US looks forward to
wide-ranging engagement with Pakistan
WASHINGTON: The United States on Monday said it looks forward to
intensive engagement with Pakistan on wide-ranging issues of mutual interest as
Washington wants the bilateral relationship back on track.“I don’t have a specific update. But, obviously, we want to get our relationship back on track. We look to the future of our relationship with Pakistan. So we look forward to more intensively engaging with them on a whole range of issues,” a State Department spokesman said, when asked about the revival of strategic dialogue between the two countries.
Spokesman Patrick Ventrell did not list the issues of interest to both nations but referred to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s meeting in a trilateral group with Pakistani and Afghan foreign ministers in Tokyo this month as an example of cooperation.
“We continue our intensive engagement with the Pakistanis, going forward,” Ventrell said.
The US, he said, has been pleased at the opening of the Pakistani ground lines of communication for transporting Nato supplies into Afghanistan.
American officials, he said, are working with their Pakistani counterparts to clear the backlog of containers, as a result of the closure of the key Pakistani routes about seven months ago.
“We are talking about a lot of backlog, a number of containers, very significant amount of material. So, it’s going to take some time to find an efficient way to get them all through,” he explained when asked about technical details being worked out on the passage of Nato supplies.
People
have full trust in judiciary: CJ
RAWALPINDI: Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Monday
night said that people reposed great trust in judiciary, thus it was imperative
for the judges and lawyers that they stood up against all kinds of
constitutional excesses to stonewall them, Geo News reported.He said this after inaugurating the newly built Judicial Complex here in Rawalpindi.
Addressing the participants of the inauguration ceremony, he said that the Black Coat and the Black Camera have been struggling for the supremacy as well as independence of the judiciary for the last five years.
“Our job necessitates that we stop corruption in its all forms and we will not tolerate it whether it is inside or outside the judiciary”, Chief Justice vowed.
He said that judiciary’s suo moto intervention into a number of graft cases in different departments recovered billions of rupees.
Going forward, he urged the lawyers to volunteer their efforts for the supremacy of Constitution.
In his speech, Chief Justice of Pakistan defined the thriving nations as those, which believed in égalité, where the poor and the rich were treated in the same way without any distinction.
“For any army to win a war a nation 'full of honour' must be standing behind it”, Chief Justice said.
On Balochistan, the Chief Justice said the Constitution and the law of the land were yet far from implementation in the most underdeveloped but the most mineral-rich province of Pakistan.
“The law & order situation in Balochistan is a cause of grave concern and must be improved without delay”, the Chief Justice said wrapping up his speech.
LATEST/BRIEF NEWS:
· Military sources deny Kayani’s US visit
· NATO oil supply delayed from Karachi
· PM Raja meets Saudi King Shah Abdullah
· Six killed in Kahuta road mishap
· Shiv Sena, others to oppose Pak tour
· Five family members attempt self immolation in Islamabad
· Meeting on Ramazan moon sighting on Friday
· IMF cuts global growth forecast as emerging economies slow
· Pakistan Railways’ another corruption scandal exposed
· Govt releases Rs6 billion to Pak Railways
· Metro, Makro merger to generate value for customers
· Nadra introduces Smart Identity Card for expats
· Used cars import lowers countrys local production
· President invites Japanese businessmen to invest
· Pak-US strategic dialogue being restored: Sethi
Business News:
EXCHANGE FOR CURRENCY NOTES:
U.S.A 95.34
S.Arabia 25.42
U.K 148.47
Japan 1.2055
Euro 116.72
U.A.E 25.96
BULLION RATES IN
RUPEES PER 10 GRAMS
KARACHI
Gold Tezabi (24-ct) Rs 48,685
Silver Tezabi Rs 801.42
Trade policy due next
month: Govt eyes $30bn exports
ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Commerce will unveil the three-year
Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2012-2015 next month with a string of
development initiatives to boost exports above $30 billion.“The ministry is working on the new trade policy to give the country’s exports a boost”, the newly-appointed Secretary Commerce, Munir Qureshi, told Dawn on Monday.
Pakistan’s first ever three-year trade policy framework (STPF) 2009-12 came to an end on June 30, 2012. The policy was in place since July 2009.
Normally, the trade policy is unveiled in mid-July but this year it has been delayed till August.
“I have asked the concern department to speed up work on the new STPF and get the policy order ready for the next month”, Mr Qureshi said.
Mr Qureshi was appointed as new secretary commerce on July 6 and has replaced Zafar Mahmood. Mr Mahmood was earlier transferred and posted as secretary Water and Power Ministry.
The first STPF largely remained unimplemented during the last three years because of lack of availability of funds. “The ministry has projected Rs35 billion for the implementation of all initiatives announced in the policy document but in reality Rs2 to 3 billion were released by the finance ministry”, an official source said.
As a result of shortage of funding, the source said, most of the development initiatives remained unresolved during the last three years. And 70-80 per cent initiatives announced in the trade policy were never implemented, the source added.
However, the new secretary commerce says that he had asked the relevant people to focus on effective policy that will be laden with measures to help local manufacturers to improve their capacity building like certification etc and export support subsidies schemes for enhancing exports.
Expert say that the commerce ministry as well as its implementing arm—Trade Development Authority of Pakistan lack the human resource capacity to oversea and monitor implementation of initiatives announced in the trade policy.
Ahead of the announcement of new subsidies schemes, a performance based audit needs to be held to determine the outcome of the schemes in terms of export enhancement or promotion. For example, the ministry of commerce had doled out Rs45-50 billion to textile and clothing sector as cash subsidy between 2005-08.
Mr Qureshi said the new policy will mostly focus on export promotion. He said there was no restriction on the import side except the negative list with India.
Pakistan’s import regime is more liberal in the region, he said, adding, “The ministry will still work on customs tariff side to further facilitate the import regime.”
According to the annual plan 2012-13, the government has projected an export target of $25.812 billion for the year 2012-13 as against $23.641 billion, showing an increase of only nine per cent.
For the year 2012-13, the export proceeds remained behind the target of $25 billion projected for the same year by almost $1.4 billion by end June 2012.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No comments:
Post a Comment