Category: Featured

ISLAMABAD: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Engineering Development Board (EDB), Hamad Ali Mansoor, said that under the Prime Minister’s PAVE (Pakistan Accelerated Vehicle Electrification) Scheme, the process of providing electric bikes, rickshaws and loaders on easy instalments, along with subsidy payments, has commenced. The initiative aims to provide the public with affordable and environmentally friendly transportation while reducing the country’s dependence on fuel. Under the scheme, electric bikes are being offered a subsidy of up to Rs80,000, which is being directly transferred to the approved bank accounts of applicants…

ISLAMABAD: Proton Pakistan has failed to return nearly Rs600 million to its customers after the carmaker could not deliver booked vehicles. This car brand is being sold in Pakistan by the Al-Haj Group, which also runs an oil and gas exploration company. Proton is a Malaysian automobile brand. Proton Pakistan, considered a competitor of Kia, MG and Hyundai, offers car models like Saga sedan, X50 and X70. The brand made its entry into Pakistan when Imran Khan was the prime minister. This group also made inroads into the oil and…

KARACHI: Pakistan’s startup ecosystem, once a headline-grabbing post-Covid-19 success story that attracted aggressive venture capital chasing growth and buzzworthy “disruption,” is now entering a more cautious and structurally different phase. With investors increasingly prioritising risk-adjusted returns and shifting capital towards safer assets such as gold, the funding landscape is undergoing a transformation marked by a decisive move away from speculative equity rounds towards hybrid financing structures that now dominate capital flows. The shift was highlighted during Invest2Innovate (i2i)’s “Ecosystem Signals 2026” event, where industry leaders discussed the findings of Pakistan’s…

KARACHI: Recovery hopes were dashed as heavy selling gripped the environment at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) in a turbulent session on Thursday, with bears firmly in control throughout the day. Heavy selling from the opening bell dragged the benchmark KSE-100 index sharply lower, reflecting cautious investor sentiment. The index plunged during intra-day trade, hitting a session low of 178,725.25 points amid broad-based selling across key sectors. Although a late-session recovery trimmed some losses, it failed to reverse the negative momentum. By the close, the KSE-100 index tumbled down 2,537.16 points,…

LAHORE: The fragile external financing system of Pakistan is one of the main reasons for the weak economic structure of the country, as heavy reliance on foreign loans continues to expose the economy to sudden shocks, business leaders and economists said. They added that the external debt profile remains tilted towards short-term borrowing, leaving little room for policy mistakes. “The government must immediately begin serious negotiations with friendly nations to secure longer repayment periods and ease pressure on foreign exchange reserves,” said Raja Waseem Hassan, Vice Chairman of the Pakistan…

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor has urged banks to focus on expanding the agricultural borrower base, strengthening inclusion of small farmers and scaling up digital delivery channels to support sustainable growth in the farming sector. Jameel Ahmad noted that agriculture remained critical for improving farm productivity, supporting rural livelihoods and ensuring food security. He emphasised the need for strengthening agricultural financial intermediation to support value addition, market linkages and sustainable growth in the sector. He made the remarks at a meeting of the Agricultural Credit Advisory Committee (ACAC)…