Credible News from Pakistan!
Naila Kiani became first Pakistani woman climber to summit five peaks of over 8,000m height when she successfully ascended Mt Everest (8848m), the world’s tallest mountain, today.
Secretary Alpine Club of Pakistan, Karrar Haidri said in a statement said she reached the summit point at 8:02 am.
Source: Radio Pakistan
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar has called for enhanced cooperation between Europe and Asia-Pacific particularly in trade, investment and sustainable development.
Speaking at the roundtable discussion on EU Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum in Stockholm on Sunday, she underscored Pakistan’s role as a trade, investment and connectivity hub in the heart of Asia which seeks to deepen its engagements with the European partners.
She appreciated European sustainability and connectivity initiatives like the EU Global gateway Strategy and the Green Deal.
She expressed the hope that the new EU GSP Plus facility would continue to focus on its primary aim of promoting sustainable development and poverty alleviation.
The Minister of State stressed on the importance of recognizing the symbiotic relationship between sustainability and inclusivity in line with UN Sustainable development goals.
She also called for avoiding distortions, economic de-coupling, new forms of protectionism and selective application of norms which can undermine free trade, win-win economic cooperation and interconnectedness.
The Minister of State emphasized the need for partnerships to deal with emerging global challenges and non-traditional security threats such as climate change, pandemics, water, energy and food security.
She proposed greater collaboration between the EU and Asia-Pacific countries for research and capacity building with focus on sustainability, green economies, agriculture and digital connectivity.
In Stockholm, the Minister of State also held bilateral meetings with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden Tobias Billstrom, EU High Representative Josep Borrell, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of UAE Noura Alkaabi, UK Minister of State Lord Tariq Ahmad, Counsellor of the US Department of State Derek H. Chollet, and Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Thailand Vijavat Isarabhakdi.
Source: Radio Pakistan
Mainly hot & dry weather is expected in most plain areas of the country during the next twelve hours.
However, light rain-wind thunderstorm is likely at isolated places in Upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir and its adjoining areas during evening/night.
Temperature of some major cities recorded this morning:
Islamabad and Muzaffarabad sixteen degree centigrade, Lahore and Karachi twenty-eight, Peshawar twenty-one, Quetta eighteen, Gilgit eleven and Murree ten degree centigrade.
According to Met Office weather forecast for Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, partly cloudy weather with chances of light rain-wind and thunderstorm is expected in Srinagar, Jammu, Pulwama, Anantnag, Baramulla, Shopian and Leh.
Temperature recorded this morning:
Srinagar nine degree centigrade, Jammu twenty-six , Leh four, Pulwama and Shopian eleven, Anantnag and Baramulla ten degree centigrade.
Source: Radio Pakistan
The last Under-19 One-Day International of five-match series between Pakistan and Bangladesh will be played in Rajshahi on Monday.
The match will start at 08:30 Pakistan Standard Time.
Earlier, Pakistan beat Bangladesh by eight wickets in the 4th one day international in Rajshahi yesterday, taking a lead of 3-1 in the series.
Source: Radio Pakistan
Pakistan and Ethiopia have signed an agreement on scientific and technological cooperation.
The agreement was signed between the Ministries of Science and Technology Pakistan and the Federal Republic of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian delegation led by Minister of State Dr. Fozia Ameen had arrived at the Ministry of Science and Technology Islamabad last week.
This cooperation is of crucial importance in establishing a framework to increase cooperation in science, technology, engineering, and education for mutual benefit and peaceful purposes between the science and education communities in both countries.
All activities under this agreement will be undertaken in collaboration with partners in Ethiopia and Pakistan. The diplomatic ties between both nations were established in 1958, since then Pakistan and Ethiopia have enjoyed a cordial relationship and made great progress on bilateral, regional, and international concerns.
Source: Pro Pakistani
The federal government will not further extend the digital census date beyond May 15, 2023.
Sources in the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said that the department will not further extend the date of the census as it has already extended the date four times to ensure complete coverage and full enumeration.
PBS has listened to the concerns of political parties, especially in Karachi and has tried to address their concerns, sources added. PBS has identified some anomalies, especially in the big cities which included negligence of field enumerators towards their work, and insufficient deployment of security personnel for field staff.
However sources said that PBS had communicated to provincial governments to take strict notice of any misreporting by enumerators, provision of one -one security to enumerators, and strict monitoring of field enumeration by respective ACs and DCs.
Sources said that PBS, with the help of a digital system, identified and shared with provincial governments a list of blocks having multistory buildings with less coverage, a list of blocks having negative population growth, and other relevant information. PBS also deputed additional officers/officials from PBS headquarters for the facilitation of provincial governments in this regard.
Due to these initiatives and joint efforts made by the PBS team as well as the government of Sindh an increase of 8.2 million persons was registered in the already completed blocks, sources added.
In addition to the above, PBS also identified and shared another list of blocks identifying the potential under coverage with the provincial governments for rectification through targeted and coordinated combing operations to ensure complete coverage. Due to this initiative, it added another 4.6 million persons to the already completed blocks.
Sources said that this digital census has some additional features like geo-tagging of all structures and buildings used for residential and economic activities and collection of data of economic activities as per international classification to utilize it as a framework to conduct much awaited economic census in the country in addition to demographic and housing characteristics data.
The additional features of the census will provide the basis for evidence-based policy, planning, and decision-making to ensure good governance as well as to determine diversity, expansion, and sharing of various economic activities in our economy which is pivotal to ensure the prosperity of the nation.
So far 120,007,936 individuals have been counted in Punjab, 56,149,769 in Sindh, 39,596,664 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 20,634,606 in Balochistan and 2,270,436 in Islamabad Capital Territory till May 11.
Source: Pro Pakistani
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that there is no change in Pakistan’s external financing requirements for the revival of the bailout program.
In a statement, IMF’s Resident Representative in Pakistan Esther Pérez Ruiz denied media reports that the global lender was seeking new financing.
“There is no truth to reports that the IMF is asking Pakistan to raise $8 billion in fresh financing,” Ruiz said in a statement.
A day earlier, a report published in Express Tribune, subsequently carried by ProPakistani, said that IMF has asked Pakistan to arrange $8 billion in fresh loans to back the external debt repayments during the next seven months.
Perez in her statement said that there has been no change in external financing requirements and it has remained the same throughout discussions between Pakistan and the IMF.
The IMF and Pakistan held talks between January 31 and February 9 under the ninth review of the authorities’ program supported by the IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement.
After the IMF team left, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar expressed confidence that the staff-level agreement (SLA) to unlock $1.1 billion in financing will be signed soon. However, despite the passage of over three months, the SLA is still not in sight with government officials repeatedly saying that they have met all conditions for the revival of the $6.5 billion bailout package.
In a recent statement, the finance minister also claimed that Pakistan would not default whether the IMF program resumes or not.
Source: Pro Pakistani