Business

Terrorist attack: Chaman border remains closed for fifth straight day

Published

2 years ago

Farwa

Pak-Afghan border crossing at Chaman remained closed for fifth straight day.
Chaman border was closed after unidentified armed men opened fire on Pakistani security troops.
All business and trade activities at Chaman border remained suspended.

ISLAMABAD: The Pak-Afghan border crossing at Chaman remained closed for the fifth consecutive day on Thursday.

The Chaman border — known as Friendship Gate — was closed after unidentified armed men opened fire on the Pakistani security troops from inside Afghanistan, martyring a soldier and injuring another two on Sunday.

All business and trade activities at the Chaman border remained suspended for the fifth day.

The federal government will take a decision about the opening of the Friendship Gate, the Chaman’s deputy commissioner said, adding that Islamabad and Kabul are in contact with each other on the matter.

FC soldier martyred

On November 13, a Frontier Corps soldier embraced martyrdom and two more sustained injuries in the midst of a cross-border attack from Afghanistan to Balochistan’s Chaman district.

Afghan security officials allegedly opened fire on the FC personnel while they were deployed on duty on the Pakistani side of the Bab-e-Dosti near Chaman, as per Levies officials.

As a result of the attack, one FC trooper was martyred while two were injured due to bullets shot at them during the exchange of fire between security officials of the two countries.

Following the incident, the Pakistani authorities contacted the Afghan government for a ceasefire in the area. Meanwhile, Bab-e-Dosti has been closed for all kinds of trade and pedestrian movement.

Business

Robust activity lets PSX climb above 115,000 level again.

Published

6 hours ago

Farwa

On Friday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) resumed its upward trend, crossing 115,000 points once more.

The PSX had strong action in the morning session, as the KSE-100 index increased by 1,000 points to 115,138.

The notoriously volatile PSX closed Thursday at 114,037 points, up 594 points.

DOLLAR DEPRECIES

Meanwhile, in the interbank market this morning, the US dollar fell 7 paisas to Rs278.65 against the Pakistani rupee.

Business

SBP will announce monetary policy on January 27.

Published

6 hours ago

Farwa

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will release its monetary policy on Monday.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the SBP will convene on the first day of the following week to make decisions on monetary policy.

The Monetary Policy decision will be announced by Governor SBP Jameel Ahmad at a news conference on the same day after the MPC meeting, according to an official release.

In December, the central bank reduced policy rates by 200 basis points (bps) to 13 percent.

“In November 2024, headline inflation fell to 4.9 percent year on year, meeting the MPC’s estimates. This decrease was mostly caused by the ongoing decline in food inflation and the phasing out of the impact of the gas tariff increase in November 2023,” SBP stated in an official release.

“However, the Committee noted that core inflation, at 9.7 percent, is proving to be sticky, while consumer and business inflation expectations remain volatile.” To that end, the Committee restated its previous assessment that inflation may remain volatile in the short term before stabilizing within the target range.

“At the same time, growth prospects have slightly improved, as evidenced by a recent increase in high-frequency indicators of economic activity.” Overall, the Committee concluded that its approach of gradual policy rate decreases is keeping inflationary and external account pressures under control while promoting long-term economic growth.

Business

Finance Minister Meets With World Leaders at World Economic Forum in Davos

Published

1 day ago

Farwa

During his attendance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has met with officials of organisations and leaders of many nations.
Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor, Muhammad Younas, met with Mohammad Aurangzeb.
On the fringes of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2025 Opening Banquet, there was an informal meeting.
Additionally, the Finance Minister met with Anwar Ibrahim, the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Both leaders discussed economic cooperation and bilateral ties.
Muhammad Aurangzeb also had a meeting with Dp World’s Rizwan Soomro and Yuvraj Narayan.
They talked about how to strengthen Pakistan’s logistics and infrastructure systems to support trade.
“The Pakistani government is committed to advancing joint projects and values partnerships in both business-to-business and business-to-government cooperation,” the finance minister added.