Pakistan

Islamabad, Jul 18 (PTI) Cash-strapped Pakistan has received a rollover of an additional USD 600 million loan from its all-weather ally China to help shore up the country's foreign exchange reserves on the back of an IMF deal, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday.

It is in addition to the over USD 5 billion in loans that Beijing has rolled over for Pakistan in the last three months, helping the debt-ridden nation avert a default as negotiations to secure the IMF bailout dragged on, the Dawn newspaper reported.

ISLAMABAD, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) under the framework of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan's southern Sindh province is to ensure the socio-economic development of Pakistan, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said.

The SEZ will pave the way for industrialization in Pakistan by enhancing public-private collaboration and business-to-business cooperation between Chinese and Pakistani businessmen, Zardari said while speaking at a ceremony held in the Dhabeji SEZ in Sindh on Saturday.

ISLAMABAD, July 14 (APP): The European Parliament has strongly urged India to take necessary measures to promptly halt the ongoing ethnic and religious violence, protect all religious minorities such as Manipur’s Christian community, and pre-empt any further escalation.

The joint resolution was adopted on Thursday following recent violent clashes in the state of Manipur, India since May 2023 that left at least 120 people dead, 50 000 displaced, and over 1 700 houses and 250 churches destroyed.

12 July 2023; MEMO: Iraq is reportedly planning to buy JF-17 fighter aircraft from Pakistan, becoming the fifth country to do so, according to a report on Sunday by Pakistan's The News International, citing unnamed sources.

ISLAMABAD, July 12 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 family members were killed after a fire broke out in a three-story house in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province on Wednesday, police officials said.

The fire erupted during the early hours of Wednesday in the house in Punjab's provincial capital Lahore, trapping all the family members, police told local media.

Police said that the victims locked themselves in the back room, leaving them with no chance to escape after the fire engulfed the whole house.

11 July 2023; MEMO: Pakistan has received $2 billion in financial assistance from Saudi Arabia, days after Islamabad and the IMF reached a $3 billion stand-by agreement, the country's Finance Minister announced on Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reports.

ISLAMABAD, July 11 (APP): Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday thanked the Saudi leadership for their generous and unwavering support for Pakistan, which, he said, was particularly instrumental in securing the deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The prime minister was talking to Ambassador of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Nawaf bin Saeed Ahmad Al-Malkiy who called on him, PM Office Media Wing said in a press release.  

ISLAMABAD, July 11 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were killed and nine others injured in monsoon rain-triggered flash floods during the last 24 hours in Pakistan, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said.

Three women and a child were among those who lost their lives in separate flood-related incidents, according to an NDMA report released Monday.

The total death toll in Pakistan from this season's monsoon rains and floods that started on June 25 has risen to around 86, along with 151 injured, the NDMA said.

ISLAMABAD, July 5 (APP): Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said that the last ten years were an inspirational story of how President Xi Jinping’s vision of “Iron Brotherhood” converted into the completion of projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework.

ISLAMABAD, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani rupee gains significant strength against the U.S. dollar following Pakistan's staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the greenback was being traded at 275.44 rupees in the interbank market on Tuesday, according to the State Bank of Pakistan.

The U.S. dollar closed at 285.99 rupees on June 27, and it went down on Tuesday after the local currency appreciated by 10.55 rupees or about 3.83 percent against the U.S. dollar, official figures showed.