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Despite facing severe foreign exchange shortage and being under economic crisis, the government of Pakistan has ordered a massive hike of 30 per cent in development funds to PKR 90 billion for Parliamentarians, according to Dawn.
The decision was made during a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Wednesday, which also authorised nearly PKR 1 billion in additional funding for the upkeep of the Supreme Court of Pakistan judges's rest homes and residences in various cities across the nation. The ECC meeting, presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, also approved an assistance programme for the relatives of people who perished during a recent political march and a 25 percent price rise for a vial used in pregnancy tests, reported Dawn. The meeting postponed making a decision over a request to raise the pricing of 54 other medications. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that Pakistan faced fiscal and economic challenges a day earlier and wanted the IMF support to sail through these difficult times. Pakistan, which is due to receive USD 10 billion payout in coming months amid its faltering economy, is in a soup over its shoddy past of corruption, reported Islam Khabar. Pakistan already owes the world about USD 100 billion, USD 21 billion of which is due to be repaid to the creditors in this fiscal. As 2023 unfolds, the nation is bound to repeat the vicious cycle of borrowing from one creditor to pay off another, only to buy more time to pay the original amount while slowly driving itself off the cliff, reported Islam Khabar. Over the past three days, owing to a major power breakdown in major cities of Pakistan including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and Quetta, the status of citizens has been reduced to that of animals and insects fighting on the streets for a morsel of bread braving the cold, the report read. People are running wild stealing wheat and pulses owing to inflation, the report said, adding that flour is disappearing from the storage hideouts where it was held to fetch higher prices in ignorance of the hungry population. (ANI)
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