Top-5 best paying countries to foreign workers

Switzerland _ Average expat salary: $188,275.

HSBC says: “For the second year in a row, Switzerland is ranked the best all-round destination for a career abroad. The country combines the best earning prospects with a good work-life balance and an excellent work culture. The average annual expat income in Switzerland is $188,275, almost twice the global average of $97,419.”

Average expat salary: $97,693.

Germany is the best destination for expats who main priority is acquiring new skills, followed by job security and career progression, according to HSBC. 70% of expats say job security is better than their home country.

Sweden _ Average expat salary: $84,802.

71% of expats who go to Sweden to work say the work culture is an improvement on their native country. Dean Blackburn, Head of HSBC Expat, says: “According to our survey, Europe is home to some of the best destinations for a successful expat career. Six European countries have made their way into the top 10 and are recognised for their strong work culture, great work-life balance and relatively good job security.”

UAE _ Average expat salary: $112,820.

56% of expats receive an accommodation allowance in the UAE, according to HSBC, and 75% receive health benefits, reports Business Insider.

Bahrain _ Average expat salary: $98,622.

65% of expats receive an annual allowance for trips home in Bahrain as part of their job, according to HSBC. Across the Middle East, 91% of expats report some kind of benefit as part of their contract, compared to a global average of 67%.

Norway _ Average expat salary: $97,486.

Norway is a newcomer to the top 10 this year and HSBC says that across all countries surveyed expats working in Norway had the biggest improvement in their work-life balance, with 87% of respondents citing this.

United Kingdom _ Average expat salary: $83,227.

It’s the UK’s first time in the top 10 for expats (although note that the survey was done prior to the Brexit vote — things may have changed since them.) HSBC says: “Expats in Britain [are] among the most likely in the world to pick up new skills compared to their home country (64%) and progress their career (62%).”

Hong Kong _ Average expat salary: $169,756.

Hong Kong is a great place for expats looks to further their career but not for those looking for a better quality of life, according to HSBC. 68% of respondents said this was a good place to further their career but 50% said their work-life balance had worsened since moving to Hong Kong.

 

 

UK’s biggest warship begins sea-surfing

The UK’s biggest-ever warship, nick-named “Big Lizzie”, built at a cost of 3.1 billion Pounds in 10 years time-frame finally started surfing the sea from today. The warship HMS Queen Elizabeth (left) is 280-meters long, it weighs 65,000 tonnes and equipped with modern warfare to fight any adversaries across the globe.

 

 

Transcript of 2nd Confessional statement of RAW-operative Jadhav

I am Commander Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav. Number 41558 Zulu of the Indian Navy
I am a commissioned officer in the Indian Navy. And my alias name was Hussain Mubarak Patel. And I was basically; I’d visited Karachi on 2 occasions in 2005 and 2006 for basic intelligence gathering on Naval installations and subsequent detail. Basically gathering information on the landing sites around Karachi and various naval vessels or whatever I could gather about the navy.

The RAW officials had started sniffing that the Modi government will be in power by 2014. So I was inducted and my services were handed over to Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). And the aim was to see that all the activities around the Mekran Coast and Karachi and Balochistan Interior. Turbat and Quetta were to be organized and nicely coordinated.

Subsequently, me along with Anil Kumar had a meeting with Alok Joshi. Where in the plans and the finalization of the activities along the Mekran Coast and Karachi were finalized. I was stationed in Chahbahar, The Iranian Port City under a fictitious name “Hussein Mubarak Patel” and I was running a business there “Kaminda Trading company”. It was a discreet non embassy based operation exclusively meant to conduct meetings with Baloch insurgents and terrorists. The aim of these meetings was always to see that the Aims and the Targets of RAW to conduct the various terrorist activities within Balochistan are conveyed properly to the insurgents and any kinds of requirements of them are conveyed back to the RAW officials.

My purpose of this time visit to Pakistan was to establish and meet the basic leadership of Baloch sub nationals, the BLA or the BRA and establish and Infiltrate around 30 to 40 RAW operatives along the Mekran Coast for Operations along with Baloch sub nationals and miscreants or Terrorists.

The aim was to have RAW operatives on field so that they could facilitate and help the Baloch sub nationals in carrying out precision targets to be carried out. Precision, I would say sort of a military sort of a connection to the entire Operation.
Balochistan doesn’t have a movement on the sea, so the aim was to raise within the Baloch sub nationals a sea front, so that the activities could be properly coordinated from the sea side and subsequently taken on further inwards, may be Quetta or Turbat or maybe interiors of various places.

The subsequent activities which were then handed over by RAW when I subsequently started working for Research and analysis wing, the main aim was focused to Balochistan and the Karachi region. The idea was to see to it that the sub nationals with in this region were facilitated and supported financially and with arms and Ammunition, weapons and some kind of maybe man and material movement also across the coast.

So me being a naval officer I was given the task of seeing that how they could be landed across the Mekran coast, between Gwadar, Jewani or whichever suitable points were there across this belt. And the main ideology beyond this was that the economic and the various activities which go along the CPEC region between Gwadar and China had to be distorted and disrupted and some destabilized so that the aim was to just basically raise the level of insurgency within Balochistan and the Karachi region.

Research and Analysis Wing through Mr Anil Kumar has been abetting and financing and sponsoring a lot of activities within Balochistan and Sindh. The entire Hundi and Hawala operations are undertaken from Delhi and Mumbai via Dubai into Pakistan and during one such important transaction was the 40,000 dollars which was transferred to Baloch sub Nationals via Dubai. Also the finances which are coming into Balochistan and Sindh for various anti National activities are coming through consulates in Jalalabad and Kandhar and the Consulate in Zahidan. These are very important consulates which are used by Research and Analysis Wing to transfer dollars into the Balochistan movement.

And one such instance was where I was directly involved and I was observing the transaction was when 40,000 Dollars were recently transferred from India via Dubai to one such Baloch National operative within Pakistan.

Research and Analysis Wing and Mr Anil Kumar on behalf of RAW had been sponsoring regularly the various terrorist activities within Pakistan. Especially Hazara Muslims, Shia Muslims who move around on pilgrimage between Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan were basically to be targeted and killed. They were already being done, it was being done but the level had to be raised to the very high level so that the movement completely stops.

Then the targets on various workers of FWO who were conducting construction of various roads within Balochistan and the third major activity was the IED attacks which were being carried out by the Baloch sub nationals within Quetta, Turbat or various other cities of Balochistan.They were being directly sponsored by RAW.

Mr Anil Kumar has been sponsoring sectarian violence across Sindh and Balochistan and also sponsoring various assassinations across this same region so that instability or some kind of fear is set into the mindsets of the people of Pakistan, and in one such process SSP Chaudhary was assassinated. This was a direct mention by Mr Anil Kumar to me.

The various financing which subsequently happened for the TTP and various other Afghan anti Pakistani terrorist groups led to the attack by TTP on one of the Mehran Naval Bases in which a lot of damage was cost to the Pakistani Navy. Other sort of radar installation attack, the Sui pipeline gas attack, then attacks on civilian bus Stations where some I suppose Pakistani Nationals were being targeted by Sub Nationals and murdered and massacred so that a sort of disruption in the CPEC is done that was being funded and directly supported by Mr Anil Kumar. He wanted it to be raised to the next level so that complete disruption and complete stoppage of the Economic corridor between Gwadar and China is achieved.

One of the operations which was being planned by RAW officials along with Baloch insurgents was a military style attack on Zahidan Pakistani consulate. The aim was to either attack it with a grenade or some kind of RPG or IED attack or then try to harm the consulate General or some kind of vicious attack on the Pakistani consulate in Zahidan. It was being militarily planned, the RAW officials were involved in Iran and the Baloch Sub Nationals who were supposed to carry out the attack or facilitate the entire process were being involved and I was well aware of the plan which was being conducted and how it was being planned.

RAW was sponsoring the setting up of the modern website, a new website which was being already run through Nepal which the Balochistan movement was carrying on, on the Cyber world and the creation of the website, the previous maintenance of the already existing website was being handled by the Research and Analysis wing from Nepal, Kathmandu which was luring people from within Pakistan for various activities to be carried out in the future.

This time while crossing over into Pakistan I travelled all the way from Chahbahar in a private Taxi along with Rakesh to the Iranian Pakistan border near Sarawan. From wherein I crossed into Pakistan along with Baloch Sub Nationals and after about an hour or so I was apprehended by the Pakistani authorities in Pakistan.

Basically the movement into Pakistan for me was, I was on a visa and official visa in Iran and I was moving with my passports so I carried my passports with till the border almost so that if Iranian authorities or Iranian people who are about to check me or I am stopped or checked I should have a legitimate reason for movement with in Iran and my subsequent movement into Pakistan and then backwards. While I was not intending to having being caught so on my movement backwards again I would have had a legitimate reason to go about, With that passport with the legitimate visa of Iran.

During my judicial proceedings which were held under the field General court martial, I was accorded a defense council by the officials here which were conducting the entire proceedings.

Today I genuinely after the time having spent in Pakistan I feel very ashamed and I genuinely seek pardon of the acts and sins and crimes I have committed here against the Nation and the people of Pakistan.

end

 

Current account deficit hits $9 billion, trade deficit crosses $25b

By J. Choudhry/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s current account deficit hits 9 billion dollars mark in 11 months of the outgoing financial year. The current account deficit in FY17 is almost 200 percent higher than last financial year, when it was only at 3.21 billion dollars.

The current account deficit makes it clear that in 11 months of FY17, Pakistan had not received any foreign exchange technically and instead spent about 9 billion dollars on payment of external obligations. A key reason of this massive current account deficit is the trade deficit of 25.44 billion dollars that had devoured entire inflow of remittances, foreign investment, foreign loans.

Worth to note is that the foreign exchange reserves of Pakistan have dropped to around 20 billion dollars from earlier record level of 24 billion dollars, exports too are dithering, foreign investment is negligible as compared to 62 billion dollars foreign investment made in last in last financial year.

This is the last year of the PML(N) govt according to its 5-year term, and it is a tradition that every govt ruins the key economic indicator in its last year in govt so that the next govt face the music and rush to the IMF and World Bank to get new loans.

Musharraf and Zardari’s govts too did the same thing and left the state exchequer ‘’khazaana’’ khaali (empty) at the end of their term and PML(N) is also following the footsteps of their predecessors in the government, setting aside the national interest.

PML(N) govt adds more burden of debt on people

The PML(N) government has increased the burden of loan on every Pakistani by about 97,535 rupees in just four years, from July 2013 to Dec 2016. During this period, the total debt of Pakistan has been expanded to 33,507 billion rupees, by Dec 2016 (from 14,000 billion in June 2013).

The PML(N) inherited total debt at Rs 14 trillion in June 2013 from the PPP govt, after winning the 2013 elections. By Dec 2016, the present government has put more burden of 19,507 billion rupees on Pakistan and Pakistanis in just four years time. Thus the PML(N) govt created extra burden of 97,535 rupees loan on each and every Pakistani in four years mainly because of reckless borrowing by Ishar Dar-led economic team of the government.

By Dec 2016 each and every Pakistan carries a burden of national loan of 167,535 rupees as the total debt on the country has mounted to 33,507 billion rupees by Dec 2016, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. The debt burden on Pakistani has been calculated keeping in view a population of 200 million.

In US dollars the total debt has expanded to 319.11 billion dollars if we calculated it at existing dollar-rupee exchange rate of 105 rupees in the interbank. The total debt of Pakistan also includes the foreign loans and liabilities, involving over US$74 billion. The repayment of domestic and foreign loans would emerge as a key problem for Pakistan in the years ahead.

Every year the country faces a hilarious budgetary deficit, ranging from 11 trillion rupees to 12 trillion rupees and this deficit is filled through massive borrowing especially from the domestic sources like banks and national saving schemes.

This is the first time the PML(N) government has announced its 5^th consecutive budget in May 2017, but the budget totally lacks the plan to tackle the monster of loans that are growing at an alarming pace.

 

Mehrin holds Mega Calligraphy exhibition in Karachi

Report by Harry Javed/KARACHI: Mehrin Ilahi, CEO of Majmua Art Gallery in Karachi and Chairperson of the FPCCI committee on art and heritage has organised a big exhibition of calligraphy art-works in Karachi.

The conference was inaugurated on Monday and it will continue till 30th of June at the Sadequain Hall of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. Calligraphy paintings of 40 artists have been put on display at the hall where dozens of art-lovers are coming to the most stirring paintings in the month of Ramazan-ul-Mubarak.

Mehrin Ilahi, her mother, Mr Dhingra of FPCCI while several art-lovers from a cross-section of the society attended the inaugural session of the mega exhibition on Monday.

CEO Majmua Art Gallery & Chairperson of FPCCI committee is welcoming the guests at the opening day of this mega calligraphy exhibition.

Here is the list of the artists whose fantastic pieces of art-work have been displayed at the Sadequain Hall of the KMC in Karachi. The artists belong to Lahore and Karachi.

Mehrin Ilahi is an expert of organising art exhibitions in Pakistan. She has arranged several exhibitions in Karachi and also participated in such exhibitions in Dubai, India and some other countries.

Promotion of art and entrepreneurship of women is in blood of Mehrin Illahi and she had been making hectic efforts for the past many years to promote art and economic empowerment of women.

Mr Shakil Dhingra of FPCCI is giving a gift of Quran to a participant of the exhibition on behalf of the organisers.

Here is a group photo of the artists, organisers and some participants with Mehrin Illahi.

Several art-lovers are watching the calligraphy paintings

Shakil Dhingra of FPCCI is speaking at the exhibition.

(Writer is A-Levels Student and working as Assistant Editor with weekly Corporate Ambassador on Freelance basis)

Here are more glimpses of Calligraphy Exhibition going on in Karachi till 30th June, 2017.

 

Islamic banks in Pakistan hold 63% Shariah-based saving deposits

The experience of Pakistan offers important lessons for the sound development of the IB industry. The experience shows that rather than forcing a transition toward a fully-fledged IB industry, policy makers should focus on putting in place an enabling environment that levels the playing field with the conventional industry, and let market forces play their role. Since opting for the latter, the IB industry has experienced rapid growth and the IBs in Pakistan have also increased the share of risk-sharing financing (Musharakah and Mudarabah).

By J. Choudhry/ISLAMABAD: The Islamic banks have a healthy domestic funding base. Close to 85.3 percent of the assets are funded by customer deposits, and about 63 percent are PLS deposits accounts based on Mudarabah contracts while current accounts are mostly based on Qard. Funds due to OFIs account for a very small share. The funding is mostly in local currency, thus exchange rate risk is low.

Sukuk issuance by banks and other long term funding appear limited, thereby potentially creating maturity mismatches with financing structure. International Monetary Fund has pointed out this in its report title “Multi-Country Report _ Enrusing Financial Stability in Countries with Islamic Banking”. A soft copy of the report was sent to the Editor of weekly Corporate Ambassador by IMF office in Washington late night on June 20, 2017.

Performance and Soundness

IBs in Pakistan exhibit strong financial fundamentals (Figure 16). For full-fledged IBs,
the CAR was 14 percent at end 2015, significantly above the prescribed minimum of 10 percent but below conventional banks. The NPF ratio of 2 percent is significantly below the average for conventional banks of 12 percent. IBs are also profitable and liquid but the profit margins and liquidity levels are, however, lower than their conventional counterparts.

 The Regulatory and Supervisory Framework
Regulation of both Islamic and conventional banks is governed by the Banking
Companies Ordinance (BCO) 1962 as amended. The BCO was amended in 2002 to authorize the “carrying on of banking business in conformity with the injunctions of Islam”. The amendments were supplemented with detailed guidelines for establishing full-fledged IBs, subsidiaries and branches. Conventional banks are also allowed to offer IB services through stand-alone branches/window operations, with nominal capital allocation from their existing capital based on RWA of these branches. IBIs are allowed to offer PLS deposit accounts similar to URIAs.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has a single integrated regulatory framework that
applies to all banks with provisions specific to IB. Full-fledged IBs are subject to the same
prudential requirements as conventional banks, including the Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR) regime, the minimum CAR, large exposure, loan classification, provisioning and related party lending. The SBP has issued detailed licensing criteria, instructions for Profit & Loss Distribution and Pool Management to improve transparency and safeguard interests of IAHs.

It has also adopted the IFSB-1 on risk management, partially adopted the IFSB-4 on transparency and 6 of AAOIFI Shari’ah standards while banks are required to use the remaining AAOIFI Shari’ah standards as guidelines with approval of their Shari’ah Boards. The SBP has tailored some of the macro prudential policies for IBs.

Reforms of the capital and liquidity frameworks are on-going. The SBP is developing
instructions for adoption of implementation of Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) under Basel III Liquidity guidelines, HQLAs and run-off rates in line with the BCBS. The SBP is reviewing the IFSB-15 on capital standards for IBs and plans to roll it out after conducting a Quantitative Impact Study (QIS) and soliciting feedback from stakeholders Considerable progress has also been made to strengthen corporate and Shari’ah governance.

The SBP has adopted the IFSB 3 on corporate governance, and the IFSB 10 relating
to Shari’ah Governance. The Shari’ah compliance system is well-structured with a central Shari’ah board established at the SBP level, and Shari’ah boards established at bank level, in line with the IFSB and AAIOFI standards, and customized according to the market environment in Pakistan. The SBP has developed detailed fit-and-proper criteria for the appointment of Shari’ah board members of IBs, which include Shari’ah-related academic qualification and experience, banking knowledge, and personal and professional track record. Shariʿah issues can be (and in practice have been) taken
before the federal Shari’ah court.

The consumer protection framework has focused more on addressing potential
information asymmetries, limiting scope for exploitation of consumers and providing a
resolution framework. IBs are required to disclose details of Charity Account, pool management practices, and remuneration to the Shari’ah Board. A regulatory limit for Mudarib (the bank) share has been set at a maximum of 50 percent. The profit sharing ratio can be fixed by IBs in advance and the Mudarib share is calculated on the basis of profit distributable to depositors. IBs can and do give indications of anticipated rates of returns, though the indicative rate is not obligatory and actual rates may vary. Conventional banks that offer IB products and services are required to disclose
details of their IB operations as an annexure to their annual accounts. Consumers have, available to them, arbitral forums and ADR frameworks for resolving disputes. However, there are no independent board members to represent IAHs.

The supervisory framework has also been adapted and there are procedures for
standardization and Shari’ah harmonization and auditing. The SBP has developed an on–site inspection manual for IBs and a dedicated supervision department that provide regulatory oversight of IBs. The Banking Inspection Department of the SBP reviews compliance with Shari’ah related matters during the inspection of IBs. It has specified broader parameters for permissible Islamic modes of finance and banks have been allowed to develop products and services after getting approval of their Shari’ah Board for each product and service they offer.

The scope of the external auditor’s engagement has been broadened to include Shari’ah compliance and conduct of External Shari’ah Audit of IBs. Further, the Financial Stability Department (FSD) also performs the overall stability assessment of the IB industry. SBP performs stress testing of individual banks on a quarterly basis, including for IBs. It has also designed a separate stress testing framework for assessing the resilience of IBs against credit, market and liquidity shocks. The SBP, however, does not yet supervise
IBs on a consolidated basis, but is in the process of amending the law. The presentation of audited accounts differs considerably across banks and the different classifications make consolidation and comparative analysis challenging.

Conclusions and Policy Issues
The experience of Pakistan offers important lessons for the sound development of the
IB industry. The experience shows that rather than forcing a transition toward a fully-fledged IB industry, policy makers should focus on putting in place an enabling environment that levels the playing field with the conventional industry, and let market forces play their role. Since opting for the latter, the IB industry has experienced rapid growth and the IBs in Pakistan have also increased the share of risk-sharing financing (Musharakah and Mudarabah).

 

Islamic Banking penetration in Indonesia remains low: IMF

J. Choudhry/WASHINGTON: Indonesia has a diversified IF industry, but market penetration of the IB sector remains low. The IF industry is dominated by capital market products, including Shari’ah stocks, Sukuk and mutual funds which collectively accounts for 83 percent. The IB sector, comprising 12 standalone banks and 22 Islamic windows of conventional banks, accounts for 7 percent of the domestic IF industry, 5 percent of the total banking system assets and 2.5 percent of the global IB industry. International Monetary Fund has pointed out in its report on the Islamic Banking in Muslim countries. The report was issued on June 20, 2017 in Washington.

Other sectors include finance companies, the Takaful and Zakat and Waqf. The IB in Indonesia has a long history but its growth only accelerated after the issuance of
the 2008 IB law. Indonesia’s first Islamic bank was established in November 1991, and a legal framework for IB was enacted in 1992, which facilitated some growth in the industry. The issuance of the 2008 IB law had a major catalytic effect, with the number of full-fledged IBs doubling from six in 2009 to 12 by end 2015, while the number of conventional banks with Islamic windows declined somewhat from 25 to 22. The assets grew at a CAGR of 38 percent between 2009 and 2013 compared with 18 percent for conventional banks.

However, as the macroeconomic conditions became more challenging in mid-2013, the asset growth of IBs decelerated rapidly to 8 percent in 2015, lower than the conventional banking sector. Potential for further growth is high if the constraints are addressed. Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim population, with approximately 87 percent of the population of 207 million. Low market penetration for banking services in general and Shari’ah-compliant ones in particular, means Indonesia harbors tremendous upside potential for IF.

Moreover, in 2015, the Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK) issued a five-year roadmap for Indonesia’s IF Industry. The roadmap aims to increase the market share through various strategies, including through greater public education, easing restrictions on foreign ownership of IBs, increasing Shari’ah compliance and the provision of an enabling legal and regulatory environment.

B. Islamic Banks’ Operations and Soundness
Corporate and Balance Sheet Structure:  The IB sector is highly concentrated and some of the banks have complex conglomerate structures. Two of the 12 fully fledged IBs account for about half the industry’s assets. A number of banks are part of banking groups that have complex conglomerate structures.
The asset structure of IBs balance sheets remains concentrated in debt-based financing
items, although profit-sharing financing is significant and rising. Financing accounts for  over 75 percent of the total balance sheet assets while investments in Sukuk is about 5 percent.

The financing is largely provided through debt-based Murabaḥah contracts, although the proportion of risk-sharing financing has been increasing. The latter comprises mostly of Musharakah contracts which have risen from 21 percent in 2013 to 26 percent by end-June 2015 while Mudarabah based investments are relatively small at around 7.3 percent. IBs finance a broad range of sectors, although business services and trade and hotels dominate.
44. The funding sources for IBs largely comprise of PSIAs. The share of PSIA in total liabilities has remained around 70 percent, and about 85 percent of deposits.10 The PSIA structure of Indonesia’s IBs is still heavily centered on Mudarabah time deposits (61 percent), where the profit is shared based on pre-agreed profit sharing rate, while the use of commodity Murabaḥah to collect deposits is very limited. Other funding sources such as Sukuk and interbank instruments are small.  This structure implies that DCR is of material importance.

Performance and Soundness
45. Indonesia’s IBs remain sound, but their performance has been persistently weaker
than their conventional counterparts. The CAR is above the statutory levels, liquidity indicators are high and the banks are on aggregate profitable. However, NPFs have since 2007 been higher than those of conventional banks and the gap has widened considerably after 2013. The weakening of asset quality reflects the greater focus of IBs on retail, micro enterprises and small and medium-sized banks (SMEs) that tend to carry higher risks and some financing in foreign currency against the backdrop of an increasingly challenging environment characterized by the depreciation
of the Rupiah and economic slowdown.
C. The Regulatory and Supervisory Framework
46. The legal framework explicitly recognizes IB practices, products and institutions. The
prevalent banking laws have been amended several times in order to make the Shari’ah principles operative in practice. The laws initially conferred on Bank Indonesia (BI) licensing and supervisory power over IBs, but in 2011 the Financial Services Authority (OJK) was established as an integrated financial sector agency and assumed regulatory and supervisory powers for banks at the beginning of 2014. The law allows for the establishment of IBs and the offering of IB products by conventional banks through windows and branches. The law requires the separation of the Islamic business unit
from a conventional bank if the assets reach 50 percent of its parent conventional bank, and all business units must be separated from conventional banks by July 2023. The law currently restricts the participation of foreign investors to no more than 40 percent of local IBs.
proposals to remove this restriction over

PML(N) govt adds burden of Rs97,535 loan on every Pakistani

J. Choudhry/Editor, Corporate Ambassador

The PML(N) government has increased the burden of loan on every Pakistani by about 97,535 rupees in just four years, from July 2013 to Dec 2016. During this period, the total debt of Pakistan has been expanded to 33,507 billion rupees, by Dec 2016 (from 14,000 billion in June 2013).

The PML(N) inherited total debt at Rs 14 trillion in June 2013 from the PPP govt, after winning the 2013 elections. By Dec 2016, the present government has put more burden of 19,507 billion rupees on Pakistan and Pakistanis in just four years time. Thus the PML(N) govt created extra burden of 97,535 rupees loan on each and every Pakistani in four years mainly because of reckless borrowing by Ishar Dar-led economic team of the government.

By Dec 2016 each and every Pakistan carries a burden of national loan of 167,535 rupees as the total debt on the country has mounted to 33,507 billion rupees by Dec 2016, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. The debt burden on Pakistani has been calculated keeping in view a population of 200 million.

The data of total debt by June 2017 will be available in Aug/Sept 2017 and by that time the debt burden on every Pakistani would have further increased to above 175,000 rupees as budgetary deficit and borrowings are moving up side-by-side.

In US dollars the total debt has expanded to 319.11 billion dollars if we calculated it at existing dollar-rupee exchange rate of 105 rupees in the interbank. The total debt of Pakistan also includes the foreign loans and liabilities, involving over US$74 billion. The repayment of domestic and foreign loans would emerge as a key problem for Pakistan in the years ahead.

Every year the country faces a hilarious budgetary deficit, ranging from 11 trillion rupees to 12 trillion rupees and this deficit is filled through massive borrowing especially from the domestic sources like banks and national saving schemes.

This is the first time the PML(N) government has announced its 5^th consecutive budget in May 2017, but the budget totally lacks the plan to tackle the monster of loans that are growing at an alarming pace.

Death chased him, crossed border, caught him in his dreamed city, London

By J. Choudhry/Corporate Ambassador

This is one of the tragedies that took place in the most shocking inferno at the Grenfell Tower in London last week. Mohammed Alhaj Ali, a 23-year old Syrian took refuge in London in 2014, leaving the valley of death, hunger and anarchy thousands of miles away.

Ahaj Ali was a student of civil engineering at the West London University, who migrated to London, UK amid hopes of having a bright future and a prosperous life as he had left behind his homeland, Syria in 2014 that has been facing bloody skirmishes and aerial bombings for the past few years.

Alhaj-Ali was living on the 14^th floor of the 24-storey Grenfell Tower, London that has been destroyed completely by fire last week in which, so far, 58 ill-fated people have lost their lives.

In 2014, Ahaj Ali undertook a dangerous journey to flee war and death in Syria, but he could not flee his death in London, his dreamed city in the world.
His dream was to be able to go back home one day and rebuild Syria, but death turned into ash all his dreams.

London Police Chief Stuart Cundy told media on Saturday the police investigations into the blaze would look at the building and its refurbishment in 2016 and vowed to prosecute people.

 

A total of 58 people are presumed dead after the devastating fire in a London tower block, police chief Stuart Cundy told reporters.

“We’ve worked tirelessly to establish how many people we believe were in Grenfell Tower on the night and at this point in time we are unable to say that they are safe or well,” he said.

“There are 58 people who we have been told were in Grenfell Tower on the night that are missing and therefore, sadly, I have to assume that they are dead.”

Of the 58, he said the number of confirmed fatalities in Wednesday’s inferno remains at 30.

Cundy said 16 bodies had so far been recovered from the tower and taken to a mortuary.

Police do not expect to find any survivors inside the 24-storey concrete tower, which contained 120 apartments.

On the figure of 58, he said: “I really hope it won’t, but it may increase,” while adding that “it might be that some of those are safe and well”, and for some reason, had not yet made themselves known to the police.

“Our focus has been on those that we know were in Grenfell Tower. However, there may be other people who were in there on the night that others were not aware were there,” he said.

“That is also an absolute priority for the investigation — to establish who they may be,” he added.

Cundy said police had now managed to get to the top of the tower and had undertaken a first visual search for victims, ahead of later painstaking searches.

“There is considerable damage within Grenfell Tower,” he said.

“We have colleagues in there as we speak, searching for and recovering those that have died.”

He said: “We investigate criminal matters. The investigation will identify any criminal offence that has been committed.
“It will go to establish the answers of what happened in the fire and how it spread; it will look at the building itself; it will look at the refurbishment as well.

 
“Our criminal investigation will identify any criminal offences that have been committed. Wherever we can, we will bring people to justice if there is evidence.”

Huawei outpaces Apple in smartphone sales

Minotiring Report/NEW DELHI: Chinese smartphone maker Huawei today said it has overtaken iPhone maker Apple in global sales volume to become second largest handset company globally.

“Huawei overtook Apple in global sales volume share in December,” Huawei India Director for Product Centre Allen Wang said. He said the company’s share in December 2016 reached 13.2% globally whereas Apple was in the range of 12%. The company claims to have shipped 139 million smartphones last year.

” Honor (Huawei’s online smartphone brand) has now become world’s number one online brand,” he said. The brand is now selling across 74 countries including India.
Though Samsung leads the global market in volumes, Huawei has overtaken the Korean technology major in some markets, Wang said.