ISLAMABAD, NOV 9: /DNA/ – General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) visited Peshawar today. On arrival at Corps Headquarters, COAS laid a floral wreath at the Shahuada monument.

Later, COAS addressed officers and men of the Peshawar corps. COAS appreciated the formation for monumental efforts in achieving peace and stability. We owe it to the sacrifices of our Shuhada for providing secure and enabling environment for socio-economic development in Newly Merged Districts in particular and KP in General, COAS said.

Always stay focused on your professional duties in the service of nation, COAS concluded.Earlier, on arrival at Corps Headquarters, COAS was received by Lieutenant General Hassan Azhar Hayat, Commander Peshawar Corps.

DNA

ISLAMABAD: Mirco Günther, Head of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (Asia & Pacific), has said that think tanks can play a vital role in the formulation of an evidence-based monetary policy that may support governments in the provision of social and economic justice.

He was speaking at a consultative meeting titled, “Evidence-based Advocacy on Policies for Economic Justice and Development”, organized by SDPI and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) here. 

Mr Günther warned that Pakistan has been confronted with inflation for a long time, which may lead to higher inequalities. He also stressed the need for aligning price stability to thrive socio-economic justice in the society.

Dr Abid Q. Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI warned of impacts of triple-C crisis on countries like Pakistan which according to him will be compounded by energy inflation. In this case, he said, economic inequalities will increase, and energy will either be inaccessible or unaffordable. He called upon the government to come up with evidence-based policy solutions to provide economic relief to public while at the same time satisfy the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Dr Vaqar Ahmad, Joint Executive Director, SDPI said that unpacking various forms of inequalities is a common global challenge, which will worsen amidst global stagflation, energy crisis and conflicts. He expressed that strong collaborations between organizations like SDPI and FES can play a pivotal role in finding evidence-based solutions to such challenges. He stressed the need for increasing public knowledge of monetary policy to enable them to demand better from political parties and influence inclusion of economic justice in party manifestos as 2023 is the election year.

Ali Kemal, Chief of SDGs Support Unit, Ministry of Planning Development & Special Initiatives, said that interest rate is “the income of capitalists” and social inequalities are exacerbated by interest rate hikes as it contributes to inflation. and stressed on aligning inflation targets for social justice in fiscal policy after consultation with central bank rather than solely based on political interests. He emphasized on increasing financial services for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through commercial banks and tapping the potential of digital currency which is neglected in Pakistan.

Benjamin Reichenbach, Policy Officer for Pakistan, FES said that FES has been organizing conferences and other platforms to open space for dialogue to support sustainable development, which is a common objective between SDPI and FES. He informed that SDPI and FES’s work on social footprint of monetary policy is first of its kind and elaborates the social implications of monetary policy on social development of Pakistan.

Dr Sajid Amin, Deputy Executive Director, SDPI presenting the findings of the report, “Monetary Policy for All”, suggested that SBP should set 5% inflation target for next few years as lowering inflation targets without proportional wage increase shrinks purchasing power of common person and hinder economic justice. He further suggested maintaining less than 5% inflation target for informal sector as it is more vulnerable to economic shocks. He recommended improving regulatory framework of commercial banks for increasing financial inclusion as 92% of their operations are centered around bigger investors, which leads to higher informal borrowing. He highlighted various future endeavours to bring social impacts of monetary policy including quarterly social justice watch, presenting flagship report on policies for economic justice and scaling up this work to regional level.

ISLAMABAD, NOV 9 /DNA/ – Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will undertake an official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 9-10 November 2022.

During the visit, the Foreign Minister will co-chair the Joint Sub-Committee meeting of the Political & Security pillar of the Saudi-Pakistan Supreme Coordination Council (SPSCC) with his Saudi counterpart.  The Foreign Minister will also hold a meeting with the Secretary General of the GCC during his visit.

Besides the official engagements, the Foreign Minister will have interaction with the local media and other dignitaries of the Kingdom.

The visit of the Foreign Minister will further deepen Pakistan’s engagement with Saudi Arabia for enhancing mutually beneficial
cooperation between the two brotherly countries.

DNA

LAHORE: “Minar-e- Pakistan” – the historical & beautiful monument of Pakistan was lit up with the Azerbaijani flag colors to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the Victory Day of Azerbaijan.

First time in its history, this monument was illuminated with any foreign country’s flag. DNA

LAHORE – Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supremo and former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday while reiterating demand for independent investigation assassination bid said that his party rules in Punjab province and he was former premier of the country, yet he could not get a first information report lodged against three officials.

In an exclusive interview with TRT, the former premier, while expressing post attack feelings, said that psychologically he is more determined than ever after the assassination bid, adding that he predicted this four months ago that there was a plot against him in a closed room by using extremism in same way as Punjab governor Salman Taseer was assassinated.

“(There was) the whole sequence of events, with a video first manufactured by a certain agency, showing me as if I am committing blasphemy, which is picked up by one of the pro-government journalists and then it is run on national, government-owned television,” he said.

“It was all part of a plan to make it out that eventually, some fanatic had killed me,” Imran said.

The PTI chief claimed that there were seven people behind the assassination attempt, adding that in the first phase, four people planned to kill me, and now three more people wanted to kill him. “I have told the public three people’s names because they are too powerful, even If I have a bulletproof car, my life will be in danger,” said Imran Khan.

The former premier pointed out that despite having a government in Punjab he had been unsuccessful in registering a first information report (FIR) of the attack. “But the Punjab police refused. Who is controlling the Punjab police?”

Imran Khan added that “My party rules in Punjab […] I’m the ex-prime minister and the head of the largest political force in the country, yet I could not get a case registered against these three people.

“I know they were involved. I know that these three people will be implicated. But even then I can’t register an FIR against them,” he stated.