Tag: Govt

LAHORE - Federal Minister for Law Babar Awan has said that PPP-led government will not let anyone to become a hero on the Raymond Davis affair and nor would it yield to any international pressure. He was talking to journalists after visiting Mian Mir Shrine at the Punjab Bar Council here on Sunday.
"Cabinet belongs to the party instead of prime minister or president and leadership has prerogative to include whom it thinks better to serve the people," he said. The statement came

KARACHI - An anti-corruption court sentenced a Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) member and two others to four years in prison on Saturday on corruption charges. Judge Rashida Asad of the special anti-corruption court sentenced SPSC member Ramesh Udeshi as well as Rehana Minaj and Shahid Ahmed Khan to two years imprisonment in two separate offences.
The court also directed all the accused to pay Rs 50,000 each as fine, and failing to pay the same would result in additional

LAHORE - The face-off between Defense Housing Authority (DHA) and Punjab government on the jurisdiction issue is likely to end as Punjab government is heading to hush up the brawl on the directions of PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif.
Sources privy to developments said that Punjab government and DHA had locked horns when the latter declared various lands in its controlled areas, through a notification published in the 2011 gazette of Pakistan and in return Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif termed

ISLAMABAD - The government on Saturday explored various options to bring former president Pervez Musharraf back to Pakistan in case he did not appear before the Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorism Court on February 19 for his alleged involvement in Benazir Bhutto's murder. Interior Minister Rehman Malik chaired a high-level meeting at the FIA headquarters attended by the investigation team probing the murder and senior FIA officials.
A source in the FIA told Pakistan Today that the meeting

KARACHI - The Sindh government has refused to issue weapons licences to private schools in the metropolis. After the twin blasts at the Islamic University in Islamabad, the Sindh home secretary had agreed with management representatives of private schools that the institutions would be allowed to keep licensed arms for ensuring safety of students and staff and take strict security measures on their own.
However, the plan of the Sindh Home Department was recently dropped due to

ISLAMABAD - The government has sought support from parliamentary political parties for implementing its Rs 600 billion budgetary measures to bring down the budget deficit from over eight percent of the GDP to around the targeted 4.7 percent in the ongoing year.
Talks between the government and the PML-N team were not held on Thursday, as the government sought more time to finalise its recommendations. However, a source in the PML-N said the talks were deferred as two ministers

KARACHI - The Sindh government has refused to issue weapons licences to private schools, reportedly due to the huge number of institutes operating in the metropolis. After the twin blasts at the Islamic University in Islamabad, the Sindh home secretary had agreed with management representatives of private schools that the institutions would be allowed to keep licensed arms for ensuring safety of students and staff and take strict security measures on their own.
However, the plan

KARACHI - The Sindh government has requested the centre for representation in the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) Board of Directors (BoD) to ensure better service for the consumers and protection of their rights, Sindh Electric Power Minister Shazia Marri said on Thursday.
While talking to a group of media personnel and various delegations visiting her office regarding their problems, Marri said that the Electric Inspectorate working under the Power Department is being

LAHORE - The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) called upon Balochistan government to secure the release of th HRCP activist Siddique Eido who was abducted in Gwadar by men wearing official uniforms on December 21 last year.
In a letter to the Balochistan chief minister, HRCP expressed concern that despite a lapse of 50 days no progress has been made in securing Eido's release. The Commission said: "At the very least, statements of the four policemen of Pasni Police

CAIRO - A leftwing Egyptian opposition party formerly known for toeing the line set by President Hosni Mubarak's regime announced on Thursday it was withdrawing from a national dialogue on reform. The Tagammu party, which controls a handful of seats in parliament, said in a faxed statement its decision was based on "the regime's refusal to address the minimum of the people's demands."
It also objected to a comment by Vice President Omar Suleiman, who warned this week that the

ISLAMABAD - A four-member Supreme Court bench on Wednesday granted time to Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, counsel for the federal government, to consult his client over the issue of appointment of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman and inform the court today (Thursday).
The bench comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed and Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa was hearing petitions moved by Leader of Opposition in the National

PESHAWAR - Reaffirming his government's resolve to ensure the return of peace and an end to militancy and extremism, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti Wednesday said such objectives could be achieved by addressing the economic needs and hardships of the people.
"Amidst threats of terrorism and a plethora of other challenges, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has initiated steps for stimulating economic and development activities," the chief minister remarked

ISLAMABAD - The Ministry of Petroleum has issued No Objection Certificate to the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) to restart the bidding process for the import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and the establishment of an LNG terminal. An official source at the Ministry of Petroleum informed that the company would invite fresh bids for the supply of up to 3.5 million tonnes per annum of the LNG within the next two weeks.
He stressed that the government wants to complete the

KARACHI - Fears of a political backlash with regards to increasing product prices may compel the government to trim the deemed duty on High Speed Diesel to five percent in March, but this move is likely to be resisted by local refineries and any changes made to deemed duty may prove to be short-lived.
While deemed duty on local production is collected and retained by refiners; 7.5 percent duty on HSD is collected by the government on imported HSD. Freezing HSD consumption at

LAHORE - Seven "dear ones" of the Punjab government given re-employment after retirement resigned on Wednesday to avoid any legal action. The resignations came in response to a Supreme Court ruling in January against the re-employment of retired officers. Moreover, the S&GAD had also sought details of all such employees in various government departments across Punjab.
Some of the officers offered re-employment contracts and who resigned on Wednesday are prosecution secretary Rana

ISLAMABAD - The government on Wednesday shared its plans for expenditure cuts with the PML-N team by disclosing that it planned to halve the increase in salaries of government employees in this year's budget for the remaining four months of the current fiscal year, and reduce the Rs 70 billion-flood relief fund by Rs 10 billion.
A source said the PML-N team, however, demanded an across-the-board salary cut, including slashing of salaries of parliamentarians, ministers, the prime

KARACHI - The government is set to face another corruption scandal involving federal government officials and their relatives in a case involving fraudulently refunding billions of rupees on exports that never happened.
The allegations are carried in a letter sent to top government officials as well as the Prime Minister's House written by a concerned citizen, Muhammad Khalid Usman. He stated that the export companies involved in the case are registered under the name of Atif