ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA) have announced it would close petrol pumps across the country on July 5 to protest the government’s decision to impose an advance tax on turnover, saying the move would “devastate” their businesses already reeling from high taxes and inflation.
Petroleum dealers in Pakistan are demanding the government withdraw an advance income tax of 0.5 percent imposed in the recently passed federal budget 2024-25.
Pakistan’s tax-heavy $67.76 billion budget for the new fiscal year came into effect on Monday amid an annual inflation projection of up to 13.5 percent for June. 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. The revenue collection target for the new fiscal year is almost 40 percent higher than the last fiscal year.
The PPDA says its members are earning minimal profit due to staggering inflation and high taxes. Talks between the government and the association this week failed to break the deadlock between the two sides.
“We are going on a nationwide strike starting July 5 and plan to close petrol pumps across the country,” PPDA Chairman Abdul Sami Khan told Arab News on Wednesday.
“Our demand is simple: the government should immediately withdraw the advance tax decision.”
Khan said the move would “devastate” the petrol pump business in the country, adding that dealers would be left with no other option but to wind up their businesses for good if the government does not reverse its decision.
“We are ready to discuss our concerns and possible solutions with the government,” Khan said. “We request the prime minister, petroleum minister and finance minister to immediately abolish this tax, otherwise we will be unable to continue running our businesses.”
Imran Ahmed, the director general of oil at Pakistan’s petroleum ministry, rejected the strike call. He said the government would not entertain “blackmailing tactics” but was willing to discuss petroleum dealers’ genuine concerns.
“We will not support the strike or such tactics,” he told Arab News. “This new advance tax applies to all traders, not only petroleum dealers.”
Ahmed said the government is in talks with the dealers and their representatives, whom he said have also met officials of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Pakistan’s tax authority.
He said the ministry has instructed oil marketing companies to keep as many sites open as possible to ensure a smooth supply of petroleum products in the country.
“We have also instructed PSO [Pakistan State Oil] to ensure maximum supply and storage of petroleum products by keeping their sites open,” Ahmed said.
PESHAWAR: Police have arrested three suspects and members of a local Panchayat (village council) in connection with the forced marriage of a minor girl under Vani, a tribal custom used to settle feuds, in a remote area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to a senior police official and a local elder.
The incident, which took place in the Bhagwani Shumali area of Paharpur, the main town in Dera Ismail Khan district, involved an 11-year-old girl from a low-income family being forcibly given in marriage to resolve a dispute last Friday.
Vani is an illegal practice where minor girls are handed over as compensation in cases involving murder or allegations of illicit relations.
Gohar Ali, Superintendent of Police (SP) for the Paharpur region, told Arab News that police acted swiftly upon receiving audio messages from the girl’s father, whom he identified only by his first name, Adil, and who died by suicide following the Panchayat’s decision.
Adil, a local barber, ingested poisonous pills after recording distressing audio messages naming the accused.
“The police immediately launched raids, rescued the minor girl and handed her over to her family,” the police officer said. “Three main suspects identified by the deceased person have been arrested, along with two members of the Panchayat. Additionally, Rs600,000 [$2,144] extorted from Adil by the makeshift council has been recovered,” the police officer added.
Malik Inayatullah, a local elder and chairman of the village peace committee, told Arab News he witnessed how the entire incident unfolded.
“The deceased left behind six daughters, including the one given to the rival family under the custom of Vani, and had no male child,” he said.
“The decision of the Panchayat is regretful,” Inayatullah continued. “It has not only robbed a young girl of her future but also cost her father his life. We have already extended our support to the girl’s family and will provide all possible help to rebuild their lives.”
The local elder said the dispute began when a local landlord accused Adil’s nephew of having illicit relations with the daughter of an influential figure in the area.
The latter convened the Panchayat before abducting Adil, subjecting him to torture and forcing him to sign a stamp paper agreeing to give his daughter in Vani to settle the matter.
“Neither Adil nor any villagers reported the incident to the police [on time], which could have prevented this tragic outcome,” police officer Ali said.
He said police were now investigating the case from multiple angles to ensure justice is served to the aggrieved family.
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday expressed satisfaction over Pakistan’s progress regarding an ongoing International Monetary Fund (IMF) program and macroeconomic stability in the country.
The South Asian country, which has faced an economic meltdown in recent years, is treading a long path to economic recovery under a $7 billion IMF program it secured in Sept. last year.
An IMF mission is currently in Pakistan to analyze Islamabad’s progress on key conditions as part of first review of the facility. A successful review will result in the release of around $1 billion to Pakistan as second installment under the program.
Speaking to his cabinet members, Sharif said the ongoing negotiations with the IMF were “satisfactory” and moving forward in a good manner.
“The IMF mission is here [in Pakistan]. The foreign minister and his team, and other ministers are holding talks with it,” the prime minister said in televised comments.
“I believe this program is important for our growth because our federal reserves, inflation, core inflation, your banking system, lowering of policy rate, all these are linked with this.”
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb last month said they were confident of meeting targets of the IMF program. Pakistan was able to build some trust with the IMF by completing a short-term, nine-month program last year.
Previous loan programs in Pakistan ended prematurely or saw delays after the governments at the time faltered on meeting key conditions.
Sharif said Pakistan’s growth was vital to meeting these conditions and for that, agriculture, industries, commerce, finance, IT, mines and minerals and maritime sectors were of great significance, hoping his cabinet’s members would transform their ministries to this effect.
“A complete transformation of railways is required. Similarly, there is huge potential in maritime,” he said.
“There would be a review of our ministries every three months, I will sit with you and the results of the review will be presented before the nation.”
KARACHI: Pakistan hopes to receive record $36 billion remittances this fiscal year through June, the finance minister said on Tuesday, as the South Asian nation seeks to boost its foreign exchange reserves in line with the tough conditions of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan program.
The lender wants Islamabad to increase its foreign exchange reserves to a level that can finance three months of imports. Presently, the country holds $11 billion reserves, providing two months of import cover.
Remittances are a lifeline for Pakistan’s cash-strapped economy, playing a critical role in stabilizing foreign exchange reserves and supporting balance of payments.
Pakistan recorded year-on-year growth of 38.6 percent in remittances with record inflows of $3.1 billion in February, the central bank said on Monday.
“In this fiscal year [2024-2025], we will again complete it at an all-time high,” Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said in a televised speech. “At this moment, our estimate is that about $36 billion remittances inflow will come into the country.”
In February 2025, according to central bank data, Pakistan received its highest inflows from Saudi Arabia, $744.4 million, followed by the UAE, which contributed $652.2 million. Remittances received from the United Kingdom and the United States stood at $501.8 million and $309.4 million respectively.
“Cumulatively, with an inflow of $24 billion, workers’ remittances increased by 32.5 percent during July to February FY25 compared to $18.1 billion received during July to February FY24,” the central bank said in a statement.
Among factors driving an increase in remittances are reforms that have curbed illegal foreign exchange trading and incentives implemented by the State Bank of Pakistan. Decreased global inflation rates have encouraged Pakistani migrants to send more money back home.
Families in Pakistan are also relying more on financial support from relatives working abroad due to inflation at home.
Pakistan’s consumer inflation rate slowed to a near decade low of 1.5 percent in February, largely due to a high year-ago base. That was below the government’s forecast and significantly lower than a multi-decade high of around 40 percent in May 2023.
The central bank’s policy committee said on Monday it expected inflation to fall further before gradually inching up and stabilizing within the state bank’s 5-7 percent target range.
The state bank kept its forecast of full-year GDP growth at 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent and said it expected economic activity to gain further momentum.
Pakistan’s economy grew by 0.92 percent in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2024-25 which ends in June.
On Monday, the central bank unexpectedly halted its easing cycle, keeping its key policy rate at 12 percent, saying there could still be price risks including from an escalation in global tariffs even though inflation was falling for now.
QUETTA: Separatist militants on Tuesday attacked a passenger train operated daily from Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province to other parts of the country, injuring the driver, a Pakistan Railways official said.
A low-level separatist insurgency in Balochistan is one of the chronic security problems undermining stability in Pakistan. The separatists accuse the government of stripping the province’s natural resources and leaving its people mired in poverty. They say security forces routinely abduct, torture and execute ethnic Baloch, accusations echoed by human rights campaigners. Government officials and security forces strongly deny violating human rights and say they are uplifting the province through development projects, including multi-billion dollar schemes funded by Beijing.
Insurgents in the province also target civilians, especially Pakistanis from other ethnic groups who have settled in Balochistan.
The latest attack on the Quetta-Peshawar bound Jaffar Express occurred in Mushkaaf, an area in the mountainous Bolan range of Balochistan. The Baloch Liberation Army, the most prominent among separatist outfits operating in the province, accepted responsibility in a statement sent to the media.
“A driver of the train was injured after armed men targeted the train with heavy firing,” Muhammad Farrukh, a Pakistani Railway official in Quetta, told Arab News. “We are unable to contact railway staff in the area because mobile service is not working in the area.”
He said there were 400 people onboard the train but could not confirm if they were safe.
The BLA said it had blown up the railway track, forcing the Jaffar Express to come to a halt.
“The fighters swiftly took control of the train, holding all passengers hostage,” the group said, adding that six military troops had been killed. The claims have not yet been confirmed by government officials or the army, which plays an outsized role in the running of the remote province, bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
Separatists have also recently attacked projects being developed as part of the $65-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), part of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative. The program is also developing a deep-water port close to the new $200-million airport in Gwadar, a joint venture between Pakistan, Oman and China.
‘Really suffocating’: Pakistan emerges from record smog season
Tens of millions of Pakistanis spent four months breathing toxic air 20 times above safe levels in worst winter smog season in years
This year, winter rains that bring relief did not arrive until February as climate change renders Pakistan’s weather patterns increasingly unpredictable
Updated 11 March 2025
AFP
LAHORE: Tens of millions of Pakistanis spent at least four months breathing toxic air pollution 20 times above safe levels, in the worst winter smog season for several years, according to data analyzed by AFP.
Pakistan regularly ranks among the world’s most polluted countries, with Lahore often the most polluted megacity between November and February.
AFP’s analysis of data recorded since 2018 by independent air monitoring project AQICN shows the 2024-2025 winter smog season started a month earlier in October and persisted at higher levels, including in cities normally less affected by pollution.
Lahore’s 14 million residents spent six months breathing concentrations of PM2.5 — tiny particles that can penetrate the lungs and bloodstream — at levels 20 times or more than recommended by the World Health Organization.
Those in Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, and the capital Islamabad were subjected to 120 days of the same choking pollution levels.
“The smog is just getting worse every year,” admitted a factory owner in Lahore, who wished to remain anonymous after openly criticizing government policies.
“If I was rich, my first decision would be to leave Pakistan for Dubai, to protect my children and raise them in a smog-free environment,” he told AFP.
This photograph taken on February 18, 2025 shows an Anti-Smog Squad (ASS) lab technician preparing to inspect emissions at a factory using a gas analyser in Lahore. (AFP)
Experts say the pollution is primarily caused by factory and traffic emissions. It worsens in winter as farmers burn crop stubble and cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds trap the deadly pollutants.
This year, winter rains that typically bring relief did not arrive until late February, as climate change renders Pakistan’s weather patterns increasingly unpredictable.
The smog was so thick it could be seen from space and prompted authorities to close schools serving millions of students across the largest province Punjab, including its capital Lahore.
Young climate activist Risha Rashid said Islamabad is fast becoming “another Lahore” and has launched legal action against the government.
“It’s really suffocating,” the 21-year-old, who has asthma, told AFP.
“I cannot go out, even if I have exams. It’s not just affecting our physical health but our mental health as well.”
An Ipsos poll in November found four out of five Pakistanis said they were affected by the smog.
It can cause sore throats, stinging eyes and respiratory illnesses, while prolonged exposure can trigger strokes, heart disease and lung cancer.
Its effects are worse for children, who breathe more rapidly and have weaker immune systems.
This smog season, Punjab’s provincial government declared a “war on smog,” increasing public air quality monitoring devices tenfold to around 30 and offering farmers subsidised rentals of machinery to clear crop stubble and avoid burning.
It also pledged to increasingly enforce emissions regulations on tens of thousands of factories and more than 8,000 brick kilns, a major source of black carbon emissions.
But environmentalists and experts say action has been piecemeal and sometimes counterproductive, including restrictions on private air quality monitoring devices that the government claims give “misleading results that spread panic.”
And anti-smog machines, including a tower in Lahore shut down two months after installation, are effectively useless, experts say.
“It is like putting an air conditioner out in the open,” said one who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Efforts that tackle pollution’s effects, rather than its source, miss the point, said Ahmad Ali Gul at Lahore’s University of Management and Technology.
“It’s like when you have a bathtub and it’s overflowing and it’s creating a huge mess, do you first grab a towel or you first close the tap?” he said.
“First, we need to focus on reducing the emissions and then we talk about how to protect ourselves from smog.”
The government has blamed rival India, which borders Punjab province, for pollution blowing over into Lahore.
But Pakistan has limited vehicle emissions standards, and officials admit 83 percent of Lahore’s carbon emissions are from transport.
“Switching to a cleaner fuel would give immediate results, we’ve seen it in other countries,” said Frank Hammes, the global CEO of the Switzerland-based AQI air quality project.
But that “needs a pretty strong central effort to push down sometimes the painful changes that need to be made in order to reduce air pollution,” he added.
Pakistan’s government wants electric vehicles (EVs) to account for a third of new sales by 2030.
Cheaper Chinese models launched in Pakistan in 2024, but currently make up just a fraction of overall car sales in a country where 40 percent of the 240 million population lives in poverty, according to the World Bank.
Pakistan had a taste of clean air during the pandemic, when a lockdown forced vhicles off the streets and factories to close in March 2020, but it was short-lived as the economic impact was too great for many to bear.
“Air quality improved so much that we could even see the stars in Lahore in the evening,” said Omar Masud, a director of Urban Unit, which analyzes pollution data for the government.
While climate change can make air pollution worse, few Pakistanis worry about global warming, explained Abdul Sattar Babar, Ipsos director for Pakistan.
“Most Pakistanis are overwhelmed by the economic challenges that they are facing,” he said.
“When you can barely survive, climate issues are obviously not your primary concern.”
