Cement price descends by Rs 10-12 per bag

ISLAMABAD — The price of cement in the country descended by Rs. 10-12 per bag to Rs. 418-420 per bag because of the decline in construction activities of throughout the country.
 
Zaheer Ahmad, Stock analyst, said that the price decline was due to sluggish construction activities as most of the labor was hired for harvesting wheat. He further said that the cement is available in surplus amount at the industries and the industrialists want to cash them soon. He depicted that the decrease in cement prices is for a short period and it will again boost up to Rs. 430-432 per bag. He said as the government will increase budget allocation in public sector which will give rise to the construction activities. The exports to India are expected to rise because of the removal of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) between the two countries.

FCCI serves disabled persons

FAISALABAD — Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) has distributed 50 tricycles among jobless disabled persons with the help of Libard and Turk International Cooperation Agency (TICA).
 
Muzammal Sulta, President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) addressed the tri-cycle distribution ceremony and said that FCCI is playing a key role in the progressing the business activities in the country by enabling the young and talented with their required resources and facilities. He said the tricycle distribution will help those jobless disabled persons to live a productive life in the society who finds it difficult to travel in town. Muhammad Naeem Anwar Chief Coordinator Libard, Rehan Naseem Bharara FCCI Vice President and Shahid Pervaiz Sheikh Chairman social welfare committee Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) also share their views on the occasion.

One million Americans to go bankrupt

GLOBAL – The National Bureau of Economic Research has reported that anywhere from 200,000 to 1 million Americans are “too poor” to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

 

Filing bankruptcy will allow millions of Americans to write off their debts and live a debt free life. This debt protection will cost more than $1500 to the individual that’s why Americans are waiting for the refundable amount of tax before filing for bankruptcy. The National Bureau of Economic Research conducted the study in collaboration of Columbia University, the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis who found that nearly 200,000 people would not have the money required to file if they didn’t use a tax refund specifically for filing bankruptcy. The study revealed that the documentation costs for this purpose is only $300 but the remaining $1200 goes to the law firms who represent their clients.

Attempt of smuggling foreign currency foiled

RAWALPINDI – The Airport Security Force (ASF) at Benazir Bhutto International Airport on Thursday grabbed a passenger for attempting to smuggle huge amount of foreign currency equivalent to over Rs162.5 million
 
Jamshaid Alam, an expat settled in Dubai, was handed over to the Customs Department after the foreign currency was retrieved from his belongings during security check-in. Arbab Qaisir, Deputy Collector Customs Investigation Wing, said, “The scope of investigation has been expanded after getting the mobile phone data of the passenger who had been a frequent traveler.” He further said, “We will interrogate on different lines to assure whether the amount is being smuggled out of the country for financial backing of the terror groups or it is a money laundering case.” He said the scanning machine indicated the currency covered in a plastic sheet when the passenger reached the ASF security check-in and placed his belongings in the scanning machine.

Details of the foreign currency

After the indication of scanning machine the customs officer took the luggage into hands and recovered 5.4 million Saudi riyals, 667,520 UAE dirham, 61,645 Qatari riyals, 28,940 British pounds, 3,465 euros, 75,650 Kuwait dinars, 7,140 Omani riyals, 2,300 French francs, 11,984 US dollars, 327 Bahraini dinars and 965 Canadian dollars. Arbab Qaisir is on the mission to reach the real culprit as he said, “We will try to trace the real owner of the currency”.

Mobile subscriptions on the rise

NATIONAL – The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has revealed that mobile subscribers in Pakistan have reached 118.3 Million as at March 31, 2012.

 

PTA has been updating its database regularly for the past few months and found an increase of one million subscribers in three quarters of the current financial year. The general teledensity continues to be driven by the cellular teledensity. As of March 2012, total teledensity reached 71.6 percent, as the cellular mobile teledensity stood up to 68.2 percent. The teledensities in fixed and wireless local loop remained steady, at 1.8 and 1.6 percent, respectively. According to estimates, the mobile industry is imparting over three million subscribers every month of which ten to fifteen percent are first time users.

However, due to the developments like multiple-sim and mobile number portability, the active customers are believed to be somewhere between 70-80 percent of total subscriptions.

Urdu should be regarded as National language

ISLAMABAD — Former Naval chief Iftikhar Ahmad Serohi and other Scholars at Shura Hamdard asked the government to apply Urdu as a National Language.

 

Iftikhar Ahmad and his companions said that Urdu should be applied and accepted formally as our National Language because the Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah has referred Urdu as National Language of Pakistan but regrettably the people who follow English don’t want Urdu as National Language.  They said the backwardness of the nation is the because of ignoring Urdu as our National language. The impotance of National language and its role in the development of the country was discussed at the monthly Ijlas of Shura Hamdard which was commanded by President Hamdard Foundation and Shura Hamdard Sadia Rashid.

Nation should be prepared for load shedding

ISLAMABAD – Nation should be prepared for the upcoming intense load shedding as the government notified the increase in power shortfall.

 

Syed Naveed Qamar, Federal Minister for water and power, said Pakistani nation is bearing load shedding because of the 6,000 megawatt shortfall but they should be prepared for further load shedding as the shortfall is about to increase in the near future with the increase in demand. He said the shortfall is because of the gap in demand and supply of electricity. At the second day of meeting with China-Pak Joint Energy Working Group, he said that the government is devoted to settle the prevalent energy crises with the co-operation if it’s supporting countries especially China.  He said apart from the challenges Pakistan is facing in energy sector, Chinese investors can avail a lot of investment opportunities to take benefit from.