ISLAMABAD (July 30, 2010): The Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet meeting with Minister for Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh in the chair on Thursday approved import of 375,000 tons sugar. The commodity would be sold at USC outlets during Ramazan at Rs 55 per kg.

ISLAMABAD (July 30, 2010): The role of Chairman Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), S. Anjum Bashir, was stoutly defended by his immediate boss Commerce Minister Makdoom Amin Fahim in the meeting of Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on Thursday, well informed sources told Business Recorder.

ISLAMABAD (July 30, 2010): "We have to achieve some milestones such as asking provinces to reduce their deficits by mobilising more revenue and to cut some expenditures and increasing revenue by the federal government," Secretary Finance Salman Siddique said. The Finance Ministry is focusing fully on achieving macro stability.

ISLAMABAD (July 30, 2010): The Energy Task Force (ETF), headquartered in Asian Development Bank's office in Islamabad, co-chaired by ADB Country Director, Rune Stroem and Secretary Water and Power, Shahid Rafi, urged the government to increase power tariff to attain full cost recovery effective July 1, 2010. If this proposal is accepted power tariff of some consumer categories of inefficient Discos is expected to be increased by 200 percent.

ISLAMABAD (July 30, 2010): Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has unearthed an irregularity amounting to millions of rupees in Mari Gas Company Limited (MGCL) on account of purchase of land in Rawalpindi without prior approval of Ministry of Petroleum and has directed that the plot be sold and its proceeds added to gas price application, Business Recorder has learnt reliably.

ISLAMABAD (July 30, 2010): The government on Thursday raised CNG price by Rs 1.73 per kg (province-wise) in line with increase in electricity, gas tariff and GST effective July 30, 2010. The price of CNG in Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa and Balochistan has been increased from Rs 55.30 per kg to Rs 57.03 per kg and Rs 53.63 per kg to Rs 55.63 per kg in Punjab and Sindh.

ISLAMABAD (July 30, 2010): Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday warned US and its allies, particularly UK, against negating or belittling sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in the war on terror, saying that such an attitude may even harm the on-going war against terrorists and extremists.

ISLAMABAD (July 30, 2010): Pakistan on Thursday asked its Ambassador in Kabul to seek clarification from Afghan government over the anti-Pakistan remarks of President Hamid Karzai, but nothing has been done yet on a similar statement made by British Prime Minister David Cameron the other day in India.

NEW DELHI (July 30, 2010): The prime ministers of India and Britain called on Pakistan Thursday to crack down on militant groups operating from its territory. "No-one is in any doubt, least of all the Pakistani government themselves, that there have been and still are terrorist organisations like the LeT and others that need to be cracked down on and eliminated," Britain's David Cameron said.

WASHINGTON (July 30, 2010): Only one in five Pakistanis view their president, Asif Ali Zardari, favourably while the country's army chief gets a more positive rating, according to a new opinion poll released on Thursday. The US-based Pew Research Center said of about 2,000 adults interviewed in Pakistan in April, only 20 percent saw Zardari positively, down from 64 percent in a poll two years ago. The margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points.