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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s national air carrier said on Saturday its flight operations were beginning to return to normal just a few days after its management confirmed its decision to ground much of its fleet amid a major financial crisis.
The state-owned enterprise is said to be on the verge of default, as the government refused to provide Rs 23 billion ($76 million) in support of operational expenses, as requested by airline officials.
Authorities had previously allocated substantial funds to assist Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). However, it continued to rack up billions of rupees in arrears and losses over the years.
The caretaker administration of Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar convened a meeting this month to review PIA’s situation and instructed relevant officials to prepare a restructuring plan to improve the financial situation of the cash-strapped airline.
“PIA flight operations have started to return to normal,” its management announced in a brief statement. “Seventy-two flights will depart from airports across the country [on Saturday]. Eighteen domestic flights have already departed while 54 overseas flights will be flying out soon.”
PIA also issued a statement a day earlier, denying the rumors of its closure due to the ongoing financial situation. Prior to that, media reports suggested the airline’s management was beginning to scale down its flight operations.
The national air carrier confirmed earlier this week it had grounded 14 out of its 31 aircraft due to the financial crisis.
But the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of Pakistan turned down its request for a massive bailout package of Rs 23 billion last week without getting a viable plan to deal with its financial crisis.
The ECC asked the Finance Division and the State Bank of Pakistan to assist PIA management, but only after the restructuring plan was finalized and approved.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s election regulator announced on Tuesday that the number of voters in the country had increased by 22 million as compared to 2018, amid preparations for the upcoming general elections.
Elections in Pakistan were originally scheduled to be held by November after the outgoing government of prime minister Shehbaz Sharif dissolved the National Assembly on august 9.
However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) opted to delimit the electoral constituencies based on the results of a digital census conducted in April this year, delaying the polls to next year.
On Tuesday, the ECP revealed the updated “province-wise voter statistics from 2018 to 2023” as of July 25, 2023 and revealed that the number of voters had increased to 126.9 million from 105.95 million in 2018.
The overall number of male voters had risen from 59.22 million in 2018 to 68.50 million in 2023, according to the ECP. Likewise, the count of female voters had gone up from 46.73 million to 58.47 million.
The election regulator also unveiled age-wise voter statistics as of July 25, highlighting that a significant majority of voters, 59.10 million, fell between 18 years and 35 years.
Among these young voters, the majority 31.74 million individuals lived in the Punjab province. Sindh followed with 11.58 million voters, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 10.79 million, Balochistan with 2.53 million, and Islamabad Capital Territory with 0.46 million registered voters.
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s President Dr. Arif Alvi wrote to the chief election commissioner (CEC), suggesting that polls in the country should be held on November 6.
“WHEREAS in terms of Article 48(5) the general election to the National Assembly should be held by the eighty-ninth day of the date of dissolution of the National Assembly, i.e. Monday, 6th Day of November 2023,” Alvi wrote in his letter to CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja.
Alvi has maintained that as per Pakistan’s constitution, the president must fix a date for polls within 90 days of the dissolution of the National Assembly.
On August 23, the president had also invited the chief election commissioner to a meeting to fix a date for the impending elections, but Raja snubbed the offer and pointed out that after amendments to the Elections Act in June by the outgoing government, fixing a date for elections was the sole prerogative of the election regulator.
Previously, the constitution mandated the president to consult the election commission before determining a date for polls.
Updated Voter Stats#ECP pic.twitter.com/Lj6UzsPoGM
LONDON: The father of a 10-year-old girl whose death sparked an international manhunt in Pakistan will face trial for her murder next year.
Sara Sharif’s body was discovered at the family home near Woking, southern England, on August 10, the day after her father, Urfan Sharif, flew to Islamabad.
An early morning emergency call alerting officers to Sara’s death was made from Pakistan by a man identifying himself as the father, according to detectives.
The house was otherwise empty, and the manhunt continued with Interpol and Britain’s foreign ministry coordinating with authorities in Pakistan.
Sharif, a 41-year-old taxi driver, traveled to Pakistan with his partner Beinash Batool, 29, his brother Faisal Malik, 28, and Sharif’s other five children.
All three adults have been charged with Sara’s murder and on Tuesday appeared via video link before a judge at London’s Old Bailey court.
The trio, who are also charged with causing or allowing the death of a child, were arrested last week after disembarking from a flight from Dubai after spending a month in Pakistan.
A post-mortem examination found Sara had sustained “multiple and extensive injuries” over a long period.
At Tuesday’s hearing, the three spoke only to confirm their names and addresses and were remanded in custody until a pre-trial hearing on December 1.
The trial is expected to start on September 2, 2024, and last six weeks.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is claiming that the country’s former powerful military and spy chiefs orchestrated his ouster in 2017 when he was forced to step down after being convicted of corruption.
Sharif spoke on Monday to leaders of his Pakistan Muslim League party via a video link from London, where he has been living in self-imposed exile since 2019.
At the time — and though convicted on corruption charges, which he has always denied — Sharif was permitted to leave Pakistan for medical treatment abroad by the government of Imran Khan, who succeeded him as prime minister. After Sharif later failed to return, a court declared him a fugitive from justice.
Sharif’s party said on Tuesday he will return next month ahead of parliamentary elections.
After Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022, Sharif’s younger brother Shehbaz Sharif served as a prime minister until August, when he stepped down to allow an interim government to run daily affairs and organize the elections.
In his remarks to party officials on Monday, Nawaz Sharif claimed former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa and ex-spy chief Faiz Hameed conspired with two judges to remove him.
He offered no evidence for his claim and there was no immediate comment from the military, the intelligence agency or the judiciary.
Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz, also an official in the Pakistan Muslim League, said Monday at a party gathering at a hotel in the eastern city of Lahore that her father’s return would be “historic.”
“Nawaz Sharif’s comebacks have been stronger than his setbacks. Another one is unfolding,” she wrote Tuesday on X, a platform previously known as Twitter.
As a fugitive from justice, Sharif would have to be arrested under the law, but it’s uncelar if that will happen. His lawyers have no filed for court protection from arrest for him.
It’s also unclear whether he would have to serve his prison sentence once he gets back.
Pakistan has been in deep political turmoil since Khan’s ouster last year. The Pakistan Muslim League is hugely unpopular and Shehbaz Sharif’s government has been unable to contain spiraling inflation.
The party wants Nawaz Sharif to head its election campaign. The vote was expected to be held in November but is likely to be delayed as the elections oversight body says it needs more time to redraw constituencies to reflect the census.
Under Shahbaz Sharif’s government, Khan was convicted of corruption and is now serving his three-year prison sentence. However, he is still the leading opposition figure in Pakistan and enjoys a huge following, along with his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
ISLAMABAD: The Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) of Pakistan issued a cautionary statement to the government on Monday regarding the potential shortage of petroleum products in the country, as oil transporters continued their strike while seeking a “fair share” in a pipeline project that may impact the quantum of their business.
The White Oil Pipeline project, inaugurated in 2005, aims to facilitate the smooth transportation of oil between Karachi’s Keamari district and Mehmood Kot in Punjab, with the goal of reducing the traffic congestion caused by approximately 4,000 trucks and mitigating negative environmental impacts.
The project is managed by the Pak-Arab Pipeline Companies Limited (PAPCO) and is considered crucial for sustaining industrial growth and agricultural productivity, especially as energy demands in the country continue to rise.
However, the Oil Tankers Contractors Association of Pakistan initiated a strike over the weekend, citing dissatisfaction with their share in the project and its failure to compensate for their lost business.
“On behalf of OCAC Member Companies we would like to bring to your attention regarding the ongoing strike by oil transporters which has resulted in a significant disruption in operations and distribution of petroleum products across the country,” OCAC said in letter addressed to the country’s petroleum division at the energy ministry.
The letter noted that the oil loading activities at Port Qasim, Qur’angi and Keamari terminals had been severely affected, while the supply chain disruptions were beginning to create problems at Jaglot, Sihala and Shikarpur depots.
“We request your immediate intervention in this matter and further request you to intimate the Chief Secretary of respective provinces to take prompt action to ensure the uninterrupted loading of tank lorries at the depots,” it added.
Meanwhile, the oil transporters association said its members would continue their wheel-jam strike until they got a “fair share” in the pipeline project.
“We should be given 50 percent quota in White Pipeline and 50 percent quota for oil supply through road,” it said in a statement released on Monday.
It also emphasized the potential idling of their modern vehicles and the risk of job losses among their workforce.
As of now, the government has not responded to these developments or engaged in negotiations with the oil transporters to resolve the situation.
KARACHI: Muhammad Amir Khan, a driver with a private company, has been in despair since last month when he received an electricity bill of Rs28,457 ($95.99).
With a monthly salary of Rs27,000 ($91.7) — his only source of income to support a seven-member household — Khan had no option but to default on paying the bill.
Now he waits for the inevitable: the power supply company to turn the lights off.
Khan is not alone.
Pakistan saw nationwide protests and trader strikes all of August over rising electricity prices and brisk inflation, as citizens and businessmen came out to burn electricity bills in a show of defiance and despondency. A $3 billion loan program, approved by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July, averted a sovereign debt default in Pakistan but reforms linked to the bailout have fueled annual inflation running at 27.4 percent.
Pakistan increased its power tariffs in July under the IMF deal, part of moves to reduce unsustainable public debt in the power and gas sectors. Tens of thousands of Pakistanis thus received steep electricity bills during August for power units consumed in July. To make matters worse, Pakistan last Friday also announced a record rise in petrol and diesel prices, the second big increase in two weeks.
“My electricity bill [last month] was so high that I could not pay it, because do I pay the bill or buy food or provide for my children?” Khan told Arab News.
“And in case of non-payment of the bill, if my electricity is disconnected then I will be forced to live in the darkness because I don’t have any other resources.”
“How can I carry on with an income that is less than the electricity bill I’ve been handed?”
Inflationary pressures are hitting the masses hard. August data from Pakistan’s statistics bureau showed a slight easing from July’s 28.3 percent inflation rate, but food inflation remained elevated at 38.5 percent.
Financial expert Ali Nawaz said low-income groups across the country were unable to make ends meet as food inflation and record power bills had increased their cost of living significantly.
“Higher electricity bills have reduced their disposable income to a very large extent, which has been impacting their livelihood,” Ali said. “They are unable to fund their daily living, they are unable to fund their health care expenditure, they are unable to fund their food-related expenses.”
“We should focus on reducing electricity prices as soon as possible by focusing more on alternative energy sources so we can give some relaxation to the common people,” Ali added.
But what is driving electricity prices in Pakistan?
One is the cost of non-renewable fuel resources such as gas, furnace oil, diesel and coal while the other is the rising value of the US dollar and the depreciating rupee.
Energy purchases account for most of Pakistan’s import bill. As the rupee withers against the dollar, imported fuel has become costlier.
The IMF deal-mandated hike in electricity prices has not helped.
The lender had pointed out that liquidity conditions in the power sector were acute, with a buildup of arrears and frequent power outages. The arrears — a form of public debt that builds up due to subsidies and unpaid bills — were a major issue in the eight months of negotiations between the IMF and Islamabad before a deal was reached in June.
Debts to power generation companies have accumulated to nearly 2.6 trillion rupees ($9.04 billion), according to official figures, which show a separate government debt of around 1.6 trillion rupees ($5.56 billion) to the gas sector. The power sector is also beset by theft, which needs to be overcome.
With the recent tariff hikes, the per unit price of electricity has gone up to Rs35.57 for off-peak electricity hours and Rs41.89 for on-peak hours. Previously, the rates were Rs19.66 for off=peak hours and Rs25.98 for on-peak times. The per unit rates, with the addition of various taxes, have increased to Rs53-63 for different consumer categories.
Another reason for the high cost of electricity is “capacity payments” to Independent Power Producers (IPPs), private entities that own facilities to generate electric power for sale to end users. Pakistan’s energy mix consists of 58.8 percent thermal power, which means the country is heavily dependent on IPPs. But contracts entered into with the independent producers are widely believed to be skewed in favor of the companies.
Among major criticisms of IPP contracts is that they require the government to make capacity payments even when power generated is not fully utilized. Experts say the arrangement leads to a high cost of electricity which augments the production costs of factories and industrial units. IPPs have also been accused of making exorbitant profits and dividends on capital invested under existing contracts and of over-invoicing and misreporting, while experts and politicians have called for a heat rate audit.
Representatives from the Power Division told Senate last month capacity payments to IPPs for the current fiscal year had reached a staggering Rs1.3 trillion.
In a briefing to journalists earlier this month, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar admitted problems with IPP agreements and said his government was “thoroughly” discussing its contractual obligations with the producers.
“We are on a course where we feel that we should find some sort of resolution, as everyone feels that they are uneven contracts,” the PM said, adding that he would share more details in due course of time.