Ijaz Shah expresses grief over loss of lives in Karachi blast
ISLAMABAD, Oct 21 (APP): Minister for Interior Brig (Retd) Ijaz Ahmad Shah Wednesday expressed grief and sorrow over the loss of precious lives in a blast occurred at Maskan Chowrangi Karachi.
In a statement, he prayed for the departed souls and said may the Almighty grant patience to bereaved families to bear the irreparable loss with equanimity.
He also prayed for early recovery of the persons, sustained injuries during the explosion.
China lauds President Alvi’s remarks about CPEC, its importance for Pak-China development, regional connectivity
BEIJING, Oct 21 (APP): China on Wednesday lauded President Dr. Arif Alvi’s remarks about the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and terming it as a visionary pilot project of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which not only served to promote socio economic development of Pakistan and China but also aimed to enhance regional connectivity and shared prosperity.
“We have noted these reports and we commend President Alvi’s comments on the CPEC,” Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson, Zhao Lijian said during his regular briefing held here.
“As President Dr Arif Alvi said the visionary CPEC as important pilot project of the BRI not only serves to promote China and Pakistan’s socio economic development but also aims to enhance regional connectivity and share prosperity,” he added.
He said, since its launch tangible outcomes in areas like energy, transportation infrastructure and ports had been achieved making concrete contributions to Pakistan’s national development.
Zhao Lijian remarked that both Pakistan and China supported exploring possibility of opening the corridor to third parties based on consensus through consultation.
“If we look at Gwadar port as an example nearly 20,000 tonnes of commodities such as wheat, sugar and fertilizers have been transferred through the port to Afghanistan creating almost a 1000 temporary jobs,” he added.
He said that China firmly supported the development of CPEC and stood ready to work with Pakistan to fully implement the consensus reached between the two leaders, focus on cooperation, social development, livelihood, industry and agriculture while advancing current projects to turn CPEC into a demonstration programme for high quality development of the BRI and bring more benefits to the two peoples.
In an interview, President Alvi had said that he was optimistic about the future of Pakistan. As a result of CPEC projects, Pakistan was going to emerge as international geo strategic Economic hub.
He said, the CPEC also created favourable conditions for realizing connectivity between China, Pakistan and central Asian countries and Pakistan would further elevate cooperation with China various areas and accelerate high quality development CPEC.
In a response to a question, he contradicted remarks of the US Secretary of State about influence of China’s infrastructure deals from Laos to Montenegro to Pakistan.
He said that for some US politicians, attacking China was a check-list they need to do every day. “This is so true for Pompeo.”
Zhao Lijian said that China’s relationship with Laos, Pakistan and Montenegro was a traditional friendship and the US Secretary of State Pompeo did not need to waste his breath on sowing discord between us.
Mobile phone imports increase 83.17 % in Q1
ISLAMABAD, Oct 21 (APP): The import of mobile phones into the country has witnessed an increase of 83.17 percent during the first quarter (Q1) of financial year (2020-21) as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
Pakistan imported mobile phones worth US $492.894 million during July-September (2020-21) as compared to the imports of US $269.087 million during July-September (2019-20), showing growth of 83.17 percent, according to the latest data issued by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Meanwhile, on year-on year basis, the import of mobile phones witnessed grew of 76.69 percent in September 2020, as compared to the imports of the same month of last year.
The mobile imports during September 2020 were recorded at US $186.531 million against the imports of US $105.568 million in September 2019.
On month-on-month basis, the imports of mobile phones also rose by 17.79 percent during September 2020, as compared to the imports of US $158.364 million during August 2020, according to the data.
It is pertinent to mention here that the overall merchandize trade deficit increased by 2.02 percent during the first quarter of current fiscal year (2020-21) as compared to the deficit of the corresponding period of last year.
The deficit during July-September (2020-21) was recorded at $5.804 billion as compared to the deficit of $5.689 billion, showing increase 2.02 percent.
During the period under review, the country’s exports registered negative growth of 0.94 percent, by going down from $5.510 billion last year to $5.458 billion during the current year.
On the other hand, the imports decreased by 0.56 percent, from $11.199 billion last year to $11.262 billion during the current year.
