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Diplomacy
under way to de-escalate crisis
ISLAMABAD:
As Islamabad and Washington continued discussions on Monday over latest round
of crisis in their troubled relations spurred by allegations linking ISI to
the Haqqani network, Pakistan opened consultations with some of its close
allies over the tense situation.The highlight of a series of meetings in Islamabad was a meeting between Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and US Ambassador Cameron Munter. The meeting took place shortly after Mr Munter had returned to Islamabad from Washington. It is understood that the meeting was a follow-up of the discussions Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Foreign Secretary Bashir had with American officials in New York for resuscitating the troubled ties. Retiring US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff had accused the ISI of being complicit with the Haqqani network in the Sept 13 attack in Kabul near the US Embassy and a bomb attack that wounded 77 American soldiers. The charges, the most serious yet levelled by the US against Pakistan, were categorically rejected both by civilian and military leadership of the country. At the Sunday’s extraordinary conference of corps commanders, the army clearly hinted that it would want the situation to be defused. Nevertheless, it desires to stand firm on its stance and insists on respect for the red lines. In a clear indication that the situation is still critical, Army Chief Gen Kayani cancelled at the eleventh hour his scheduled trip to the UK where he was to address the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Royal College of Defence Studies and meet British Defence Minister Liam Fox. No reasons were officially given for the cancellation of the visit, but a security official said it was related to heightened tensions with the US. Meanwhile, Vice Premier of China Meng Jianzhu in a meeting with Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Khalid Shameem Wynne discussed “the emerging geo-strategic situation of the region”. The Chinese leader was quoted by the ISPR as having praised “the role played by the armed forces of Pakistan in the fight against terror”. The issue also came up during Mr Jianzhu’s meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari. Salim Saifullah Khan, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Reuters that he and other officials held talks with diplomats to explain Pakistan’s stand as the United States pushes the Pakistani army to go after the Haqqani network. “We have been meeting with diplomats with the purpose to convey Pakistan’s point of view, and also that they should make the United States understand that we have sacrificed so much,” he said without naming the countries with which the discussions had taken place. President Zardari, who made a rare appearance at a reception hosted by the Saudi Embassy to celebrate the Kingdom’s national day, spoke about Saudi support for Pakistan at critical junctures. “Every difficult moment in our history has witnessed us standing together in mutual support and solidarity,” Mr Zardari was quoted in a statement issued by the presidency. The media remained full of speculations about Saudi intervention in the dispute over the Haqqani network. A team of Saudi counter-terrorism and security officials that reached Islamabad for participating in joint military exercises was mistaken as a group of intelligence officials that had flown in to talk with ISI chief Lt Gen Shuja Pasha on American allegations. In a later twist it was said that Gen Pasha, following a Saudi message, dashed to Riyadh for continuing the talks. However, military spokesman Maj Gen Ather Abbas rejected the reports and said that Gen Pasha was in Islamabad and the visiting Saudi team was here for military exercises. AFP adds: Pakistan will not launch an offensive against the Haqqani network despite Washington ramping up the pressure, an official said on Monday. “I don’t think the indicators are as such,” a senior Pakistani security official told AFP when asked if the army was going to launch an operation in North Waziristan. Instead, he said, the military needs to “consolidate gains” made against local militants who pose a security threat elsewhere in the tribal region. The official said that troops were too busy countering cross-border attacks from Afghanistan and local Pakistani militants in other parts of the tribal belt to take on the Haqqanis. “These are kind of more pressing issues that we have to tackle. We have to consolidate the gains in Mohmand and in other tribal and north-western regions after a series of operations in these areas,” he said. “As for North Waziristan, the army has at least five brigades there, which is enough to take care of the situation. There is a complete tribal structure in the region to help security forces deal with the militants and outlaws.”
Official
SC website hacked
ISLAMABAD: The website of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) has been
hacked Tuesday, Geo News reported. This is the second time when the SC
website has been hacked.The hacker has left objectionable messages on the website and told that the data of the website is still intact and no harm has been done to it. It is only the index file that has been replaced with the hacker’s message.
PSO`s
receivables touch Rs155bn
KARACHI, Sept 26: With total receivables reaching an alarming figure of Rs155 billion the financial situation of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has become extremely precarious. The huge outstanding is adversely effecting PSO’s liquidity and it may lead to inevitable breakdown in the supply chain resulting in fuel shortages in the country, PSO said in a statement on Monday. Despite severe financial constraints, PSO struggles to live up to its commitment to ensure uninterrupted supplies to the entire country especially the power sector. However, the power sector owes PSO an aggregate amount of approximately Rs131 billion. Of these Hubco owes PSO Rs67 billion, whereas Kapco and Wapda owe Rs35 billion and Rs29 billion respectively. The PSO is supplying an average of Rs32 billion worth of fuel to the power sector on a monthly basis, the power sector continuously defaults on its payment obligations to PSO. This month the power sector gave paltry Rs8.5 billion as payment for the fuel oil supplied to them. In the recent past, the company has sent out requests for payments to the power entities including Hubco, Kapco and Wapda, however, no substantial payment had been released in September 2011. The continuous non-payment of power sector has made PSO severely cash-strapped. As a result, the company has defaulted on local refineries payments this month which has adversely affected the local production. Furthermore, the company is constantly struggling to meet the international payment obligations as any default on the part of PSO to its international suppliers would disrupt supplies and the resumption of which would take months. In case timely payments are not received from the power sector in the near future, fuel cargoes will have to be deferred as PSO has exhausted its resources for financing future product supplies. With domestic production of fuel oil already in doldrums, a reduction in import would result in shortage of fuel and increased load shedding nationwide.
SECP
working on capital market development plan
ISLAMABAD, Sept 26: The Securities and
Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) is working on a Capital Market
Development Plan in coordination with stakeholders.
The proposed plan would focus on five areas: investor education and
expanding outreach of the capital market to masses; encouraging new listings;
introduction of new products; improving coordination with various regulators
and government bodies; and revamping legal framework.The SECP has discussed the plan with the stock and commodity exchanges, the Central Depository Company (CDC) and the National Clearing Company (NCCPL) for developing the strategic plans for the capital market. For revamping of legal and regulatory framework, it suggested corporatisation / demutualization of stock exchanges and separation of their regulatory and business development functions. Considering the importance of investor education and capital market outreach, it the SECP in coordination with stock exchanges would organise road-shows. The branch network for brokers, mutual funds and the commodity exchange would also be expanded, within the country. Moreover, measures would be taken to facilitate new listings for attracting corporates with large capital base to list through various debt and equity instruments. The processes of book building and initial public offering would be streamlined to make them more efficient and less cumbersome. The stock exchanges would explore the possibility of setting up separate boards for facilitating small and medium sized companies and venture capital/green field projects for easier fund-raising. The SECP and the managements of stock exchanges would take measures for improving the overall quality of listings at the stock exchanges, to safeguard investors from investing in shell/defaulting companies. The plan has stressed for introduction of new products and systems; reviewing/revamping existing products and market segments, including development of Islamic products. Greater efforts would also be undertaken for introduction of Islamic products. Additionally, measures would be taken for development of debt capital markets, commodity and currency markets, mutual fund industry and real estate investment trusts. As greater automation in the capital market operations has been introduced through e-dividend and e-voting facilities, the plan said that the e-dividend mechanism will enable automatic dividend distribution to the entitled shareholders through the CDC, while e-voting, being an internet based platform will enable the shareholders to vote on resolutions proposed by companies without the necessity for them to be physically present at the meeting or sending their votes through post. Structure of capital market intermediaries would also be improved with the introduction of a revised brokers` regime based on the IOSCO Principles, which envisages strengthening their capital base and segregation of clearing and trading members. It has been agreed that the NCCPL needs to be better capitalised to enable it to fully function as a central counterparty in line with international best practices. To facilitate investors, the current limits for the Investor Protection Funds would be enhanced and initiatives would be taken to put in place mechanisms for expeditious resolution of investor complaints. Further, efforts will be made for establishment of Pakistan Collateral Management Company to facilitate electronic warehousing of receipts for the commodity exchange. Regarding improvement in coordination with various regulators and governmental bodies, the SECP said that efforts would be focused on improving coordination and liaison with the relevant ministries, non-governmental and foreign institutions and counterparts and to improve Pakistan`s image/ranking in the global index providers like the MSCI, FTSE, etc.
Date
for filing of returns again extended
ISLAMABAD, Sept 26: Faced with structural problems to run the
relevant software for e-filing of returns, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)
has extended the date for filing of income tax returns / statements for
salaried class till Oct 25. Earlier, the date was extended on Aug 30 till Sept 30, while for individuals, association of persons, etc., the date was extended till Oct 30 instead of Sept 30. A source in the FBR told Dawn that the date was extended as Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited failed to install new software for e-filing of returns, and sought four more days for resolving the problems. This time the date was extended without any request from the taxpayers. The process of e-filing of returns was started in March 2011. However, officials of the IT company are still working on removal of lacunas in the tax form. Last year, return/statement filers remained at 1.965 million till Dec 31, 2010, as against total registered taxpayers of 2.984 million which shows that 35 per cent taxpayers had skipped filing of their returns in 2010. This year, according to a senior official, FBR is eying to have more returns from new taxpayers. It has identified 700,000 people through NADRA data as potential taxpayers. Of these, only 26,740 wealthy people filed their returns in 2010.The FBR has also extended the dates for filing of Sales Tax and Federal Excise Returns for periods of July and August, 2011 till Sept 30. This extension has been given in exercise of powers conferred under Section 74 of the Sales Tax Act 1990 and Section 43 of the Federal Excise Act 2005.
Business News
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