Day: July 30, 2017

LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Excise and Taxation Mujhtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman is likely to be elected as chief minister of Punjab after the incumbent CM Punjab, Shehbaz Sharif, steps down to replace his toppled brother, Nawaz Sharif, as prime minister, party sources have revealed. Shehbaz is expected to quit the Punjab Assembly seat PP-159 early next week. He will contest election to the National Assembly on NA-120 seat, which has fallen vacant after Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification, According to the sources, other PML-N leaders considered for the position of CM included Punjab Law Minister…

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s government obtained a whopping $35 billion in new loans during his four-year tenure to repay maturing debt and keep official foreign currency reserves at a level which could give a sense of economic stability to investors. About $17 billion or nearly half of the total loans obtained from July 2013 to June 2017 were utilised to repay the previous debt, shows statistics maintained by the finance ministry. The government added net $18 billion to the country’s total external debt and liabilities – the highest amount…

Retired Gen Pervez Musharraf on Friday posted a video message to the Twitter account of the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), hailing the Supreme Court’s disqualification of Nawaz Sharif as a “historic decision”. “Today is a historic and important day for Pakistanis,” he said in a recorded video, in which he also briefly summarised the decision of the apex court bench. “I want to heartily congratulate the Supreme Court bench especially because it is a brave decision which is in accordance with the principles of justice and fairness.” He added that he…