Siasat Wala Blog

ISLAMABAD: The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) on Thursday proposed Rs7 per litre hike in petrol price for the next month, ARY News reported. The OGRA has proposed raising Rs9.50 per litre on high-speed diesel, while Rs6 on kerosene oil. It recommended an increase in the price of light diesel oil by Rs6 per litre. The OGRA has submitted a summary in this regard to the government. If the recommended changes are approved, then the new petroleum prices from August 1, 2020, will be as follows: Petrol: Rs107 Diesel: Rs111 Kerosene oil: Rs60 Light diesel oil: Rs56 Earlier, Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) meeting headed by Abdul Hafeez Shaikh had approved a recommendation for regulating petroleum prices in the country after every 15 days. Read More:  Record increase in petroleum prices approved by govt The ECC meeting mulled over the price mechanism of the petroleum prices besides deciding on fuel prices for the next month. Back in June, the Federal government ...

SARGODHA: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Thursday admitted that opposition is not united against the incumbent government. “Opposition parties start consultation only after government fall in any difficult situation” he said while speaking to media in Sargodha, here today. He urged the opposition to get united against the present government and added that bills moved by the PTI government should be rejected. Earlier this week, Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari met JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shehbaz Sharif to discuss oppositions APC matters and anti-movement campaign against the government. Read more: Opposition wants to close cases against Zardari, PML-N leaders: Akbar It is pertinent to mention here that a movement in opposition politics  came to light after Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman met Opposition Leader and PML-N President Shehbaz S...

KARACHI: The United States (US) dollar gained Rs0.22 against the Pakistani rupee in the interbank market on Thursday, ARY News reported. According to forex dealers, the greenback is currently trading at Rs167 against the domestic currency at the interbank foreign exchange market. The dollar had finished at Rs166.78 against the local unit the other day. Meanwhile, the greenback was mired at a more than two-year low on Thursday, as investors grew increasingly worried about the economic drag of surging coronavirus cases in the United States. Against a basket of currencies =USD the dollar was pinned close to its lowest since mid-2018 at 93.344, while Antipodean currencies were poised near multi-month peaks. Against the euro  EUR=EBS , the greenback was just above a 22-month low of $1.1807 touched overnight. The greenback is set for its worst month in a decade on the common currency. The safe haven yen JPY=  sat at 105.07 per dollar, having hit a four-and-a-half-month high ...

China’s Huawei has overtaken Samsung to become the number-one smartphone seller worldwide in the second quarter, industry tracker Canalys said Thursday. Huawei shipped 55.8 million devices in the April-June period, trumping Samsung’s 53.7 million, according to data from research firm Canalys. Huawei now sells nearly two-thirds of its handsets in China, which took an early hit from the coronavirus pandemic but has since reclaimed ground as new cases have dwindled. Smartphone makers dominant in other countries are still struggling as new virus cases continue to rise. Huawei’s sales fell 5% from the same quarter a year earlier, while South Korea’s Samsung posted a 30% drop due to weak demand in key markets including Brazil, the United States and Europe. “Our business has demonstrated exceptional resilience in these difficult times,” a Huawei spokesman said. Domestic sales rose 8%, but Huawei’s overseas shipments fell 27% in the quarter. The company’s stint as top seller may prove s...

ISLAMABAD: The country reported 1,114 new novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally of cases to 277,402, ARY News reported. According to the latest figures released by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), 32 deaths were also reported due to the virus in the last 24 hours. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 5,924. Pakistan has so far conducted 1,952,730 coronavirus tests and 21,628 in past 24 hours. 246,131 coronavirus patients have recovered in the country so far. Sindh remains the worst-hit province by the pandemic in terms of cases followed by Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad. Till now 120,052 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 92,655 in Punjab, 33,845 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 11,708 in Balochistan, 14,987 in Islamabad 2,090 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 2,065 in Azad Kashmir. Global virus cases The novel coronavirus has killed at least 654,477 people so far, At least 16,514,500 cases of corona...

The pilgrims will proceed to Arafat to perform main ritual of Hajj “Waqoof-e-Arafat” on Thursday (today). As per details, the pilgrims will listen Hajj sermon to be delivered at Nimra Mosque and perform Zohr and Asr prayers together. The pilgrims will spend time in Arafat with prayers for acceptance of their pilgrimage and recitation of Qur’anic verses until sunset. After sunset, they will head to Muzdalifah, where they will stay until midnight, engaged in prayers after performing combined Maghreb and Isha prayers. The annual ritual to change Ghilaf-e-Kaaba was held at Masjid al-Haram in Saudi Arabia on Thursday. The fourteen meter tall garment has been prepared from pure silk fibre, embellished by gold and silver-plated thread and motifs illustrating verses from the Holy Qur’an. The covering cloth of the Kaaba, known as Kiswa, is changed on 9th Zilhaj every year on the day of Arafat. Read more: Saudi Arabia announces Hajj health measures for domestic pilgrims Meanwhile, the a...

Chinese drug company Sinopharm and Parana state have agreed to launch the fourth major COVID-19 vaccine trial in Brazil and will seek regulatory approval in the next two weeks, the Brazilian partners said on Wednesday. A trial by Sinopharm would join Phase III trials already announced in Brazil by AstraZeneca, Sinovac Biotech and a Pfizer partnership with BioNTech. Jorge Callado, head of the Parana Technology Institute (Tecpar), said they would soon finalize their proposal and submit it for approval with federal health regulator Anvisa. Brazil’s COVID-19 outbreak, the world’s worst outside the United States, has made it global testing ground for potential vaccines. Sinopharm’s candidate vaccine is already being tested in the United Arab Emirates with 15,000 volunteers. Parana is also in talks with Russian researchers about producing their potential vaccine, the state government said in a statement, adding that Governor Ratinho Júnior would soon meet with Russia’s ambassador to Br...