October 30th, 2008 by The Online Reporter
A powerful earthquake hit Balochistan and according to newspapers more then 210 people have been died and thousands are injured.
According to officials there were two tremors and three aftershocks which destroyed every thing, lots of villages have been completely destroyed and many homes were buried in a landslide triggered by the quake.
“There were two tremors, the second one was serious and people rushed out of their houses,” said resident Amjad Hussain. Quetta suffered almost complete destruction in an earthquake in 1935, with the death of about 30,000 people. More than 73,000 people were killed in an earthquake in north-west Pakistan in October 2005 and almost an equal number were seriously injured.
October 29th, 2008 by The Online Reporter
Moody’s Inverters Service lowered Pakistan’s ratings to B3 which can cause more problems for government of Pakistan to get funds to avoid default situation.
The rating on Pakistan’s government bonds was reduced by Moody’s to B3 from B2, six rankings below investment grade and the same level as Argentina, Lebanon and Bolivia.
“This adds to Pakistan’s economic difficulties,’’ said Habibur Rehman at Atlas Asset Management. “The IMF now seems to be the last option.’’
October 28th, 2008 by The Online Reporter
IMF raised objection and stopped World Bank to issue $300 million loan to Pakistan for its development and to over-come current economic crisis, World Bank has announced to cancel this debt program.
According to a British news agency, this unexpected step taken by the World Bank would shock the plan B designed by advisor finance Shaukat Tareen to save Pakistan from economic disaster. Under this plan, the advisor finance had made the programme of collecting four billion dollars within 30 days.
However, the Pakistan official said that the government hoped that the IMF would not oppose this programme under the economic circumstances of Pakistan.
October 27th, 2008 by The Online Reporter
“We have to take unpopular decisions to seek solutions of economic, energy and other crises,” Zardari said. But what kind of unpopular decisions President Zardari is talking about? This newspaper cartoon explicitly describing a condition of poor common man in Pakistan, imagine a person who is already living hand to mouth, could he afford unpopular or strict decisions from his own democratic government any more?
Our president is talking about taking unpopular and bold decisions to pull out country from present crisis it would be much batter if our nation could come out of this crisis without bothering a common man anymore.
October 26th, 2008 by The Online Reporter
This newspaper cartoon shows that IMF has decided to trap Pakistan with its financial package. Diplomatic sources in the US capital say that the Fund has agreed in principle to help Pakistan avoid defaulting on its foreign debt repayments but a final decision can only be taken by its governors. The IMF has estimated that Pakistan has unmet funding needs of around $4 billion and needs some extra cash to meet its other urgent requirements. The Fund is willing to provide up to $6 billion.
But what will the next situation for Pakistani public? Could they bear more inflation? Could they bear more surcharged in their utility bills?
