Category: Recent Post

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has granted a stay on the enforcement of the massive penalty of $6 billion imposed on Pakistan for its decision to deny a mining lease for the Reko Diq project to Australia’s Tethyan Copper Company (TCC). The office of the attorney general for Pakistan in a statement described the development as a success for the country and its legal team. In July last year, an international arbitration tribunal of the ICSID had slapped a penalty of $6 billion…

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ISLAMABAD: On July 21, the Islamabad Policy Institute issued a report titled “The petrol crisis of June 2020.” This report shows a lack of understanding, is based on misinformation and has numerous factual errors. There was a supply glut building up in the international oil markets since the beginning of the year. On February 25, 2020 the Arab Gulf Platts (fob) price for a barrel of petrol was $60.35, which dropped to $33.87 on March 13, 2020. While this was happening, the full impact of Covid-19 on the demand side…

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ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh and Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing discussed matters related to Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the latter said that October review will go well for Pakistan. The Chinese ambassador made a farewell call on the advisor here at the finance division on Thursday. Shaikh said that China-Pakistan relations will further strengthen in future. He appreciated the commitment with which Jing worked for the progress of the Pak-China relationship. He acknowledged the contributions of Ambassador Jing and China’s leadership for…

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KARACHI: Startups in Pakistan are striving to lessen darkness due to insufficient electricity transmission, while making money out of the opportunity. Pakistan is one of those countries which still faces prolonged power outages and one of the main reasons is line losses at a time when the country has surplus production capacity. Inefficient distribution, coupled with lower recovery of consumer bills and high power theft, is giving birth to the complicated circular debt. Consumers are now looking for opportunities to slash their electricity bills such as through installing solar panels.…

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As of today, Google has eliminated its entire “carbon legacy.” By that, the company means it has purchased high-quality carbon offsets to match all of the emissions ever produced by its data centers and campuses. That includes the emissions generated before Google became carbon neutral in 2007. The company says it’s the first in the world to eliminate its carbon legacy. Carbon offsets are credits for renewable energy that are meant to compensate for emissions made elsewhere. While those credits support renewable energy, they only go so far. Not creating…

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