KARACHI: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is scheduled to meet today, Thursday, in Washington for the first review of a $3 billion short-term financing package and to consider the release of the $700 million second tranche to Pakistan.
The board had approved a much-needed, 9-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) for the country last year in July to support the government’s economic stabilization program. Pakistan also received the first tranche of $1.2 billion along with the endorsement for the loan program.
A visiting IMF delegation and Pakistani authorities reached a staff-level agreement (SLA) over the first review under the SBA in November, which was subject to the executive board’s approval to unlock the $700 million disbursement. Pakistani economists said they were hopeful the country would comfortably get access to the money after the SLA.
“There are big chances that the IMF board will easily grant approval for the disbursement of the funds to Pakistan because the country has successfully implemented the reforms and reached an SLA,” Dr. Sajid Amin, Deputy Executive Director at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), told Arab News.
Amin hoped the IMF board’s approval would help Pakistan’s national currency to regain some of its lost value, adding it would also have a positive impact on the country’s overall economic landscape.
Pakistan cleared the first review under the SBA after taking painful economic measures, including increases in energy prices and tax burden, which led to spiraling inflation that hit 38 percent in May last year. The prices of essential commodities still remain quite elevated.
As Pakistan prepares for the national election on Feb. 8, experts say it will have to chart a clear roadmap to run the economy.
“The next review of the program is important for Pakistan since it will lay down the foundation for the next IMF facility which the country will require,” Amin said.
Timely national elections and a well-thought-out economic gameplan by the next elected government will help secure the fresh IMF program and avoid any economic panic situation in the future, Amin argued.
Preparations for a follow-on program are likely to start after the conclusion of the current SBA in April 2024, as the country is scheduled to elect its new political leaders in the coming month.
Pakistan’s economic landscape has weathered a storm in recent years with fluctuating commodity prices, political turmoil and harsh blows dealt by floods.
The nation has been grappling with trade and current account deficits, mounting inflation and low foreign exchange reserves that exerted pressure on the currency that also hit historic lows against the United States dollar.
IMF board expected to approve $700 million disbursement for Pakistan later today
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IMF board expected to approve $700 million disbursement for Pakistan later today
- The board approved a much-needed, 9-month loan amounting to $3 billion in July to support economic stabilization program
- Experts say a clear economic roadmap can set the foundation for the next IMF program for Pakistan after the general elections
Brushstrokes on a budget: How Islamabad Sunday Bazaar stall became thriving art academy
- Husband and wife Azhar and Shagufta Qureshi run Knowledge Art Academy from Itwar Bazaar stall
- Students at the school range from ages 5 to 81 and can get classes for nominal three-month fee of $12
ISLAMABAD: Several works of Islamic calligraphy, landscape art and whirling dervish paintings hung on the walls of the stall while around a dozen students sat bent over canvases while husband and wife duo Azhar Qureshi and Shagufta watched over them.
The scene is from the Knowledge Art Academy, located in a quiet corner between a long row of stalls at Islamabad’s Sunday, or Itwar, Bazaar, a popular spot for the capital city’s middle classes who come for the affordable shopping and to buy used and cheap items.
Here, nestled between toys, crockery and ceramics kiosks, the Knowledge Art Academy, a tin roof supported by wooden sticks, offers art classes at the affordable price of around $12 for three months of lessons.
The teachers are Shagufta and Qureshi, who has a fine arts diploma from Lahore, and has been running the academy for the past 14 years, offering an attractive alternative to pricey art schools in Islamabad.
“Our aim was to start this so that people who are interested in art can easily join our classes,” Shagufta told Arab News at the stall. “Our fee is also very reasonable. Art is a very expensive hobby which not everyone can afford. Since people from all backgrounds come here, that’s why we opted to arrange our setup here.”
The academy has students ranging from age five to those in their eighties.
“I was interested in learning how to paint,” Zamad Ahmed, a second year intermediate student who attends the academy with his 15-year-old sister Fatima, told Arab News. “But due to affordability I never learned it. But after my mother stumbled upon this place, I knew I had to attend it.”
Another student is Abdul Bari, an 81-year-old retired bank manager, who visits the academy weekly to pursue his passion for Islamic calligraphy.
“After retiring as a bank manager and marrying off my kids, I have been coming here for a year-and-a-half to learn from the maestro himself,” Bari said.
“It has been 1.5 to 2 years that I have come here to learn. I am retired so I come here to spend time, and by the grace of Allah, I have learned a lot from here also.”
“HEALTHY ACTIVITY”
Art schools in Pakistan, particularly those offering undergraduate programs, can be quite expensive, with some institutions charging upwards of $2,500 per year for tuition alone. The National College of Arts (NCA) is a notable example of a public university that offers art programs and has relatively high tuition fees. Other expenses, such as accommodation and transportation, can further contribute to the overall cost of attending art school in Pakistan.
This attracts many to the low-cost Knowledge Art Academy.
A middle-aged corporate professional who only identified himself by his first name Ijaz said he had admitted his three daughters to the academy so they could do something “productive” during their summer vacations at an affordable price.
“We have come to generate healthy activities for them,” he said. “Rather than sitting at home and wasting time on gadgets, on mobile or watching movies. I just want to generate some healthy activity so that they can learn something.”
While Qureshi said he had received various offers from prestigious art schools and institutions, he was committed to remain focused on his humble setup.
“I’ve even been told to move to a proper building or classroom and teach from there,” Qureshi said. “But that would increase the fees and affect my students who come here to follow their passion. I don’t want to disturb them.”
And his dedication has borne fruit, with several of his students pursuing fine arts formally while others have become art teachers and freelance artists.
Rabiya Noureen, 34, who learnt to paint at the Knowledge Art Academy, now runs her own classes.
“I learned painting from here and now have my own academy,” she said. “Now, my students even take commissioned painting work and earn money.”
Pakistan economy to grow 2.7 percent in FY25, economic survey shows
- The government initially targeted 3.6 percent GDP growth, but lowered it last month
- Pakistan’s finance chief says the national economy is on an upward trajectory
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s economy is likely to expand 2.7 percent in the fiscal year ending June 2025 after growing 2.5 percent during the previous year, the government’s economic survey showed on Monday, a day before the country’s federal budget is unveiled.
The government initially targeted 3.6 percent GDP growth, but lowered it to 2.7 percent last month. The IMF expects real GDP to grow by 2.6 percent in FY25 and for the economy to grow 3.6 percent in FY26.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government aims for 4.2 percent GDP growth next year, the country’s planning minister said last week, amid competing priorities, including stimulating investment, maintaining a primary surplus, and managing defense expenditure amid heightened tensions with India.
Pakistan’s central bank, in a bid to encourage growth, cut its policy rate by more than 1,000 basis points in the current fiscal year. Its latest cut last month brought the key rate to 11 percent, resuming an easing cycle that had brought rates down from 22 percent after a brief pause in March.
Pakistan had a current account surplus of $1.9 billion in the July to April period of the current fiscal year compared to a deficit of $200 million in the same period last year, the survey showed.
“Pakistan’s economy has been globally acknowledged for achieving macroeconomic stabilization in the outgoing fiscal year,” Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said in his foreword to the survey.
“Pakistan is consistently advancing on an upward trajectory, built upon investment friendly reforms, enhanced domestic savings, and increased foreign direct investment, with GDP growth projected at 5.7 percent over the medium term,” he said.
The economic survey, a key pre-budget document, comes at a time when Pakistan’s economy is stabilizing but remains fragile as the country navigates reforms under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund program.
Pakistan’s federal budget for the next fiscal year starting July will be released on Tuesday.
The government’s total revenue for the first three quarters of the current year stood at 13.37 trillion rupees, the survey showed.
Increasing revenue to trim the fiscal deficit, a key demand of the IMF program, is considered challenging for Islamabad.
Other key performance indicators mentioned in the economic survey include fiscal deficit at 2.6 percent of GDP during the first three quarters of the fiscal year.
Inflation was seen at 4.6 percent for the year.
India-Pakistan conflict threshold at historic low after military flare-up — Bhutto-Zardari
- Former Pakistani foreign minister emphasizes dialogue, diplomacy in interview with Sky News
- He says Pakistan acted against militant groups by working with the Financial Action Task Force
ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari warned on Monday the threshold for war between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan had significantly dropped following last month’s military standoff during an interview with an international news outlet.
India and Pakistan engaged in their most intense military exchange only a few weeks ago, prompting fears of a full-scale war under the nuclear overhang. Over four days, both countries traded missile strikes, drone attacks and air combat before US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire on May 10.
The crisis erupted after a militant assault killed 26 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir. New Delhi blamed the attack on Pakistan-based elements, a charge Islamabad strongly denied, calling instead for an impartial international investigation.
As the situation escalated, the global community moved quickly to ease tensions and avert the risk of a nuclear confrontation.
“At the moment, the threshold for conflict between India and Pakistan is the lowest than it’s ever been in our history,” Bhutto-Zardari said in an interview with Sky News in London. “We’ve achieved the ceasefire, but we have not achieved peace as it stands today.”
“If there’s a terrorist attack anywhere in India or India-occupied Kashmir, proof or no proof, that means war,” he added. “That’s not a tenable situation. Pakistan believes there needs to be dialog and diplomacy, where we discuss all issues — terrorism, Kashmir, water — and start moving forward.”
Bhutto-Zardari said Pakistan had long advocated peace through dialogue, as he pointed to India’s refusal to engage diplomatically.
He also criticized New Delhi’s position on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), a World Bank-brokered agreement signed in 1960 governing water rights over rivers shared by the two countries.
While India has not stopped water flows entirely, he said, it had delayed releases, a tactic, which he noted, could devastate Pakistan’s agricultural output.
“Even a week’s delay in water supply can destroy crops in a country like Pakistan, which depends heavily on agriculture,” he said, warning that any move by India to build new canals or dams on rivers allocated to Pakistan would cross a red line.
“That would be war,” he said.
Bhutto-Zardari further rejected the idea that Pakistan harbored militant groups involved in cross-border militancy, noting the country had taken significant action under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) framework, a global watchdog that monitors money laundering and terrorism financing.
“When I was foreign minister, Pakistan was on the FATF grey list. By the end of my term, we had successfully moved off that list,” he said, calling the removal an endorsement by the international community of Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts.
Responding to Indian claims over the recent Kashmir attack, he reiterated that Pakistan had no role in the incident and challenged New Delhi to present credible evidence if it had any.
“They went to war with a nuclear power and still cannot name a single terrorist involved,” he said. “If India was being honest, we’d know who they were, where they came from, which border crossing they used. These are basic questions that remain unanswered.”
Bhutto-Zardari is currently leading a nine-member Pakistani delegation to various world capitals to present Islamabad’s position on the recent conflict with India.
The delegation held meetings in recent days with representatives of the United Nations, its member states and US officials before arriving in London a day earlier to continue its mission.
New warehouse fire breaks out in Karachi as factory blaze continues for second day
- Karachi hosts thousands of industrial units but struggles with outdated firefighting infrastructure
- The new warehouse fire near Mauripur follows factory blaze in Landhi that injured five on Sunday
KARACHI: A fire broke out at an oil warehouse near Karachi’s Mauripur truck terminal on Monday, rescue officials said, as firefighters continued battling a separate blaze that erupted a day earlier at the city’s Landhi Export Processing Zone and has yet to be fully extinguished.
Karachi, Pakistan’s financial hub, is home to thousands of industrial units but suffers from outdated firefighting infrastructure and lax safety enforcement.
“Fire and rescue teams were dispatched with one ambulance and two fire brigade trucks immediately upon receiving the alert,” Rescue 1122 said in a statement. “Efforts are under way to bring the blaze under control.”
Meanwhile, firefighting operations at the Landhi zone, which began on Sunday, entered their second day, with flames still active inside some of the affected factories.
Authorities said the fire has been partially contained but full extinguishment and cooling may take additional time.
At least five people were injured on Sunday after part of a building collapsed at the industrial site, which houses multiple textile factories, officials confirmed.
The injured were moved to a nearby hospital.
A total of 11 fire brigade trucks and a snorkel were involved in efforts to control the blaze, which were hindered by thick smoke and water shortages in the city of over 20 million.
Hundreds of fire incidents are reported every year in Karachi.
Last November, a shopping mall blaze killed a dozen people.
In April 2023, four firefighters died responding to a garment factory fire, and in 2021, a chemical factory blaze claimed 10 lives.
The deadliest such incident in the city’s history occurred in 2012, when 260 workers were killed in a garment factory fire.
Inside Islamabad’s thriving farmers market, where nature meets community
- 79 approved sellers selected through rigorous vetting process that includes soil and water testing, on-site visits to farms
- Many vendors have been displaying at 12-year-old market for years, new entrepreneurs have also found their footing
ISLAMABAD: Every Saturday morning, a quiet corner of Pakistan’s capital comes alive with the earthy scent of fresh produce, the hum of friendly chatter and the unmistakable feel of community.
This is the Islamabad Farmers Market, now more than a decade old and having grown from a humble initiative into a thriving hub of sustainability, entrepreneurship, and local connection.
Launched in 2013 with just six vendors, the market now hosts 79 approved seller, each selected through a rigorous vetting process that includes soil and water testing as well as on-site visits to farms.
The aim? To keep the food chain clean, ethical, and transparent.
“The main goal was to eliminate the middleman and help small-scale farmers and producers connect directly with customers,” said Ali Raza, a representative of the market. “Today, we have created a trusted space for clean, organic, and ethical products.”
Each stall at the market tells a different story. Beneath canopies strung with fairy lights and shaded by leafy trees, you’ll find everything from heirloom tomatoes and farm-fresh eggs to artisan sourdough and wild honey from the mountains.
Among the market’s earliest supporters is Naghma, a 70-year-old anthropologist and environmentalist who only gave her first name.
A regular since its inception, she now sells her homemade hummus and baba ghanoush, an Arab eggplant dip, prepared with hand-ground tahini, alongside a variety of other organic spreads.
“I come here every Saturday with three bags and go back with five or six,” she laughed. “I buy all my raw materials here.”
For Naghma, organic eating is more than a preference, it’s a lifelong passion rooted in gardening and the rhythms of the seasons.
“I follow seasons because organic by definition is seasonal,” she said. “So, I make French Boursin cheese. My products, I call them ‘Les Deli De Naghma,’ so there’s a definite French touch.”
The Farmers Market has also become a vital platform for small-scale growers not just from Islamabad, but also more remote northern areas of the country such as northern Gilgit-Baltistan.
Sherazam, the founder of Hunza Organic, is one such vendor who has been displaying at the market for over a decade. On his table: ruby-red dried cherries, sun-cured apricot oil, and jars of thick wild honey, all harvested by hand and brought straight from the mountains.
“Our clientele knows that our products are pure. Many others also source their raw materials from us,” he told Arab News.
Sherazam said his business model was deeply community-driven.
“In Hunza, everyone farms. The women in my village produce these items, and we handle the packaging in Islamabad,” he added.
“RELIABLE, FRESH, FAMILY-FRIENDLY“
New entrepreneurs are also finding their footing at the Islamabad Farmer’s market.
Waleed Noor Malik, representing “Guy Knows Food,” a popular kimchi brand, said the market had helped launch their business and acted as an accelerator.
“We started selling kimchi here because we couldn’t find a brand in Pakistan that matched our taste,” he said. “Sampling at the market really helps build our brand. People try it here and often follow up on social media.”
Engineer-turned-farmer, who manages 300 beehives and a young olive orchard near Taxila, shared a similar experience. His small-batch raw honey and extra virgin olive oil are bottled with care and sold directly to those who seek quality over mass production.
“It’s not easy to compete with bulk commercial sellers, but here, people appreciate authenticity,” he said.
Raza, the curator of the market, said many of its vendors had started small, with just a few pots or a home kitchen and now had full storefronts.
“Many people in and around Islamabad, from Chak Shehzad and Barakahu, were producing and running small-scale farms but they didn’t have a platform to sell their fruits and vegetables. So, the main aim was to provide them with a platform,” he added.
Much of the market’s success hinges on its rigorous commitment to quality. Vendors undergo lengthy screening processes, including environmental checks and farm inspections.
“We look for the soil test, water test, and then we do a site visit,” said Raza. “We make sure that no insecticides, pesticides, or urea are used.”
This transparency has earned the market a loyal following. Dr. Shanza Khan, a dentist and long-time visitor, summed it up simply:
“The vendors are reliable, and their products are fresh. It’s a very family-friendly environment.”
More than a market, this is clearly a community garden in motion, where each bag of microgreens or bottle of honey is part of a larger story of connection and care for the land. And with the launch of an online platform, the market has extended its reach beyond Saturdays, giving customers access to their favorite organic products throughout the week. For vendors, this means steadier sales and greater visibility in a growing wellness economy.
Another attraction lies at the far end of the market, where food and coffee stalls beckon with the smell of sourdough sandwiches, artisanal cheese, and specialty brews. Some mornings, live music plays in the background, or a spontaneous art therapy session spills onto the grassy space beside the Dino Park. Children run through the park’s dino sculptures while parents sip cappuccinos under the trees.
Mahnoor Omer, a lawyer and regular visitor, has made coming here a weekly ritual.
“Coffee, sourdough, cheese sandwiches, and sometimes, spontaneous catch-ups with friends,” she said, smiling.
“It’s a great outlet for home-based growers and vendors from northern areas to bring their produce straight to our kitchens.”
