Islamabad

The prevailing inflation has made new clothes and shoes beyond the reach of the common man, who are now inclined towards buying used

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LAHORE

SENIOR Political Assistant to Punjab Chief Minister ex-MNA Pervez Malik has said that artificial shortage of essential commodities in th

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MANCHESTER: Owais Shah is looking forward to being one of England?s ?go-to? batsmen in their upcoming Twenty20 clashes and One-day Internationals (ODI

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KARACHI: The recent raise in prices of petroleum products will spur the inflation rate to soar by 1.3 percent across the country.

According to analyst Muzzammil Aslam of Jehangir Siddiqui, the government raised the prices of petroleum products, which may spur the price hike to further fly up by 1.30 percent.

The government has been urged to keep strict vigil on the prices of eatables and controlling the corruption will help stabilize the inflation rate.

Meantime, the people have rejected the raise in prices of petrol, as they were already being suppressed by price hike.

The people urged the government to take up effective measures to extend relief to them.

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KARACHI: The MPAs hailing from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) lashed out at the rise in petroleum products in strong words and termed it stark injustice with the people.

In their joint statement, they said it is the poor people of the country who would be worst hit by the price hike during Ramadan and before Eid.

They said the price of other commodities are raised on the pretext of rise in prices of petroleum products and poor man is barely sustaining his family under the stringent economic conditions.

Haq-Prast MPAs demanded President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani to withdraw the recent hike in POL prices and that steps be taken up to provide relief to people.

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Pakistan News

Karachi

Seventeen companies from the USA, Singapore, Germany, France and other countries have applied for consultancy services in response to i

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KARACHI: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sacked its chief operating officer Saleem Altaf.

A PCB spokesman said that a termination letter has been sent to Altaf, a former Pakistan Test cricketer. When contacted, Altaf said that he is yet to receive any such letter. Altaf said that he reserves the right to take legal action against the PCB move.

Altaf becomes the latest former Test cricketer to lose his job with the PCB. Earlier Abdul Qadir, a former Test leg spinner, stepped down as the national chief selector after falling out with the PCB chairman Ijaz Butt in June this year. He was followed by Aamer Sohail, former Pakistan captain, who resigned as Director Game Development of the PCB.

Javed Miandad, PCB?s director-general, also resigned from the post but later rejoined the Board. According to sources, Altaf and Butt were not getting along too well for the last few months and there were clear indications that the PCB chairman wanted him out.

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) Senator Zafar ali Shah said Tuesday if the government fails in trying former President Gen (rtd) Pervez Musharraf, then the people?s demand for mid-term elections would be quite justifiable.

Talking to media outside the Supreme Court, he said it is only government to put Pervez Musharraf to trial under Article-6 of the constitution; but, it is shunning the job.

Zafar Ali said the undemocratic forces and elements against Musharraf trial are waging propaganda war against Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) leadership.

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ISLAMABAD: The PML-Q leadership would decide on the role of former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in the party on his return, The News has

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ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Tuesday allowed the Ministry of Industries and Production to import 100,000 tons of sugar to meet any emergency demand of sugar in near future and stabilize the prices.

The Committee which met under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Finance, Shaukat Tarin took notice of shortage of sugar at the Utility Stores.

It directed Ministry of Industries to take stern administrative action against the culprits responsible for creating hurdles in smooth supply of sugar to the USC.

Keeping in view the export parity price, low domestic prices, cost escalating factors and future forecast of the world supply and demand, the ECC approved the intervention price for paddy 2009-10crop at Rs.1250/- per 40 kgs for super basmati Rs.1000 for basmati-385 and Rs.600 for IRRI paddy.

While reviewing the issue of transportation of imported wheat from Karachi to the provinces, the ECC decided that the provinces will be responsible for transportation of imported wheat.

The preference for the mode of transportation will be Railways,NLC and the private transport contractors/companies.

Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) will establish effective coordination with the provinces for efficient and timely measures for transportation of imported wheat.

The decisions were taken on the recommendations of the committee formed by ECC in December 2008 with the mandate to thoroughly investigate the matter regarding transportation of wheat purchased by TCP from Karachi to other provinces.

On the issue of additional charges for transportation of imported urea from Gawadar Port, the ECC approved the additional freight charges from Gawadar to Karachi as from December 22, 2008 to March 31 2009 of Rs. 798,209,950 .

Similarly From March, April 1 to August 12, 2009-09-01, of Rs. 713,980,518 and total amount was Rs.1,512,000,468.

The ECC also allowed issuance of Government of Pakistan’’s guarantee of Rs.1075 million, by the Ministry of Finance, in favour of the National Bank of Pakistan for rescheduling of loan of Telephone Industries of Pakistan (TIP).

The ECC was informed that total stock of wheat as on August23, 2009 amounted to 9.599 million tons as against 3.623 million tons in the same period last year, thereby showing a higher stock of about 5.976 million tons.

The trade deficit improved by 31.09 percent to $ 1.15 billion in July 2009-10 from $ 1.66 billion in the same period last year. The foreign exchange reserves stood at $ 13.1 billion as on August28, 2009 - up from $ 6.4 billion on November 25, 2008.

The provisional FBR tax collection stood at Rs.74.07 billion on net basis during July 2009-10 as compared to Rs.72.36 billion in the same period last year.

It was informed that overseas workers” remittances amounted to$ 747.2 million in July 2009-10 as against $ 627.2 million, showing an increase of 19.13% over the same period last year.

Monthly core inflation rate has decreased 15.9% in June, 2009to 14.0 percent in July 2009.

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