Pakistan canceled army leave and redeployed some troops Friday in a sign of rising tension with India.

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Pakistan began moving thousands of troops from the Afghan border toward India, officials and witnesses said Friday, raising tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors and possibly undermining the U.S.-backed campaign against al-Qaida and the Taliban.

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LAHORE: The Lahore stock market ended week on a negative note as index dipped 79 points to close at 1,725. Trading activity was much higher compared t

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KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced amendments to the export finance scheme on Friday. Under the revised refund procedure, exp

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LAHORE: Year 2008 has seen the worst inflationary pressure as prices of many items moved upwards, putting an extra burden on the poorest of poor.

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PESHAWAR: Due to the rising tension with India, the military has started pulling out troops from the tribal areas for deployment on the Indian border,

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Pakistan has started to redeploy thousands of troops to the Indian border from the tribal areas near Afghanistan, intelligence officials said Friday, raising tensions in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks.

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KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SPB) has issued 730 licenses to commercial banks to open new branches/sub-branches in calendar year 2008 under its Branch Licensing Policy (BlP). This is the highest-ever number of licenses given by State Bank in a year. In 2007, State Bank issued a total of 474 branch licenses. As on December 16, 2008 the total number of bank branches operating in the country were 8,886, said SBP statement issued here on Friday. It may be mentioned that under BLP, commercial banks which want to open new places of business during a calendar year are required to submit their Annual Branch Expansion Plan (ABEP) to the State Bank for consideration and approval. Accordingly, various banks submitted their ABEP-2008 and were granted approval for opening of branches. Under the policy, the banks are required to open at least 20% of the branches in rural/under-served areas (RUAs). RUAs mean villages, small towns an also include those Tehsil Headquarters where there is no branch of any bank. Accordingly, in 2008 a total of 144 branch licenses have been issued for opening branches in RUAs that exceeds the mandatory requirement of opening 20% branches in RUAs. The locations identified by banks for opening of new branches are well diversified throughout the country covering all the four provinces of Pakistan, Northern Areas, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Islamabad.

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KARACHI: Reports about out-of-court settlement between lenders and borrowers at local bourses rekindled hopes of a recovery among market participants

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KARACHI: Power outages, deteriorating law and order and low sales owing to record inflation have made 2008 the worst year in the last 30 years for sma

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