City Islamabad Financial News

By Mubasher Bukhari, Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam and Charlotte Greenfield

Imran Khan as «abduction at gunpoint» by the Punjab police. Petitioner Umair Niazi, PTI additional secretary general, requested the court to take up his petition without any delay and direct the Punjab police and government to produce the former prime minister before it to ensure his safety.

Imran Khan's sentencing and quick arrest on Saturday in a corruption case, Pakistan has maintained its notoriety for jailing former prime ministers while shying away from taking any action against military dictators who repeatedly violated the Constitution. Khan, the chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore after an Islamabad-based sessions court sentenced him to three years in prison on the charges of hiding the proceeds from the sale of state gifts from the Toshakhana. The Toshakhana is a department under the Cabinet Division that stores gifts given to rulers and government officials by heads of other governments and foreign dignitaries. Khan bought some gifts including a precious watch given to him by the Saudi crown prince and sold the same for profit. The 70-year-old leader was authorised to buy the gifts from Toshakhana and also carry out the sale but failed to inform the Election Commission of Pakistan about the money he made for which he was accused of concealment which is a crime under the law. In better times, Khan might have escaped with a warning or a fine by the court, but he had already run out of luck when he fell out with the powerful military establishment that led to his ouster from the government in April last year.

Imran Khan was arrested on Saturday shortly after an Islamabad trial court found the former Pakistan prime minister guilty of “corrupt practices” in the Toshakhana corruption case. The case alleges that Khan “deliberately concealed” details of the gifts he retained from the Toshaskhana, a repository where presents handed to government officials from foreign officials are kept, during his time as the prime minister and proceeds from their reported sales. The verdict, issued by additional district and sessions judge Humayun Dilawar, comes as a big blow to the 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief who has been arrested for the second time in three months.Following is a timeline of the main developments in the Toshakhana case: August 2022: National Assembly speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf sent the Toshakhana case against Khan to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in accordance with the Articles of the Constitution.

arrest in the Toshakhana case in May 2023 had triggered massive protests across the country. Meanwhile, Imran Khan has challenged the Islamabad High Court’s verdict in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Pakistan on Wednesday rejected Imran Khan's plea seeking a stay on the ongoing trial court proceedings in the Toshakhana case and asked the former Prime Minister to wait for the order of Islamabad High Court, The News International reported. A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Yahya Afridi and comprising Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Musarat Hilali heard Khan's plea seeking leave to appeal under Article 185(3) of the Constitution against the Islamabad High Court (IHC) order dated July 27.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday offered talks with India to address all serious and outstanding issues as he said “war is not an option” for both countries as they fight poverty and unemployment.

Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday offered to hold talks with India to address all serious and outstanding issues as he said that «war is not an option» for both countries as they fight poverty and unemployment. Sharif made the remarks while addressing the inaugural session of the Pakistan Minerals Summit here. The meeting, organised under the slogan of 'Dust to Development', aimed at bringing foreign investment to the cash-strapped country.

UN Security Council report, the TTP may be looking to unite with Al Qaeda to form a single entity that would house all militant organisations active in South Asia. Although cross-border militancy persists, Pakistan has long held Afghanistan responsible for failing to uphold its promise to ensure that its soil was not utilised for terrorism in Islamabad.

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng says Beijing has invested $25.4 billion dollars in Pakistan in the past ten years under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC package

Pakistan's move to outsource the operations of maj... morePakistan's move to outsource the operations of major airports, including Islamabad International Airport (IIA), comes as a strategic response to the continuous depletion of forex reserves.

By Jibran Ahmad and Saud Mehsud

China in the early 1970s returned to Beijing. Not quite Mani Shankar Aiyar going to Islamabad to cure relations — or former American basketballer Dennis Rodman going to Kim Jong-un's North Korea — but 'Henry Kissinger Goes to China: The Sequel' has to be interesting on two levels.

Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where an explosion at a gathering of an Islamic political party resulted in the loss of at least 40 lives, with many others sustaining injuries. The blast struck during the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) workers' convention in Khar, Bajaur, as reported by Geo News, with the police confirming the casualties. The injured individuals have been promptly transported to a nearby hospital, and law enforcement agencies have taken measures to cordon off the affected area.

Pakistan’s finance minister says Beijing has rolled over a $2.4 billion loan for his country for two years, a move aimed at helping Pakistan overcome a lingering economic crisis

By Asif Shahzad

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has rejected a petition from former Prime Minister Imran Khan about halting his trial in a lingering case involving the concealing of assets after selling state gifts

Zulfi Bukhari in Islamabad, however, no arrest was made, ARY News reported on Wednesday. Sources told ARY News that at the time of the raid, Bukhari was not present at his residence. Taking to Twitter, Bukhari said that police and unidentified men raided and sealed his house in the presence of the Assistant Commissioner & Deputy Commissioner.

NEW DELHI : Parliament Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs urged the government to consider the establishment of economic ties with Pakistan, despite the diplomatic deep-freeze in bilateral relations for some time. “Despite the lack of progress on the diplomatic front, the Committee urge the Government to consider the establishment of economic ties with Pakistan if they come forward and work towards broader people-to-people contacts in view of the cultural commonalities and civilizational linkages between our two countries and no feeling of enmity amongst citizens of both the countries," the Standing Committee said in its report on India’s “Neighbourhood First" Policy.

Pakistan and work towards broader people-to-people contacts given the «cultural commonalities and civilisational linkages» between the two countries. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs chaired by BJP leader P P Chaudhary, in its report on 'India's Neighbourhood First Policy' presented to the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, observed that the policy was dynamic and that it adjusts to the country's renewed interests in the region while evolving according to regional circumstances.

New Delhi: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs has urged the Centre to consider establishing economic ties with Pakistan, despite the diplomatic deep-freeze in bilateral relations. “Despite the lack of progress on the diplomatic front, the Committee urges the government to consider the establishment of economic ties with Pakistan if they come forward and work towards broader people-to-people contacts in view of the cultural commonalities and civilizational linkages between our two countries and no feeling of enmity amongst citizens of both the countries," the standing committee said in its report, tabled on Tuesday, on India’s “Neighbourhood First" Policy.