ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign investment has surged by 48 percent during the first quarter of the current fiscal year, state-run media reported on Tuesday, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) contributing $26.8 million during the same period.

Pakistan formed the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a hybrid civil and military body, in 2023 to fast-track decisions related to foreign investment in its key economic sectors such as agriculture, mining, minerals, tourism and others. The development took place as Pakistan grappled with a prolonged economic crisis that almost led the country to suffer a sovereign default before a critical $3 billion bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last year averted the crisis.

As per a breakdown shared by state broadcaster Radio Pakistan, China invested $404 million during the first quarter of the current fiscal year while Saudi Arabia’s investment was recorded at $ 1.8 million. The UAE, meanwhile, invested $25 million, Hong Kong $98 million, the United Kingdom $72 million and the United States $28 million in the same period, the state broadcaster said.

“A significant increase of forty eight percent has been seen in foreign investment in Pakistan in the first quarter of current fiscal year, reflecting the effective strategies of the Special Investment Facilitation Council,” Radio Pakistan said.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited Saudi Arabia and Qatar last week, where he held talks with the leadership of the two countries on enhancing cooperation in trade, investment and energy. Pakistani and Saudi businesses had signed 27 agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth $2.2 billion in October. During Sharif’s visit to the kingdom last week, the two countries agreed to enhance that figure to $2.8 billion.

Meanwhile, the UAE is Pakistan’s third-largest trading partner after China and the United States. It is also an ideal export destination for the South Asian nation as the short distance between the two countries limits transportation costs and facilitates commercial exchanges.

Sharif has actively pursued economic diplomacy in the region in recent months, seeking more investments and enhancing trade and regional connectivity for Pakistan. The South Asian country has sought to leverage its position as a transit and trade hub connecting landlocked Central Asian countries with the rest of the world and also pushed for mutually beneficial economic partnerships with Gulf countries.

NEW DELHI: A toxic smog shrouded the Indian capital on Tuesday, driving air quality in some areas into the “severe” range ahead of winter, when cold air traps pollutants and brings a spike in respiratory illnesses.

The mix of smoke, emissions, and dust is an annual problem for authorities in New Delhi, with vehicles, construction dust, and smoke from farm fires in the adjoining northern states of Punjab and Haryana among the major contributors.

“The outlook for the subsequent six days: the air quality is likely to be in the ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’ category,” said the earth sciences ministry.

The city’s overall score on an air quality index kept by India’s top pollution authorities was ‘very poor’ at 384, the ministry added, and was likely to stay there until Thursday.

An index range of 401 to 500 falls into the ‘severe’ category, implying it affects healthy people, but is more serious for those already fighting disease.

Ministry data showed farm fires have increasingly swelled the pollution over the last three days, for a share of more than 23 percent on Monday, from about 15 percent on Saturday.

About a third of the city’s 39 monitoring stations showed a ‘severe’ score of more than 400 on Tuesday, said the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), well short of an air quality score of zero to 50 that it rates as ‘good’.

Swiss group IQAir also rated Delhi the world’s second most polluted city on Tuesday, after Lahore in neighboring Pakistan, where authorities also took emergency measures in the wake of Sunday’s unprecedented pollution levels.

The government in the eastern province of Punjab, home to Lahore, has blamed deteriorating air quality on pollution wafting in from India, an issue it has vowed to take up with its neighbor through the foreign ministry.