Tag: Minister

ISLAMABAD - Federal Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Syed Naveed Qamar Wednesday said the CNG stations set up in residential areas were illegal, urging the respective district governments to take action against them. Responding to a supplementary question raised by Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan of MQM during the question hour, he asked Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to shift such stations outside the residential areas or cancel their licences.
The minister said the

LAHORE - WAPDA has failed to avail the opportunity to fill Mangla Dam despite prevalence of severe energy crisis in the country. In addition, it could not fulfill its commitment to settle people who had suffered as a result of Mangla Dam Raising Project.
This was disclosed by Azad Kashmir Minister for Information and Overseas Kashmiris Mahmood Riaz, while addressing members of the Lahore Economic Journalists Association (LEJA) at the Lahore Press Club on Wednesday. LPC Vice

PARIS - Allies of France's foreign minister fought off embarrassing allegations of links to Tunisia's ousted leader on Wednesday after a report that the owner of a private jet she used was close to his regime. The allegations raised pressure on the minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, following France's U-turn over authoritarian ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's regime after he bowed to popular protests and fled Tunisia last month.
The investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaine reported in

LAHORE - The second Chief Minister Sports Competitions (intermediate, inter-district level) continued for the third day running here in the province. In Faisalabad, girls volleyball, badminton and athletics competitions were held at divisional public school and cricket final was played at Boharanwali Ground, Faisalabad. In girls volleyball, Faisalabad beat Toba Tek Singh to win the title.
Jhang beat Faisalabad in the girls badminton. Faisalabad bagged first place in athletics

AMMAN - King Abdullah II of Jordan named Maruf Bakhit as prime minister on Tuesday with orders to carry out "true political reforms," the palace said, after weeks of opposition protests demanding change. "King Abdullah II designated Maruf Bakhit to form a new government to replace the government of Samir Rifai," a palace statement said.
"Bakhit's mission is to take practical, quick and tangible steps to launch true political reforms, enhance Jordan's democratic drive and ensure

LAHORE - An accountability court on Friday summoned former minister for food Iqbal Tikka with his brother Azam Tikka, son-in-law Hammad Tikka and Adil Saleem Tikka, newly nominated co-accused in a reference filed against Sheikh Muhammad Ayub the owner of renowned Qasr-e-Zauk for February 2.
National Accountability Bureau had nominated Iqbal Tikka, Azam Tikka, Hammad Tikka and Adil Saleem Tikka by following the direction of Supreme Court during the hearing of a suo motu notice

LAHORE - Provincial Minister for Mines and Minerals Dr Tanvir-ul-Islam has said that all necessary steps will be taken for the development of the mineral sector to harness the natural resources of Pakistan.
He was addressing a meeting after assuming office of the department. Secretary Mines and Minerals Shahid Mehmood, Additional Secretary Rao Ghulam Hussain, Chief Inspector Mines Tahzeeb-ul-Hassan Ansari and other senior officers were also present. The minister was given a

LAHORE - Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh recently visited the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) to discuss the issues faced by foreign investors in Pakistan. The meeting was attended by the OICCI members representing all major sectors including pharmaceutical industry, financial institutions and the energy sector.
OICCI President Ameena Saiyid presented an overview of OICCI and shared the results of the OICCI Business Confidence Survey, an

LAHORE - Members of the provincial assembly (MPA) on Monday lambasted Punjab Minorities, Social Welfare and Women Development Minister Kamran Michael who miserably failed to answer questions of lawmakers during the Punjab Assembly (PA) session. Michael, replying to queries of MPAs during the question hour, repeatedly got confused and members expressed their dissatisfaction over poor answers submitted by the department.
Observing confusion of the minister, PA Speaker Rana Iqbal

ISLAMABAD - Speculations are rife in the federal capital that to appease the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the government is likely to pull Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza out of the province and elevate him as a federal minister.
A federal government source told Pakistan Today that while the MQM leaders publicly claimed that their party had no reservation against Mirza, who is a close confidante of President Asif Ali Zardari, it had conveyed to the government that the

KARACHI - Thar Coal and Energy Board (TCEB) Chairman Syed Qaim Ali Shah has requested the Federal Minister For Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf to take up Thar coal power projects during the next round of Pak-US Energy Dialogue.
The funding being sought from the Kerry-Lugar package is for at least one indigenous coal mining and power project at Thar with a capacity to generate between 4,000 and 5,000 megawatts of electricity.
According to the minutes of the tenth board

LAHORE - Former Punjab chief minister and Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) senior central leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi has said that on one hand, Punjab's chief minister is violating the orders of the Supreme Court by obstructing the arrest of a fugitive and, on the other hand, his elder brother Nawaz Sharif is talking about the supremacy of the judiciary.
In a press statement released in Lahore on Thursday, he added that by obeying the ad-hoc CM and not arresting fake

LAHORE - In Punjab assembly's 22nd session Punjab Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman came under fire from opposition as well as government members on Monday for provincial government's new educational policy. Addressing the house the minister said that the government would review its policy relating to the rationalisation of the schools.
He said that the government had adopted rationalisation policy to run all small schools, which did not have proper staff or

DUBLIN - Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen fought for his political life on Monday after his foreign minister announced he would vote against him in a snap party leadership election.
But while Foreign Minister Micheal Martin's challenge raised the stakes for Cowen, the government's chief whip predicted that the revolt against the prime minister would fizzle out and Martin received little support in the press. Cowen's allies were spending the day ensuring support for Tuesday's

ISLAMABAD - A delegation, led by Pakistan Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, will be departing on Sunday to participate in the third session of Pakistan-Kuwait Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) to be held in Kuwait on January 16 -17, says a press release received here on Friday.
The Finance Minister is scheduled to meet Minister for Commerce and Industry, Ahmed Rashed Al-Haroun and the delegation level talks will discuss avenues for further expanding cooperation between

KARACHI - Sindh Food Minister Nadir Magsi has urged the Federal government to either discontinue the supply of wheat flour (Atta) from Punjab to Sindh, province or allow the Sindh government to export its wheat abroad. The Sindh government has around 900,000 metric tones wheat in its warehouses, Magsi said at the Sindh Assembly (SA) session on Thursday, arguing that this needed to be sold at the earliest for fear of the food supplies frittering away "Sindh is unable to sell its wheat

LAHORE - Punjab Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman has stated that the provincial government under the sagacious leadership of Chief Minister Mr. Shahbaz Sharif has for the first time in the country's history introduced far-reaching reforms in education sector for improving quality of education and literacy rate to radically uplift socio-economic conditions of people.
He was addressing participants of one-day seminar on "Regional Economic Cooperation in South Asia"