State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in its latest Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) has maintained the policy rate at 9.75% which was in line with market expectations and in line with the forward guidance given in the last MPS. According to SBP, it had taken several key measures to achieve a more sustainable economic growth and lower inflation which includes cumulative […]

Kazakstan’s wealth is in full display in Aktau. Originally a Soviet city built around uranium mining, the expanse sprawling along the Caspian Sea shore is today at the core of the country’s oil and gas industry. But the city’s vast riches are not enjoyed by all its inhabitants. Aina Akisheva, a 56-year-old cook, makes 200,000 tenge a month (458 US […]

On January 20, 2022, three persons were killed and over 33 were injured in a bomb explosion near Pan Mandi in the New Anarkali Bazar area of Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab. The Baloch Nationalist Army (BNA)’s spokesperson Mureed Baloch claimed that the target of the blast were the Habib Bank employees. The BNA was formed earlier this month […]

Gunmen shot and killed a Pakistani policeman who was providing security for polio vaccination workers in the northwest on Tuesday, according to police. The assailants fled the scene, and no one claimed responsibility for the attack in Kohat, local police official Dikdar Khan said. He added that the body of the slain policeman had been transported to a hospital. No […]

Three days of talks between the Taliban, Western diplomats and other delegates on humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and human rights were wrapping up Tuesday in Norway, with acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi praising the discussions, which he said “went very well.” The closed-door meetings in the snow-capped mountains above the Norwegian capital of Oslo came at a crucial time […]

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) said Tuesday they arrested 40 people in northern Mazar-e-Sharif while they were trying to leave the country illegally. IEA deputy spokesman Inamullah Samangani tweeted that the would-be migrants were arrested on Monday while trying to leave the country illegally by air. According to Samangani some of the men had been released after being interrogated, […]

Habib-u-Rahman Malikzada, former police chief of Tiora district of Ghor province was gun downed by unknown assailants in western Herat province on Tuesday, relatives of the deceased said. According to his relatives, Malikzada was shot close to the entrance of his house in PD1 of Herat city on Tuesday morning. Sabir Herawi, a spokesman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan […]

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has said the international community should not sentence the people of Afghanistan to “collective punishment and starvation because they failed in their mission in Afghanistan.” In an interview with Sky News, Afghan Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi blamed the west for the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. “From our part again if we hadn’t […]

Why America Can’t Take on the Haqqani Network Alone In recent weeks, world leaders have pledged billions of dollars in aid to address the humanitarian emergency in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. In addition to alleviating the suffering of the Afghan people, such assistance will serve crucial strategic goals, as a bulwark against cross-border destabilization, terrorism, drug trafficking, weapons proliferation, and large-scale displacement. […]

A Taliban delegation led by acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Sunday started three days of talks in Oslo with Western officials and Afghan civil society representatives amid a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. The closed-door meetings were taking place at a hotel in the snow-capped mountains above the Norwegian capital and are the first time since the Taliban […]