Pakistan is planning to remove duties on many imported raw materials used by exporters, according to commerce and investment adviser to Pakistan’s prime minister, Abdul Razak Dawood. This will make them more regionally competitive and help the economy escape a recurring boom-bust cycle. Dawood mentioned that last year import duty was slashed on more than 1600 products and will further be eliminated in this year’s budget.
Qatar has temporarily banned entry from Pakistan and 13 other countries to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. Entry has been temporarily suspended for people from Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria and Thailand. The country’s Government Communications Office made the announcement on Sunday after Qatar Airways suspended flights to and from Italy.
Another Coronavirus case has been confirmed from Karachi, Pakistan as an elderly man tested positive on Thursday evening. With this confirmation, the total number of cases from Sindh has jumped to three and overall six in the country. Taking to Twitter last night, Federal Health Minister, Dr. Zafar Mirza. said that the 69-year-old man had returned from Iran on February 25 and was among the patients under observation.
A recent foreign media report has revealed that the Modi-led government of India is planning to stop Pakistan’s share of river water from flowing into Pakistan by the end of this year. Indian authorities are working on a plan to stop 2 TMC of water from the Ujh River, a branch of Ravi, flowing through the Kathua district of Indian Occupied Kashmir.
Peshawar Zalmi skipper Darren Sammy has offered to pay taxes in Pakistan as he is going to be awarded honourary citizenship on March 23. Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan said Sammy would be exempted from paying taxes as he met the Zalmi player at the PM House. PM Khan also lauded Sammy and Peshawar Zalmi’s role for reviving international cricket in Pakistan and congratulated him on becoming a citizen during the meeting.
Facebook has agreed to expedite information sharing with Pakistani authorities in connection with investigations in cyber crime cases. A team from Facebook’s Asia Pacific headquarters visited the office of Director General Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Wajid Zia to discuss issues of cooperation and data sharing between FIA and Facebook. The two teams discussed mutual collaboration and cooperation in data sharing as well as cyber crime awareness among social media users in Pakistan.
After multiple reservations from the Asia Internet Coalition, the government has halted the implementation of its law to regulate social media. In a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, the coalition expressed its disapproval over the law. It threatened that if the regulation is not taken back, services of social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Google will no longer be provided in the country.
Two new coronavirus cases have been reported in Pakistan, taking the total number of cases in the country to four. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza confirmed this in a press conference on Saturday. One of the patients is from Karachi while the second case was confirmed in the federal areas. The health department said this new case is unrelated to the previous case reported in Karachi of a 22-year-old male.
The European Union (EU) has agreed to provide a €13 million grant to Pakistan to improve its fiscal policies and budget preparations. The agreement was signed in the presence of Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar, who added that the grant will help Pakistan with macro-fiscal policies, budget processes, and forecasting. Azhar said that the public financial support would be utilized at Sindh, Balochistan and at a federal level.
Pakistan is named world’s most affordable country to live in 2020, according to a recently published report ‘Most Expensive Countries in the World to Live In 2020’ by the CEOWORLD magazine. While Switzerland was declared as the most expensive country. To compile a list, the magazine analyses different metrics such as cost of living and purchasing power etc. of the country to assign it an average score.