New energy and infrastructure projects in the pipeline The socio-economic and political stability of a country is deeply linked with the strong and stable leadership. If the leaders and their vision is strong and linked with the good or bad of the people, no matter what ever the situation the things are sure to take a shape sooner or later. Pakistan despite having enormous energy resources and a strong …

  The automobile industry is considered as the mother of engineering industry instrumental in building up all the developed economies to the current status. It is, however, unfortunate that the situation in Pakistan is quite different and instead of building up our own automobile industry, the policy makers have a visible leaning towards imports of used cars on the pretext of controlling price inflation in the automotive industry. In fact …

  First priority of the government is to develop a true Islamic financial system ‘ senator Ishaq Dar A true Islamic financial system is close to my heart and we are endeavoring to transform the financial system into a system truly based on justice and equity. In order to give a big push to the movement of Islamic financial system, the Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has also issued directives …

  Certainly, it is not the business of the state to do business. It is the private sector, which has to run the businesses under the patronage and facilitation of the government. The government should only play the role of regulator and facilitator of corporate businesses. Since 1990, the country sold off 167 SOEs. During 1997-2000, the complete denationalization of the banking sector was carried out. A privatization program was …

  Pakistan economy has suffered on various accounts such as war on terror, law and order and even US sanctions on Iran which is a major impediment between bilateral trade between two natural allies in the region. As a result of US sanctions, the business communities of the two countries are forced to indulge in illegal cross border trade, which is estimated to the tune exceeding to $4 billion, while …

  Ufone-Meezan Bank takes initiative for first Islamic branchless banking in the country It is quite evident that the conventional approach of bricks and mortar branches will never adequately serve the millions of un-banked masses in Pakistan unless the strategy of financial inclusion is supported by the telecom sector in Pakistan. Being an agriculture country with over 68 percent of the total population is rural-based in Pakistan, the conventional banking …

  Dr. Ishrat Husain announced the establishment of the Centre for Excellence in Islamic Finance at IBA, with the objective of bridging the gap between trained human resource and industry’s growing requirement. The Centre will broadly perform in the areas such as offering degree programs in Islamic Finance, Conduct Research and case studies for enhancing and disseminating knowledge in Islamic Finance; offer short term open and customized executive courses for …

  Where does a bus ride offer a free Wi-Fi service in Pakistan? On the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus with speeds of up to 36 Mbps provided through the Charji device. With over 18 million Internet users across the country, according to a study, it is evident that ‘Wireless Internet’ known as ‘Wi-Fi’, has become one of the most basic necessities of life for many Pakistanis. A major portion of Wi-Fi …

  Agriculture to suffer, farm mechanization stagnant The subsidized tractor imports from Belarus to be made up and assembled in Pakistan as indicated by the government policies is feared to threaten the growth of domestic tractor manufacturing industry. The Belarus state-owned company will initially assemble 500 tractors per year and with the increase in demand it plans to enhance production facility to more than 20,000 units per annum. Tractor industry …

  When Facebook signed a $19 billion deal with WhatsApp, the world watched awestruck, wondering what this would mean for mobile messaging apps in the days to come. A few months on, everything still remains the same. Mobile messaging apps, almost all of them free, remain as popular as ever. More and more people download and register for these apps on their phones –- communication has never been easier and …