Day: July 18, 2026

Islamabad: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar on Friday concluded a two-day “productive” official visit to Shanghai, China, expressing sincere appreciation to the Chinese government and its leadership for their warm hospitality and excellent arrangements.

“Just concluded a productive visit to Shanghai, China. I express my sincere appreciation to the Government of the People’s Republic of China and its leadership for its warm hospitality and excellent arrangements throughout my short visit,” Deputy Prime Minister Dar wrote on his X timeline.

He commended Chinese President Xi Jinping for his insightful keynote address at the opening ceremony of the World AI Cooperation Organization, in which he aptly observed, ‘AI is an invaluable asset that accumulates the collective wisdom of humanity’ which is a timely reminder that this transformative technology carries both immense promise and a shared responsibility to ensure it serves the common good.

The deputy prime minister thanked Foreign Minister Wang Yi for his warm hospitality and their productive discussions.

“We reaffirmed our shared commitment to the continued advancement of the Pakistan-China All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership, with a special focus on high-quality development under CPEC 2.0, including the Siah Diq mining project, Karakoram Highway (KKH) Realignment Project, as well as other priority areas of bilateral cooperation agreed between our two countries during the official visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in May 2025,” he sharing details of their bilateral meeting.

He also commended the valuable contributions of his accompanying delegation, including Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Adviser to Chief Minister of Punjab on Artificial Intelligence and Special Initiatives Ali Mustafa Dar, Chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) Bilal Bin Saqib, and Additional Secretary (Asia Pacific) Dr. Syed Asad Ali Gillani, whose dedication helped make this visit both productive and successful.

Appreciating the officials of the Pakistan Mission and Shanghai consulate in China for their support during the visit, Dar said he was returning to Islamabad for an “important next week of diplomatic engagements and other official responsibilities.”

Islamabad: The National Highways and Motorway Police (NHMP) on Friday foiled an attempt to smuggle non-custom-paid medicines worth over Rs 1 million on the Hakla-DI Khan Motorway and arrested a suspect during a routine patrol.

According to an NHMP spokesperson, Motorway Police officers intercepted a suspicious vehicle during patrolling and recovered a large quantity of non-custom-paid medicines during a search.

The spokesperson said one suspect present in the vehicle was taken into custody.

Initial investigations revealed that the accused was attempting to smuggle the medicines from Zhob to Peshawar.

The recovered medicines and the vehicle were handed over to Customs authorities for further legal proceedings.

Islamabad: The prices of gold witnessed a decrease in the local market on Friday, with the price of 24-karat gold per tola falling by Rs3,600 to Rs421,836, according to rates issued by the All Pakistan Sarafa Gems and Jewellers Association.

Similarly, the price of 10 grams of 24-karat gold decreased by Rs3,086 to Rs361,656, while the price of 10 grams of 22-karat gold declined by Rs2,828 to Rs331,530.

In the international market, the price of gold decreased by US$36 to US$3,994 per ounce.

Meanwhile, the price of 24-karat silver per tola declined by Rs126 to Rs6,029, while the price of 10 grams of silver decreased by Rs108 to Rs5,168.

The price of silver in the international market also fell by US$1.26 to US$55.50 per ounce, the association reported.

Islamabad: Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) organized a road safety awareness walk to encourage compliance with traffic laws and promote responsible road use among citizens.

An official told reporter on Friday that the awareness walk, attended by members of civil society, journalists and students, started from Jinnah Avenue and concluded at Express Chowk.

Following the walk, Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Kainat Azhar Khan addressed the media and said violations such as lane discipline breaches, wrong-way driving and riding motorcycles without helmets endangered not only the lives of violators but also those of other road users.

She said strict legal action was being taken against traffic violators, adding that serious violations of traffic laws could prove fatal and must be avoided at all costs.

The CTO Kainat urged citizens to avoid using non-standard number plates, illegal parking and overloading of vehicles, stressing that compliance with traffic regulations was essential for ensuring safer roads.

Kainat said the purpose of organizing road safety workshops and awareness activities was to build public awareness and promote a culture of responsible driving.

She urged citizens to demonstrate responsible and civilized behavior on the roads by making adherence to traffic laws a part of their daily lives.

Islamabad: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, chaired a meeting of the Capital Market Development Council (CMDC) to review progress on capital market reforms, with particular focus on accelerating the development of Pakistan’s corporate debt market and strengthening capital markets as an important source of long-term financing for the private sector.

According to press release issued by finance ministry, the meeting reviewed the current state of Pakistan’s capital markets, with particular focus on accelerating the development of the corporate debt market and broadening access to diversified financing sources.

The finance minister observed that while the equity market has demonstrated encouraging progress, the corporate debt market continues to remain underdeveloped relative to the financing needs of the economy.

Further efforts are required to deepen the debt capital market, reduce reliance on bank financing, promote diversified market-based financing, and create a more balanced and resilient financial ecosystem capable of meeting the evolving financing needs of the private sector, particularly, the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

The participants discussed the scope and terms of reference (TORs) of a detailed external study on the development of Pakistan’s local currency-linked bond market, which is underway.

The study will encompass key reform priorities across sovereign financing, non-bank financial institutions, primary dealer arrangements, secondary market development, market infrastructure, development of hedging and derivatives markets, and the broader capital market ecosystem.

The finance minister emphasized that the study should provide practical, evidence-based recommendations supported by international benchmarking to guide future reforms.

The meeting also took stock of findings from the awareness and experience surveys and stakeholder consultations undertaken by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to assess the challenges faced by the top-100 listed companies in accessing the corporate debt market in Pakistan.

Appreciating the initiatives already undertaken, the minister highlighted the need to expand engagement beyond the largest listed companies to include a broader segment of medium-sized enterprises and other growth-oriented businesses that could benefit from capital market financing.

Aurangzeb underscored the need for dedicated institutional capacity to accelerate debt market reforms and advised the SECP and the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) to establish dedicated Debt Desks at the senior management level with clearly defined mandates, measurable performance indicators, and responsibility for driving implementation and reporting progress.

He also emphasized the need to foster a more competitive and efficient capital market ecosystem by encouraging greater institutional capacity and competition among market intermediaries and market infrastructure providers, with a view to improving market efficiency, enhancing service quality, and reducing transaction costs for both issuers and investors.

Participants also deliberated on simplifying the corporate debt issuance process through greater coordination among the SECP, PSX, and Central Depository Company (CDC).

In this regard, the finance minister called for the development of a streamlined one-window listing framework supported by standardized procedures, end-to-end process mapping, greater digital integration, and enhanced digital facilitation to improve transparency and ease of access for prospective issuers, while publishing a simplified corporate debt listing workflow on their respective websites.

Discussions further covered the continued development of Pakistan’s Islamic capital market, including measures to deepen the domestic Sukuk market, strengthen secondary market liquidity and trading, and facilitate greater issuance of green and sustainable financial instruments.

The participants also reviewed policy proposals relating to taxation, SME preparedness, financial literacy, digital distribution platforms to broaden investor participation, and institutional support aimed at enabling a broader range of businesses to access capital market financing.

Emphasizing the need to move from discussion to implementation, Aurangzeb underscored that the Council’s future work should be organized around thematic reform areas supported by dedicated working groups to accelerate decision-making and execution.

He stressed that recommendations emerging from stakeholder consultations, technical studies and international best practices should be translated into time-bound and actionable reform measures with clearly defined ownership, milestones, and periodic progress reviews.

The meeting was attended by Chairman SECP, representatives of the State Bank of Pakistan, PSX, CDC, National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited, Pakistan Banks’ Association, Pakistan Business Council, Tax Policy Office along with senior officials of the Finance Division.

Islamabad: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI)-based weekly inflation increased by 1.40 percent during the week ended on July 16, 2026, for the combined consumption group, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

According to PBS data, the SPI for the week under review rose to 357.61 points from 352.66 points recorded in the previous week. On a year-on-year basis, the SPI increased by 13.09 percent.

The weekly SPI, with base year 2015-16=100, covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.

The SPI for the lowest consumption group (up to Rs 17,732) increased by 1.11 percent to 346.78 points from 342.98 points.

Likewise, the SPI for consumption groups of Rs 17,733-22,888, Rs 22,889-29,517, Rs 29,518-44,175 and above Rs 44,175 increased by 1.18 percent, 1.17 percent, 1.28 percent and 1.58 percent, respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 27 items (52.94 percent) increased, four items (7.84 percent) decreased, while 20 items (39.22 percent) remained unchanged.

On a week-on-week basis, the prices of tomatoes witnessed the sharpest increase of 22.79 percent, followed by chicken 14.66 percent, LPG 12.46 percent, diesel 4.41 percent, petrol 4.40 percent, garlic 3.72 percent, eggs 2.15 percent, Tea Lipton 1.56 percent, onions 1.53 percent, potatoes 0.85 percent, tea prepared 0.42 percent and firewood 0.18 percent.

On the other hand, prices of bananas declined by 0.80 percent, followed by pulse moong 0.70 percent, sugar 0.36 percent and pulse masoor 0.10 percent.

On a year-on-year basis, prices of potatoes declined by 36.28 percent, followed by pulse gram 21.71 percent, sugar 21.10 percent, chicken 16.71 percent, salt powder 14.09 percent, pulse masoor 13.19 percent, eggs 12.42 percent and pulse moong 8.08 percent over the corresponding week of last year.

Major annual increases were recorded in the prices of tomatoes by 210.18 percent, followed by onions 75.93 percent, wheat flour 71.81 percent, electricity charges for Q1 49.14 percent, LPG 42.50 percent, gas charges for Q1 29.85 percent, gents sponge chappal 16.69 percent, mutton 16.02 percent, chilies powder 15.20 percent, beef 13.60 percent, bananas 10.82 percent and bread 9.69 percent, according to the PBS.