ISLAMABAD: Warning that upcoming monsoon rains could lead to floods, the Pakistani Prime Minister’s Coordinator on Climate Change, Romina Khurshid Alam, on Friday said relief camps established in vulnerable areas should be widely advertised to ensure access for potential victims.
Pakistan’s Disaster Management Authority last week warned of urban flooding in parts of the country next month as monsoon rains start from July 1, with 35 percent more downpours expected this year in a country considered one of the most vulnerable to climate change impacts.
Large swathes of the South Asian nation were submerged in 2022 due to extremely heavy monsoon rains and melting glaciers, a phenomenon linked to climate change that damaged crops and infrastructure and killed at least 1,700 people, displaced millions and inflicted billions of dollars in losses.
“Romina emphasized the importance of utilizing all available media platforms, including digital, electronic, radio, and mosque loudspeakers to effectively communicate information about the relief camps,” Radio Pakistan reported.
Heavy rains with thunderstorms are expected in Upper Punjab, Central Punjab and South Punjab from July 1 while monsoon rains could threaten urban flooding and hill torrents in South Punjab, the provincial disaster management authority said last Sunday.
In 2010, the worst floods in memory affected 20 million people in Pakistan, with damage to infrastructure running into billions of dollars and huge swathes of crops destroyed as one fifth of the country was inundated.
Pakistan has also been in the grips of a heat wave since last month, with temperatures in some regions rising to above 50 degrees Celsius.
Pakistan sets up relief camps as monsoon rains, urban floods expected from next week
https://arab.news/2pkdz
Pakistan sets up relief camps as monsoon rains, urban floods expected from next week
- Large swathes of the South Asian country were submerged in 2022 due to extremely heavy monsoon rains
- Pakistan has been in grips of heat wave since last month, with temperatures in some regions rising above 50°C
Union of salaried Pakistanis petitions Supreme Court against new taxes
- Budget 2024-25 has increased tax liability by Rs22,500 for all persons earning over Rs50,000 a month
- Last year too the government had imposed more income tax on salaried people it deemed “high earners”
ISLAMABAD: The Salaried Class Alliance of Pakistan has petitioned the Supreme Court against what it calls “unfair” taxes imposed on workers under the budget 2024-2025 that came into effect today, Monday, according to a copy of the document seen by Arab News.
The government presented the national budget on June 12 with a challenging tax revenue target of 13 trillion rupees ($46.66 billion) for the year starting July 1, up about 40 percent from the current year, to strengthen the case for a new rescue deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Parliament on Friday passed the finance bill, which has increased the tax liability by Rs22,500 for all persons earning more than Rs50,000 a month. Last year also the government had imposed a higher income tax on salaried persons it deemed “high earners.”
“The salaried class, already strained by high inflation and inadequate services, faces escalated tax rates without corresponding benefits or relief measures,” the union’s petition to the top court read. “The government’s approach neglects opportunities to broaden the tax base by targeting non-filers and the informal sector, crucial for equitable taxation.”
The petition said increased taxation would contribute to the brain drain of skilled professionals and capital flight, which were detrimental to Pakistan’s economic growth and stability, while also highlighting the practice of unjust taxation given the discrepancies in tax treatment for private sector salaried individuals and other sectors like government workers.
The petition called on the court to encourage measures to enforce taxation on non-active taxpayers and informal sectors.
“Request the Supreme Court’s intervention through Suo moto notice to review the constitutional validity and fairness of the tax measures proposed in the Finance Budget 2024-2025,” the petition said, outlining proposed actions for the court.
“We appeal to the Honorable Court, under Article 184(3) of the Constitution of Pakistan, to uphold justice and protect the rights of the salaried class and all taxpayers in Pakistan. The current taxation policies threaten economic stability and fairness. We seek your urgent attention and intervention to ensure that taxation policies align with principles of equity, economic growth, and national development.”
The rise in the Pakistan government’s tax target is made up of a 48 percent increase in direct taxes and a 35 percent hike in indirect taxes over revised estimates of the current year. Non-tax revenue, including petroleum levies, is seen increasing by 64 percent. The tax would increase to 18 percent on textile and leather products as well as mobile phones besides a hike in the tax on capital gains from real estate. Workers will also get hit with more direct tax on income.
Opposition parties, mainly parliamentarians backed by the jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and major trade bodies have rejected the budget, saying it will be highly inflationary and lead to industry shutdowns. On Monday, a main religious political party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, announced it would hold a sit-in in Islamabad against taxes and inflation from July 12.
Pakistan’s central bank has also warned of possible inflationary effects from the budget, saying limited progress in structural reforms to broaden the tax base meant increased revenue must come from hiking taxes.
The upcoming year’s growth target has been set at 3.6 percent, with inflation projected at 12 percent.
Pakistani court sentences Christian man to death for posting hateful content against Muslims
- Ehsan Shan, not party to Qur’an’s desecration, was accused of reposting its defaced pages on TikTok
- Shan to appeal death sentence issued by court in Pakistan’s eastern city of Sahiwal, says lawyer
MULTAN, Pakistan: A court in Pakistan sentenced a Christian man to death for sharing what it said was hateful content against Muslims on social media after one of the worst mob attacks on Christians in the eastern Punjab province last year, his lawyer said Monday.
In August 2023, groups of Muslim men burned dozens of homes and churches in the city of Jaranwala after some residents claimed they saw two Christian men tearing out pages from Islam’s holy book, the Qur’an, throwing them on the ground and writing insulting remarks on other pages, authorities said. The two men were later arrested.
No casualties were reported at the time as terrified Christians fled their homes to safer areas. Though the police arrested more than 100 suspects following the attacks, it remained unclear if any were convicted.
Ehsan Shan, though not party to the desecration, was accused of reposting the defaced pages of the Qur’an on his TikTok account, his lawyer Khurram Shahzad told The Associated Press. He also said he would appeal against the death sentence issued Saturday by a court in the city of Sahiwal in Punjab province.
Amir Farooq, a police officer who arrested Shan, said the man shared “the hateful content at a sensitive time when authorities were already struggling to contain the violence.”
Naveed Kashif, a local priest at a church in Sahiwal, said while he didn’t excuse what Shan posted, he wondered ” why the court ordered such an extreme verdict when those linked to the attacks are yet to be punished.”
Blasphemy accusations are common in Pakistan. Under the country’s blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death. While authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy, often just the accusation can cause riots and incite mobs to violence, lynching and killings.
Earlier this month, 72-year-old Nazir Masih died after he was attacked by an angry mob in May following accusations of blasphemy.
Pakistan’s Muhammad Rizwan appointed captain of Canadian franchise Vancouver Knights for GT20
- Rizwan will lead Pakistan captain Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir and Asif Ali in Vancouver Knights squad
- This will be the first time Pakistani cricketers will be seen in action after humiliating World Cup exit
ISLAMABAD: Canadian cricket franchise Vancouver Knights announced recently it had appointed Pakistan’s Muhammad Rizwan to lead the franchise in the upcoming season of the Global T20 league, which would feature some of the world’s top cricketing talents in action later this month.
The Global T20 Canada is a professional Twenty20 cricket tournament that is played in the country. The first two editions of the tournament were played in 2018 and 2019 before the league was suspended for three years due to the coronavirus pandemic, returning in 2023.
The fourth edition of the tournament will begin in Canada from July 25 to August 11 and will feature six franchises, the Brampton Wolves, Montreal Tigers, Vancouver Knights, Toronto Nationals, Mississauga Panthers and Surrey Jaguars.
“Hear ye, hear ye! The Vancouver Knights have chosen their captain for GT20 Season 4: Sir Mohammad Rizwan,” Vancouver Knights wrote on social media platform X on Sunday. “With his mighty batting skills and sharp wicketkeeping, he’s ready to lead our charge to victory.”
Rizwan will captain fellow Pakistani teammates Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir and Asif Ali, who are also part of the 18-member Vancouver Knights squad. Azam is the T20I captain of Pakistan’s national squad and will play under Rizwan’s leadership for the first time.
The Canadian domestic league will also feature other international stars such as Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi, Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, West Indian cricketers Sunil Narine, Carlos Brathwaite, Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan, Namibia’s David Wiese and Australian cricketer David Warner.
The Pakistani cricketers will be seen in action for the first time after their humiliating first-round exit from the recently concluded T20 World Cup 2024 in June. The South Asian team crashed out of the World Cup without qualifying for the second round of the tournament after, successive losses to minnows United States and India.
Squad:
Babar Azam, Asif Ali, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan, Jeremy Gordon, Rishiv Joshi, Sandeep Lamichhane, Dwaine Pretorius, Michael Rippon, Dipendra Singh Airee, Harsh Thaker, Ruben Trumpelmann, Paul van Meekeren, Sarmad Anwar, Mandeep Girdhar, Yuvraj Samra, Shubham Sharma, Ajayveer Singh
Pakistan united against ‘terrorism,’ says PM after militant attack kills two security personnel
- Militants kill police officer, FC personnel in attack on police checkpost in northwestern Pakistan
- Pakistan last month announced launching new anti-terror operation to eliminate militants from country
ISLAMABAD: The entire nation is united in its resolve to eliminate “terrorism” from the country, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday after militants killed two security personnel in an attack in northwestern Pakistan.
A police officer named Ejaz and Frontier Constabulary (FC) official Shahzad were killed on Sunday after militants attacked a police checkpost in Khyber district. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement that the slain security personnel thwarted the militants’ attack.
In a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Sharif praised the two officials for laying down their lives for Pakistan, recognizing the country’s armed forces, police and law enforcers’ sacrifices for the nation.
“The Pakistani nation is proud of its martyrs and their families,” Sharif was quoted as saying in a statement. “The entire nation is united to eliminate the scourge of terrorism.”
Pakistan’s top national security forum last month announced it was launching a new military operation, “Operation Azm-e-Istehkam” or “Resolve for Stability,” to root out militants in the country. Sharif clarified that the government was not considering a large-scale military operation that would displace people within the country, adding that Azm-e-Istehkam would mobilize military operations that have already been launched against militants.
The decision was criticized by two main parties in Pakistan’s militancy-wracked northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamiat Ulama-e-Pakistan Fazl (JUI-F), who accused the government of not taking them into confidence about the military operation.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif assured the opposition that the operation would be enforced after it is discussed and debated in parliament. He said the government would address all concerns regarding the military operation by the JUI-F and the PTI and build a national consensus over it.
Thousands of people in Pakistan’s tribal areas were displaced during the late 2000s when the Pakistan Army launched operations to clear the area from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or Pakistani Taliban militants.
The TTP, who seek to enforce their own brand of strict Islamic law, have carried out some of the deadliest attacks against Pakistani civilians and security forces since 2007.
Pakistan, which has suffered a surge in militant attacks since a fragile truce between the government and the TTP broke down in November 2022, has blamed the Afghan government for not doing enough to rein in TTP militants whom it accuses of using Afghan soil to launch attacks in Pakistan.
Kabul denies this. Since last November, the Pakistan government has also launched a deportation drive under which over 600,000 Afghan nationals have been expelled from Pakistan.
Pakistan’s tax-heavy budget goes into effect today ahead of IMF loan talks
- Pakistan’s parliament passed federal budget last week despite protests from opposition
- Economists say budget in line with IMF recommendations, to help Pakistan secure bailout package
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s tax-heavy $67.76 billion budget for the new fiscal year takes effect from today, Monday, which Islamabad hopes will prove instrumental in securing another bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stave off a macroeconomic crisis.
President Asif Ali Zardari signed the Finance Bill 2024-25 into law on Sunday after the country’s parliament passed it last week amid an annual inflation projection of up to 13.5 percent for June. The bill comes ahead of more talks with the international lender for a loan of up to $8 billion to avert a debt default for Pakistan, the slowest-growing economy in South Asia.
The ambitious budget, with a challenging tax revenue target of Rs13 trillion ($46.66 billion) has drawn the ire of the government’s allies and opposition alike, who have demanded relief for the salaried class and the poor. The revenue collection target for FY25 is almost 40 percent higher from the last fiscal year, drawing criticism from the business community as well.
“I have already said we are moving in a positive way,” Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Sunday, speaking about the fresh IMF program during a media interaction in the federal capital. “During July we should get into a good agreement.”
Pakistan began discussions about a new loan with IMF officials soon after completing a $3 billion program that helped the country stave off a sovereign debt default last year. The international lender sent its delegation to Pakistan in May to hold negotiations with the new government which did not materialize into a staff-level agreement.
Pakistan has sought IMF loans in recent years due to a combination of economic challenges, including significant fiscal and current account deficits, declining foreign exchange reserves and rising public debt.
These economic vulnerabilities have been exacerbated by external shocks like fluctuating commodity prices and internal challenges such as political instability and policy inconsistency.
The government has maintained the country’s economy is on the mend but considers the new bailout important to ensure a substantial financial cushion.
TAX-LADEN BUDGET
Pakistan’s finance ministry said in a report on Friday that the budget is gearing the country toward “an era of sustainable and inclusive growth.” It projected an annual consumer price inflation for June 2024 between 12.5 percent to 13.5 percent, up from 11.8 percent in May.
The rise in the tax target is made up of a 48 percent increase in direct taxes and a 35 percent hike in indirect taxes over revised estimates of the current year. Non-tax revenue, including petroleum levies, is seen increasing by 64 percent.
The tax would increase to 18 percent on textile and leather products as well as mobile phones besides a hike in the tax on capital gains from real estate.
Workers will also get hit with more direct tax on income. Opposition parties, mainly parliamentarians backed by the jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and top trade bodies have rejected the budget, saying it will be highly inflationary and lead to industry shutdowns.
Pakistan’s central bank has also warned of possible inflationary effects from the budget, saying limited progress in structural reforms to broaden the tax base meant increased revenue must come from hiking taxes.
The upcoming year’s growth target has been set at 3.6 percent with inflation projected at 12 percent.
