Banking

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is planning to shut down if flights for Saudi Arabia, China, Gulf, and Europe sectors are not resumed in a couple of months, reported a local media outlet. The report quoted a source saying that the Finance Division has worked out three different scenarios to compute the net deficit of the national flag carrier after the complete suspension of flight operations to Saudi Arabia, China, Doha, Kuwait, and Milan due to coronavirus. According to the report, PIA has incurred a revenue loss of over Rs 1.7 billion only on Saudi Arabia sector due to ban on the entry of Umrah pilgrims by the Saudi government for last 19 days and added that if this ban is not lifted, the loss will extend to around Rs. 3 billion till the end of March. The report while quoting a source stated that if UAE, operating at 40 percent of normal schedule and rest of the international operating at 75 percent of the normal schedule, was also suspended along with Saudi Arabia, China, ..

Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2020 was recently brought to an end due to the coronavirus outbreak in the country. With teams like Multan Sultans and Lahore Qalandars making it to the semi-finals for the first time ever, it truly is a sad ending to a very competitive tournament. While Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said that the revised schedule will be conveyed in due time, it is highly unlikely that the coronavirus situation will be controlled anytime soon. What it means is that we might not get to see which team wins the 5th edition of the tournament. ALSO READ Breaking: PCB Cancels PSL 2020 Semi-Final & Final Matches Former Pakistan cricketer and star all-rounder, Shahid Afridi has picked his winner. Guess what, it’s his own team, Multan Sultans. The legendary cricketer believes that the table-toppers – and that too by a fair margin – should be awarded the trophy. In another interesting tweet, England and Multan player, Ravi Bopara has also decided the winner. No prizes for gue..

State Bank of Pakistan has cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time in four years. The Central Bank of Pakistan has cut its target policy rate by 75 basis points to 12.50% from 13.25%. Bloomberg noted that Pakistan’s consumer price inflation slowed to 12.4% in February from 14.6% in the previous month, with gains in price-growth expected to ease further on account of lower global oil prices. The committee adopted cautious approach on policy rates that will maintain the inflation rate while it can stir up economic activities to some extent. The report stated that Tuesday’s decision marks a shift in monetary policy direction for Pakistan’s central bank, which had raised its target policy rate nine times since January 2018 despite a wave of global easing last year. The easing will help boost credit demand in the economy, whose growth the World Bank sees decelerating to 2.4% in the year to June — the slowest pace in more than a decade. Central banks across Asia-Pacific have..

The Ministry of Commerce, in collaboration with NADRA, has launched an e-Business Visa Invitation Letter System (E-BIL), another step towards easing business. Chambers and Trade Associations can e-file applications for business visas on arrival for nationals of 190 countries. The applications will be processed in 48-78 hrs. The Ministry of Commerce is now providing an E-Business visa facility, in collaboration with NADRA. All Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Pakistan and Trade Associations are connected to it for uploading visa invitation letters. According to the Commerce Ministry, in the light of the Prime Minister’s vision, E-BIL is launched to facilitate all potential foreigners interested in exploring business opportunities in Pakistan. Foreign nationals can apply for a business invitation letter (a required document for Pakistan’s business visa application) through E-BIL’s website.

The Redmi K30 Pro is set to arrive this month, succeeding last year’s Redmi K30 Pro/Mi 9T Pro with top of the line specifications and similar design aspects. We’ve only seen the device in mock-up renders so far and now, a few days ahead of its launch, the phone has appeared in a set of hands-on images that confirm the design leaks we saw before. The device is encased in a design-concealing pre-production phone cover but it clearly shows some of its design elements. There is a circle-shaped quad-camera setup at the back right above the LED flash. The main camera on this setup is expected to be a 64MP Sony IMX686 sensor we saw on the base Redmi K30/Poco X2. The pop-up selfie camera is on the left side and there also appears to be an infrared sensor on the right. Redmi’s General Manager Lu Weibing shared a teaser on Weibo earlier that revealed that there is also going to be a “Redmi K30 Pro zoom version”. There are no details on this yet, but we can expect an enhanced edition of the ..