Month: December 2020

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet, expected to meet on Wednesday, would be taking up a heavy agenda, including $200 million rupee-linked offshore bonds, revised markup rates on federal loans for provinces and public sector entities, the Rs739 billion Karachi Transformation Plan (KTP) and the first phase of the rationalisation plan for federal subsidies. Informed sources told Dawn that newly appointed Finance Minister Dr Hafeez Shaikh had been assured by the prime minister at a weekend meeting that the Revenue Division would be restored to his portfolio. As a…

On one hand, the energy transition is real and here to stay. On the other hand, there are 280 million cars on the road in the U.S. today, 279 million of them running on oil, and the average lifespan of a vehicle is 12 years,” Bob Maguire, managing director of Carlyle Group, October 2020. For the U.S. oil & gas industry, the struggle through Covid-19 might just be the “most unique year ever.” Thus, with the global economy set to contract 4.4% this year, extrapolating current problems into mid- and…

The protest by the labour leaders and human rights activists last month has brought to light, once again, the miserable working and living conditions the workers are braced to at Gadani shipbreaking yards. On the 1st of November every year they mark the tragic accident occurred on that day in 2016, termed as the worst disaster in the history of global shipbreaking. An oil tanker, known as the Floating Production, Storage and Off-loading (FPSO) Tanker named ACES had caught fire during shipbreaking, which killed 33 workers and injured another 54,…

ISLAMABAD: China has again bailed out Pakistan as it agrees to immediately provide $1.5 billion financing line to repay the $2 billion Saudi Arabia debt, sources told The Express Tribune. Out of $2 billion, Pakistan is now set to return the $1 billion on coming Monday, said the sources in the finance ministry and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). The remaining $1 billion is due in January, they added. However, this time around, China has not given the loan from its State Administration of Foreign Exchange, commonly known as…