All
eyes on SC as Panama case resumes today:
PTI submits documents
to establish Maryam beneficial owner of firm that holds London flats. PM brings
in new legal team. A day ahead of the Panama Papers leaks case hearing by a
slightly different Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa,
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his children and son-in-law changed their
lawyers, while the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf submitted a set of additional
documents to the court.Soon after taking the oath on Dec 31, Chief Justice Mian
Saqib Nisar had constituted the five-judge bench comprising Justice Khosa,
Justice Ejaz Afzal, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice
Ijaz-ul-Ahsan to resume the hearing of the Panamagate case on Wednesday.
Likewise, Maryam Nawaz and her husband retired Capt Mohammad Safdar will be
represented by Advocate Shahid Hamid in place of Mohammad Akram Sheikh. Senior
counsel Salman Akram Raja will appear on behalf of Hussain Nawaz, the elder son
of the prime minister.
Oil
prices edge up on expectations of tightening supplies:
Oil edged higher on
Wednesday, with top exporter Saudi Arabia expected to raise prices for its
crude as part of planned supply cuts, although a strong dollar and moderate
economic growth prospects restricted gains.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI)
crude futures (CLc1) were trading at $52.65 per barrel at 0237 GMT, up 32
cents, or 0.6 percent, from the last settlement.International Brent crude
futures (LCOc1) were up 32 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $55.79 a barrel.Traders
said the gains were due to an expected tightening of physical oil supplies, as
major producers like the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
plan to cut crude output from this month in an effort to end a global fuel glut
that has dogged markets for over two years.
K-Electric
allowed 25-paisa per unit hike in terms of fuel adjustment:
The National Electric
Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Tuesday approved an increase of 25 paisa
per unit in the tariff of K-Electric (KE) on account of monthly fuel cost
adjustment.The raise has been approved for the month of November 2016 and would
be payable along with the electricity bills for the month of Jan,
2017.According to the Nepra notification, KE had sought an increase of 60 paisa
per unit.The KE representatives told Nepra that the increase was necessitated
by higher fuel cost of power generation both from KE’s own plants and purchases
from other sources.
China
to loan $1b for new road projects:
China would provide
about $1 billion in soft loans for three new road projects along the western
route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), connecting the “shortest
route from Gwadar to China”, China Daily of Hong Kong reported quoting a senior
Pakistan official. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said China would
invest in new roads and factories to help smaller Pakistan provinces integrate
into the project. “The eastern and western routes of CPEC should operate like
two legs of a body,” he said.
Dost
Steels notifies expansion plans:
A day after Dost
Steels Limited informed the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan
(SECP) of its lack of knowledge on why its share price has risen by 30% in the
last 2 weeks, the company notified the stock exchange of its plan to expand its
output.The company wrote to the SECP on December 31 that it has no idea why its
share price has been recently volatile. This information was made public
through a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).“We have no idea as to
why there has been volatility in the volume and price of the shares of the
company at the PSX. We are also not aware of any speculation/rumours,” stated
the company letter to the SECP.However, the company, in another notice sent at
3pm and merely hours after the previous one, informed the PSX that “the
expected date of commercial operations of the company is around 120 days from
the date of release of Rights issue money, received by the company. Under this
scenario this shall fall sometime during May 2017”.
Pakistan,
Thailand: PAAPAM expresses concern over inclusion of auto sector in FTA:
Pakistan Association
of Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers (PAAPAM), in a letter sent on
Monday to the commerce minister, expressed concerns on the government’s
proposal to include the auto sector in the free trade agreement (FTA) between
Pakistan and Thailand. PAAPAM appealed to the Minister of Commerce Khurram
Dastgir that he should immediately convene a meeting to discuss the genuine
grievances of the auto parts industry in particular and the overall auto
industry at large.PAAPAM Chairman Mashood Ali Khan said that the Auto
Development Policy (ADP) is the sole authentic document that governs the future
policy for the auto sector. Including the auto sector in any FTA would
discredit the government and scare away massive investments in the pipeline.
Govt
mulling to privatise five entities in 2017:
As part of economic
reforms, the federal government is mulling to privatise five public sector
enterprises (PSEs) in 2017.Pakistan Steel Mill (PSM) tops priority list which
is expected to be privatised by June, 2017. Despite injecting over Rs26 billion
in two and half years, the government failed in reviving PSM. With no
production activity since July-2015, PSM is causing a mammoth loss of Rs2
billion to national exchequer every month. Overall deficit of PSM has
transcended Rs200 billion.Telephone Industies of Pakistan (TIP), Industrial
Development Bank, Mari Petroleum Company and Kot Addu Power Company are other
PSEs that are included in the list of companies to be privatised. In past, the
federal government had faced stiff resistance from Pakistan People’s Party
(PPP) which had threatened of launching movement against any such initiative.
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