January | Pakistan

Days after concluding a three-day visit to Lahore to launch PTI’s street movement, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi announced on Thursday that he will visit Karachi on January 9. “Friday, January 9!” the chief minister said on social media platform X. “Karachi, Sindh, are you ready?” Afridi said he would be coming to Karachi “bearing Imran Khan’s message”, adding that he would be meeting “all friends of the party”. Afridi had previously announced that Karachi was his next destination for galvanising party supporters. During his visit to Lahore, the KP CM had attempted to deliver a speech to supporters at Liberty Chowk but was unable to do so as a heavy contingent of police had blocked all roads leading to the area by setting up pickets. He had also addressed PTI lawmakers at the Punjab Assembly, a visit that was marred by altercations between members of his entourage and security officials, while several heated exchanges between PTI leaders and journalists were also witnessed. He was also barre...

Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh Imran Haider expressed hope on Monday that direct flights between Karachi and Dhaka will start in January, during a meeting with the Chief Advisor Professor Muhammad Yunus. Relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh remained shaky during Sheikh Hasina’s rule. However, following the popular revolt against her government and her subsequent exile, relations between the two countries improved markedly, with Professor Muhammad Yunus leading the interim administration in Dhaka. “During the meeting, both sides discussed ways to expand cooperation in trade, investment, and aviation, as well as scaling up cultural, educational, and medical exchanges to further strengthen bilateral relations between the two South Asian nations,” said a statement shared on X by Bangladesh’s interim leader. Haider, during the meeting, also noted that bilateral trade has recorded a 20 per cent growth compared to last year, with business communities from both countries actively exploring new invest...

ISLAMABAD: To ensure the security of the federal capital, the administration has decided that vehicles without M-Tags will not be allowed to enter Islamabad from January 1, 2026. The M-Tag is a prepaid radio frequency identification (RFID) sticker for a car windshield that automates toll payments. As a vehicle passes through a toll plaza, scanners identify the vehicle and entry point; upon exiting, the system automatically deducts the fare from the balance, eliminating the need to wait in long queues. The decision has been made on the instructions of the Federal Minister for Interior Mohsin Naqvi. Moreover, actions will be taken against vehicles without M-Tags. The Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Islamabad, Irfan Memon, has ordered that processing at all M-Tag points be expedited so that the maximum number of vehicles can be registered before the deadline approaches. According to Memon, “16 M-Tag facilitation points have been established at various locations across the city.” Since November 14, nearly 100,000 veh...

Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has announced that from January 1, entry of vehicles without an M-Tag will be prohibited in Islamabad as part of enhanced security and smart city initiatives.

Pakistan is targeting January to issue its first panda bond tranche, part of a planned programme of up to $1 billion, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday, as Islamabad seeks to diversify funding sources and tap China’s onshore debt market. The inaugural issuance is expected to raise the equivalent of about $250 million, with further tranches to follow under a phased programme once regulatory approvals are completed, the ministry said after Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb chaired a review meeting on the plan. Approvals from multilateral partners have already been secured, and final clearances from Chinese regulators are expected by early January, the statement said. The panda bond programme, denominated in yuan and sold on China’s domestic market, is part of Pakistan’s broader debt management strategy as it works to stabilise its economy under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund programme. Pricing for the inaugural bond will be determined closer to the launch once all regulatory requirements are co...

PTI founder Imran Khan’s son Kasim Khan has said he and his brother Suleiman have applied for their visas and are planning a trip to Pakistan in January, while also commenting on the conditions in which the ex-premier was kept and saying that he was being held in a “death cell”. The remarks were made during an interview to Yalda Hakim for Sky News, which came as another sit-in held outside Adiala jail by Imran’s sisters over being denied a meeting with him was dispersed using water cannons; the party alleged that authorities used “chemical-laced” water. As court-ordered prison visits stay blocked, Imran’s family and party have expressed concerns about the conditions in which he is being kept inside the prison. A United Nations’ special rapporteur has also warned that Imran is being held in conditions that could amount to inhuman or degrading treatment. During their interview with Hakim, released early on Wednesday, Kasim and Suleiman, who live in London, were asked whether they had tried to engage with the Pa...

Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik said on Sunday that Pakistan would begin selling excess liquefied natural gas (LNG) in international markets from January 1. Malik’s statement during a press conference in Lahore came months after it was reported that Pakistan was exploring ways to sell excess LNG cargoes amid a gas supply glut that could cost domestic producers millions in annual losses. He noted that Pakistan had been importing gas from “our friend” Qatar and Italian energy company Eni. But, he continued, there was an excess of this imported gas as the use of this fuel for power generation had reduced in the country during the past few months. Resultantly, “we were compelled to divert it to domestic consumers, due to which circular debt was increasing in the gas sector”, he said, adding that it also caused a loss of around Rs1,000 billion to Pakistan from 2018-19 till now. “From January 1, we will sell this excess fuel in international markets and reduce our burden while limiting the loss caused by it,” ...

The federal cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has approved a 15% increase in pensions for Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) pensioners, effective January 1, 2025.