Pakistan’s rice exports during the first five months of the current financial year increased by 38.58% as compared to the corresponding period last year. Over 1.601 million tons of rice worth $835.686 million were exported from July-November 2019 versus 1.115 million tons worth $603.149 million exported last year, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. Exports of basmati rice grew by 61.47% during the last five months compared to the same period of last year.
Abu Dhabi, UAE Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan will be visiting Pakistan on Thursday on a one-day trip. According to UAE’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Hamad Obaid Ibrahim Al-Zaabi, Prince Muhammad will be in the country for one day and will meet Prime Minister Imran Khan. They will discuss relations between the two countries, as well the state of regional and global politics.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has confirmed that no Pakistani has been included in the Asia XI, which will be facing World XI in March. Both teams will be facing each other in a two-match T20I series and the matches will be played on March 18 and 21 at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Dhaka.
The multinational company MVM Energy (PVT) Ltd. has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Yutong, a renowned bus manufacturer to introduce electric buses in Pakistan. The project will be officially launched in February 2020. A trial run will be initiated in the first stage with the long term aim to revolutionize the Pakistani public transport system keeping in line with PM Imran Khan’s vision of a clean green progressive Pakistan.
Saudi Arabia on Saturday rejected reports that it was involved in Pakistan’s absence from the Kuala Lumpur Summit. The Saudi embassy in Islamabad released its statement a day after Turkish media quoted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying Pakistan had decided to stay away from the recently concluded summit because of Saudi Arabia’s threats of economic sanctions.
US State Department released a statement on Dec 18, designating Pakistan and eight other countries as “Countries of Particular Concern (CPC)”. Under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, countries on the CPC list are classified as “having engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom”. The list also includes Myanmar, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The northern areas of the country were jolted by a 6.4-magnitude earthquake on Friday, according to the National Seismic Monitoring Centre in Islamabad. The earthquake struck with the epicentre being a sparsely populated , remote mountain area in Badakhshan province in the northeast of Afghanistan with a depth of 210 kilometres. The effected areas include Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad, Murree, Mansehra, Battagram, Chiniot, and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Pakistan is facing gas outages as demand has exceeded supply following an abrupt drop in temperature in different parts of the country. The situation resulted in long queues outside tandoors due to low gas pressure at residences and prompted Karachi-based Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) to suddenly suspend supplies to CNG fuel stations in Sindh and Balochistan to keep supplies to households normal on Tuesday.
According to a report, titled “Global Gender Gap Report 2020” published by the World Economic Forum examining gender equality around the globe, Pakistan was ranked third-lowest in the world. Pakistan being at 151st position out of 153 countries. The Global Gender Gap Report measures the progress of a country’s gender equality in four areas; economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
The Buddhist trail will be developed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Azad Jammu Kashmir; giving way to the Buddhist pilgrims from all across the world to visit Pakistan. Pakistan will be working towards the preservation and restoration of Buddhist cultural heritage, to further facilitate the Buddhist trail. One of the oldest Buddhist monument lies just 60 kilometres away from Islamabad, on the grassy hill of Haripur.