Category: Press Releases

Federal Minister for Communications and Postal Services, Murad Saeed, has announced to deliver pensions of retired government employees at their doorstep amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
The decision was taken after Prime Minister Imran Khan issued special directives to minimize unnecessary public gatherings around the country.
As per details, Pakistan Post will be providing pensions to 1.3 million former employees at their homes as the country continues to grapple with Coronavirus.
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Murad Saeed said that the safety of pensioners is a top priority. Coronavirus can prove deadly for the elderly as their immune system weakens with age.
Safety of Pakistan Post’s Employees Meanwhile, Director General of Pakistan Post, Mohammad Akhlaq Rana, has directed all circle heads to ensure the safety of thousands of employees of the department.
According to the official notification, DG Pakistan Post has ordered to pr..

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The outbreak of the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has had devastating effects all around the world with over 250,000 people infected and thousands of fatalities. It has led to a bloodbath in the stock markets and even halted the global auto industry.
At the time of writing, over 453 cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed in Pakistan. Previously, we talked about how you can use certain preventive measures. Now we will be talking about the impact this will have on the local as well as the global auto market.
Originally, the virus had impacted the auto supplies from China but as the virus has spread across the globe, we have seen automakers in Europe and Asia getting impacted by this.
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Local Industry For now, the impact on the local industry has gone under the radar but we can assume that we will be seeing visible effects soon. Recently, Toyota took the commendable step of postponing the offici..

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Dr. Tahir Shamsi, head of the National Institute of Blood Diseases (NIBD) Karachi, has argued that the blood of recovered Coronavirus patients can prove beneficial in slowing the spread of the virus.
Dr. Shamsi has referred to a medical technique known as passive immunization. First introduced in 1890, passive immunization is employed when the risk of infection is high, time for the body to generate an immune response is low, and no vaccine is available.
According to Dr. Shamsi:
The body of a COVID-19 patient creates antibodies to fight off the virus. These antibodies in the blood of a recovered patient could be used to boost the immunity of the newly infected people. We can save precious lives using this technique.
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It is important to point out that Chinese doctors have used passive immunization following the outbreak of COVID-19. Doctors have saved thousands of lives in China using this techni..

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The SECP, as the corporate sector regulator, has advised all companies to divert their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities and budget for COVID-19 prevention, detection and cure by contributing towards research and development activities related to the COVID-19.
SECP has invited the attention of companies’ board of directors towards their social responsibilities, enshrined in Section 204 (2) of the Companies Act, 2017; “A director of a company shall act in good faith in order to promote the objects of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole, and in the best interests of the company, its employees the shareholders the community and for the protection of the environment.’’
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is threatening the global economies, it is high time for the corporates in Pakistan to rise to the occasion and address their responsibility. Companies have been advised to take proactive measures to ensure effective contingency plann..

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Pak Suzuki Motor Company Limited, which is the largest player in Pakistan’s automobile industry, has announced its financial results for the year ended December 31st, 2019.
The company reported a loss of Rs. 2.92 billion on the back of massive reduction in its sales. The car manufacturing firm had booked a profit of Rs. 1.29 billion in 2018, according to a notice sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday.
Net sales during the year were recorded at Rs. 116.54 billion, which were down by 2.80% as compared with Rs. 119.85 billion in 2018. The cost of sales of the company inched up by 1.56% to Rs. 114.56 billion as compared to Rs. 112.80 billion. Gross profits dropped by 72.50% to Rs. 1.94 billion compared to Rs. 7.04 billion recorded in 2018.
Rupee devaluation against the US dollar resulted in increased imported material cost, consequently adversely affecting the gross profit margins.
The sales volume during 2019 for cars and light commercial vehicles declined by 16.40% from..

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Every cricket fan loves watching a batsman play a cover drive the ball irrespective of the format. The cover drive has been a favorite shot for many from the time the game was invented.
Even today with all the fancy shots and cheeky strokes coming into play, the cover drive is still the most loved and attractive cricket shot.
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Now comes the question, who plays the best cover drive in the cricket world these days. Some say Babar Azam, others vote for Virat Kohli, while most are not very picky, enjoying every cover drive no matter the batsman or the format.
On the international day of happiness, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has posted a tweet with the caption, “Happiness is … cover-drives”, while compiling six of the best cover drives from the previous three World Cups.
These include shots from Babar Azam, Virat Kohli, Under-19 stars Haider Ali, and Shahadat Hossain, and women cricketers..

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United States has announced to help Pakistan by providing an initial one million dollars to fight the novel coronavirus.
US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Alice Wells in a tweet said that the US and Pakistan are longstanding partners in tackling global health challenges.
She said that the US will provide one million dollars to Pakistan under USAID program to ‘bolster the monitoring and rapid response against coronavirus’.
She further added there are over hundred Pakistani graduates engaged in the lab training of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, investigating Coronavirus cases in Punjab and Gilgit Baltistan.
It is pertinent to mention that more than 450 people have been infected within Pakistan, with the country reporting its first two deaths on Wednesday.

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Planning Commission will make all efforts to combat coronavirus and will actively coordinate for necessary emergency funding from both the local and international sources to ward off any negative impacts of Coronavirus on livelihoods, jobs, especially the industry. DCPC Jahanzeb Khan said that the government is assessing the socio-economic impact of Coronavirus on the national economy with the aim to undertake timely interventions to safeguard the economy against the impending effects of Coronavirus.
A special inter-ministerial and inter-provincial meeting for assessing the impact of Coronavirus pandemic on Pakistan’s economy was held under the chairmanship of Deputy Chairman Planning Commission (DCPC) Muhammad Jahanzeb Khan at Islamabad on Thursday.
Representatives from the Planning Commission, various ministries and provinces including Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) participated to assess the expected impact on the national and provincial economies. A represen..

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The government is finalizing a $600 million emergency package to deal with the Coronavirus outbreak across the country. This was stated by the federal minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar on Thursday.
The minister tweeted,
The minister said that emergency funds from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are also being made available for NDMA. This is in addition to funds already made available by finance division for immediate use by the authority. Reallocations from foreign-funded projects are also being diverted towards it.
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“I would like to thank the People’s Republic of China for providing grant assistance of USD 4 million along with 300,000 medical face masks, 10 ventilators and other equipment. They have also undertaken to arrange for much greater number of ventilators”, Azhar added.
The government has decided reallocation of non-utilized funds and to seeks fresh funds from multilate..

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Pakistan reported its first two coronavirus deaths on March 18 Both deaths were reported from KP within hours Number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan has risen to 453 Sindh has been affected the most with 245 confirmed cases so far Punjab has reported 78, Baluchistan 81, KP 23, AJK/GB 24, and Islamabad 2 cases Center and provinces continue to announce measures to curb the spread As the world scrambles to control the COVID-19 epidemic, Pakistan’s tally of confirmed coronavirus cases has also jumped to 453 with new cases coming in by the hour from all provinces. Both the center and provinces continue to ramp up their efforts to restrict the virus’ spread through strict measures that range from curtailing social and commercial activities to suspending bus and train services and imposing partial city lockdowns.
A spike in local transmission was seen with Sindh alone reporting at least 40 verified cases of domestic spread. Among other measures, the Sindh government announced that th..

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