a statement on April 10, saying Musk’s appointment to the board would be subject to a background investigation and that once nominated, he would have to operate in the company’s best interests. “Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input,” he added.

    What Happened Earlier?

    Earlier, the tech mogul tweeted the list of the top ten most followed personalities, which included celebrities and politicians such as former US President Barack Obama, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and Lady Gaga.

    The world’s wealthiest man had a complaint: many of the top Twitter accounts do not upload anything.

    Former US President Barack Obama (131.4 million followers), singer Justin Bieber (114.3 million), Katy Perry (108.8 million), and other top accounts belonging to popular artists Rihanna and Taylor Swift were among the names on the list from the Twitter account of World of Statistics, which Musk posted.

    Interestingly, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is ranked ninth on the list, with a popularity of 77.1 million followers, one notch below Musk, who has 81 million followers on the social network.

    Whereas Modi is an avid Twitter user who publishes everything from his daily schedule to welcoming foreign leaders, Musk laments that celebrities like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber rarely post. Taylor hasn’t posted anything in three months, and the ‘yummy’ singer Justin Bieber only tweeted once in 2022.

    Musk, who just purchased a 9.2 per cent interest in Twitter for roughly $3 billion in his controversial style, asked his followers another question: Is Twitter dying? 

    In an ‘April fool’ message, Twitter said that it is testing some new features, one of which is a long-awaited ‘edit’ button. The platform later explained that the change to the edit button was not an April Fool’s prank and that it was truly being tested by the company.

    It is worth noting that Musk also proposed a number of improvements to Twitter’s Blue premium subscription service, including lowering the price, limiting adverts, and allowing users to pay in the crypto. Many internet users were surprised by the recent announcement, as they had been expecting Tesla’s CEO to join the board of microblogging site and witness what changes he would make.