Saudi Arabia launches Ramadan iftar, dates distribution program in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) saw a significant decline of 1,200 points on Monday, currency traders and analysts said, attributing the slump to uncertainty over the outcome of Islamabad’s talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $1 billion tranche.
The benchmark KSE-100 index dropped by 1,264.78 points, or 1.12 percent, to 111,986.88 points, compared to Friday’s close of 113,251.66.
The development came as an IMF team arrived in Pakistan for the first review of a $7 billion loan program Islamabad secured in September.
“Foreign outflows, weak rupee, lower global crude oil prices and uncertainty over outcome of Pakistan-IMF talks this week played a catalyst role in the bearish close,” Ahsan Mehanti, CEO of Arif Habib Commodities, told Arab News.
Pakistan’s ARY News channel reported that the IMF was demanding action against tax evasion in Pakistan’s real estate sector.
“The IMF pushed for action against those misdeclaring property values,” ARY News reported, saying the government had assured the global lender it would activate the Real Estate Regulatory Authority.
Naveed Nadeem, a senior equity trader at Topline Securities Limited, said the negative sentiment at the market was driven by the lack of a positive trigger, Engro earnings falling short of expectations and shorter trading hours.
“Key stocks contributing to the downturn included ENGROH, UBL, MCB, MTL, and PPL, which together accounted for a drop of 731 points in the index,” he said.
“Despite the downturn, overall market activity saw 207 million shares traded, with a total turnover of Rs 11.8 billion.”

LONDON: The eradication of polio as a global health threat may be delayed unless US funding cuts – potentially totaling hundreds of millions of dollars over several years – are reversed, a senior World Health Organization official has warned.
The WHO works with groups such as UNICEF and the Gates Foundation to end polio. The planned withdrawal of the United States from WHO has impacted efforts, including stopping collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last week, UNICEF’s polio grant was terminated as the State Department cut 90 percent of USAID’s grants worldwide to align aid with President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ policy.
In total, the partnership is missing $133 million from the US that was expected this year, said Hamid Jafari, director of the polio eradication program for the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region. The area includes two countries where a wild form of polio is spreading: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“If the funding shortfall continues, it may potentially delay eradication, it may lead to more children getting paralyzed,” he said, adding that the longer it took to end polio, the more expensive it would be.
He said the partners were working out ways to cope with the funding shortage, which will largely impact personnel and surveillance, but hoped the US would return to funding the fight against polio.
“We are looking at other funding sources ... to sustain both the priority staff and priority activities,” he said.
He said vaccination campaigns in both Afghanistan and Pakistan would be protected.
UNICEF did not respond to requests for comment, and a spokesperson for the Gates Foundation reiterated that no foundation could fill the gap left by the US Saudi Arabia gave $500 million to polio eradication last week.
The partnership already faces a $2.4 billion shortfall to 2029, as it accepted last year that it would take longer, and cost more, to eradicate the disease than hoped.