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Sha’aban-ul-Moazzam 30 1468 AH.
Unprovoked Indian shelling in Bhimber, AJK Authorities said a woman was killed when Indian troops resorted to unprovoked shelling from across the Line of Control in the early hours of Friday. Sixty-year-old Farzand Begum, a resident of Naali village in Bhimber district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, died when a shell exploded in her house. Ramazan to start on Sunday as moon not sighted The moon, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramazan, was not sighted on Friday and the first day of the holy month will now fall on Sunday (May 28). The announcement was made by the Chairman of Central Rue t-i-H i la l C om m it t e e Pakistan, Mufti Munibur Rehman, in a press conference held after the conclusion of an official meeting of the committee on Friday in the federal capital. SBP to obser ved ‘Bank Holiday’ on May 29 The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will remain closed for public dealings on May 29, 2017, which will be observed as `Bank Holiday for the purpose of deduction of Zakat, according to the notification. Moreover, it was stated that all banks, development finance institutions (DFI) and microfinance banks (MFBs) will remain closed for public dealing on May 29, 2017. Govt employees gets 10% salary-raise Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, during his Budget 2017-18 speech on Friday, announced a salary raise for government employees in the country. A 10pc hike in salary has been given to the people working in government institutions. According to details, ad-hoc reliefs added in 2009-10 will be incorporated into the salaries. A 10% special allowance will also be provided in the salaries of Pakistan Army soldiers. 10% percent has been allowed in salaries and pensions of government employees.
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Rs1 trillion development budget is unprecedented: PM Sharif
ISLAMABAD—Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday said the allocation of Rs. 1 trillion development budget for the next financial year is unprecedented in the history of the country. The prime minister was addressing a parliamentary meeting of the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) as the government prepares to unveil the annual budget for 2017-2018. This is fifth and last budget of the current PML-N government which took over in 2013. Prime Minister said despite the huge problems that his government inherited in 2013, Pakistan was stronger and more stable today. “We are accountable to the people of Pakistan and they will decide as to who delivered and who did not,” the Prime Minister told the parliamentarians. According to the remarks shared by PM’s Media Office, the Prime Minister said his government believed in the rule of values and not that of power and was serving the people of Pakistan with utmost sincerity. He said his government worked very hard and now the development projects were being completed on a fast pace with utmost transparency and efficiency. He regretted that in the past development projects were delayed and cost over-run was common,
however now savings were being achieved on these projects. He said the government was not only working on energy projects but was also trying to make energy affordable for the consumers. He said the projects under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) were being completed on fast pace and said by next few months 3600 MW would be added to the national grid. The Prime Minister said his government was working for providing a secure base for sustainable energy sources for Pakistan. “We are working hard to complete even those projects that were abandoned … because we want development of Pakistan and our people,” the Prime Minister said. He said the whole country was being connected through network of roads and motorways. This connectivity would bring huge dividends for business, industry, exports. He said the government was working on governance reforms, which was a long process with opposition from various segments. However said that his government wa determined to bring in positive reforms. He said the security situation has improved during the tenure of the PML-N government. He said his government also focused on development of AJ&K, Gilgit Baltistan and FATA to bring these at par with other provinces.
Khurshid Shah defends farmers protesting in Islamabad
Opposition Leader said Friday during the National Assembly session on Budget 2017-18, oppression of farmers in Islamabad will not be tolerated. Farmers were marching towards the parliament while protesting ahead of budget announcement and clashed with police which intensified the situation. Metro bus service was also suspended due to the clash. He recorded the protest before Finance Minsiter Ishaq Dar’s budget speech. He complained saying occurrence of a bad incident in Sindh makes people emotional while cruelty with farmers is being ignored. “Farmers demand their rights,” he said. Commenting on the farmers protest in the capital city, Opposition Leader recalled that firing bullets and baton charge of farmers never happened in their era. He asked, “What’s the difference between you and a dictator?” Khurshid Shah told his party had no plans of staging a protest
but they couldn t keep silent on cruel behaviour with farmers. While clarifying the whole incident, he affirmed that the farmers were not protesting in red zone and they were beaten despite a peaceful demonstration. He mentioned contacting other political parties to express combined support for the agriculturists. Opposition lawmakers were wearing black ribbons during National Assembly Budget 2017-18 session to symbolise support for farmers. Later on, during Ishaq Dar’s speech, most of the members of Opposition walked out of the parliament in protest before making loud noise and chanting slogans against the ruling PML-N government. Opposition Leader asked parliamentarians not to disturb the budget session and requested the government to lift the sales tax on farmers.
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Budget of Rs: 5,103.8 billion for 2017-18 unveiled
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday presented the Rs: 5,103.8 billion budget for 2017-2018. The budget size is 4.3 percent higher than the size of the budget estimates 201617. The minister described the budget as incentive and relief-laden federal budget that he said will spur growth and development. The budget envisages merger of fifty percent adhoc relief allowance granted to civil employees and adhoc allowances of 2009 and 2010 for personnel of armed forces with the salary and ten percent adhoc relief allowance on the basic salary after merger. Zarb-e-Azb allowance for armed forces personnel will be in addition to this. The Minister announced ten percent increase in pensions. Minimum wages have been increased from the existing 14000 to fifteen thousand per month. Several allowances of different categories of employees have also been increased. These include sixty percent increase in daily allowance rate, enhancement of orderly allowance from 12000 to 14000 rupees, increase in the rate of burial grant from 1600 to 4800 and from 5000 to 15000 rupees; constant Attendant Allowance from 3000 to 7000 rupees and fifty percent increase in design allowance.
B a t m a n a l low a n c e a n d Hardlying Pay for Pakistan Navy and different allowance of Pakistan Post have also been increased. Personnel of frontier constabulary would get a fixed monthly allowance of eight thousand rupees irrespective of their deployment in any part of the country. The finance minister said the government will bear an additional burden of 125 billion rupees because of relief to government employees. The f inance minister announced launching of a new national saving scheme for the welfare of family members of martyrs. Under this scheme, heirs of martyrs of Pakistan Army, police and other security institutions will get an extra profit. Pakistan Savings will bring their branches online and introduce ATM cards and mobile and internet banking for the benefit of its customers. The budget of Pakistan Baitul Maal would be increased from the existing 4 to 6 billion rupees. He announced revival of the scheme launched by PML (N) government in 1999 envisaging payment of all dues of HBFC mortgage by the widows. The limit of loan for this scheme has been increased from three hundred thousand to five hundred thousand rupees. He said a one billion dollar
non-convertible bond would be issued to attract investment by overseas Pakistanis in the country’s infrastructure. The Capital Development Authority will also announce a separate sector to afford opportunity to overseas Pakistanis to make secured investment in real estate. The Finance Minister said all pending refunds of sales tax would be paid in two phases. Those involving one million rupee would be cleared by 15th of July and others by 14th of August this year. Ishaq Dar also announced relief measures relating to sales tax and federal excise duty for different sectors of economy. These include elimination of additional tax on lubricant oil by marketing companies, reduction in sales tax rates on import of hybrid electric vehicles at par with locally manufactured vehicles, automatic stay in cases related to federal excise duty till decision of appeal and elimination of withholding tax on supplies between registered individuals. The Finance Minister said that sales tax rate has been reduced from seventeen to seven percent on several different types of machinery used in poultry sector. Sales tax rate on multimedia projectors for use in educational institutions would be reduced from the existing seventeen to ten percent.—DNA
Pakistan Muslim League (PML) senior central leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Ch Parvez Elahi has termed the new federal budget as anti-people. He said that the PML-N government instead of providing relief is continuously giving pains to all segments including the poor, farmers, workers and traders, increase in salary and pension of government servants is very low as compared to price hike day by day, Nawaz Sharif and Ishaq Dar should stop pleasing Indian farmers, rulers Kissan packages are false which have been reduced to patwari packages, they will not get anything
even from new budget and electricity prices will also not come down. In a statement Friday, he strongly condemned oppression and violence on peaceful farmers protesting for solution of their problems and rights on budget day in Islamabad and said that peaceful protest is right of everyone but the rulers are dead drunk in power, there was no justification for brutal violence, lathi charge and tear gassing as well as arrests of the farmers, who are backbone of the national economy the rulers have once again proved that N-League government is enemy of the farmers whereas when
how a country can be prosperous when its farmers are not prosperous. He said Nawaz Sharif has only one motto “Modi friendship” and he does not want to annoy Modi in any manner, this the reason that import of India’s tomatoes, potatoes and other food items is being promoted and economic murder of own farmers being committed by providing them costly electricity and other items and this we will not tolerate in any case, the government should discard its anti-farmers tactics and should refrain from policies which are destroying the farmers.
Ch Parvez Elahi terms federal budget anti-people