KARACHI: Global ratings agency Fitch on Tuesday upgraded Pakistan’s foreign currency credit rating to ‘B-’ from ‘CCC+’ citing increased confidence in the country’s progress on narrowing its budget deficits, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif hailing it as a sign of the world’s growing confidence in Pakistan’s economy.
The upgrade reflects confidence that the country would implement structural reforms, supporting its International Monetary Fund (IMF) program performance and funding availability, Fitch said.
The agency said though ongoing global trade tensions could create external pressures on Pakistan, its low dependence on exports and market financing should mitigate risks.
“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomes the improvement in Pakistan’s economic rating by global credit rating company Fitch,” a statement by the premier’s office said.
“The improvement in the rating of Pakistan’s economy by international institutions is a manifestation of economic development and the confidence of the world community in Pakistan’s economy,” he added.
Sharif said his government is working “tirelessly” to further improve Pakistan’s economy.
Pakistan’s economy had been teetering on the brink of a sovereign default ever since inflation rose to a record high of 38 percent in May 2023 and reserves started declining rapidly.
However, Pakistan’s economy was provided breathing space thanks in part to a $7 billion bailout program from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In March, the IMF reached a new deal with Pakistan which could unlock $1.3 billion in cash.
Sharif’s government has vowed to implement the financial reforms, which include increasing the country’s tax base and privatizing loss-making entities to ensure sustainable growth.
PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) opposition party on Tuesday held coordinated rallies across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province to demand the release of jailed ex-premier Imran Khan but failed to mobilize masses in the capital Islamabad and other key regions, with more than 200 arrested for violating restrictions on public gatherings.
The rallies marked the second anniversary of Khan’s arrest and came amid a 90-day “do or die” protest campaign the party launched in mid-July. The PTI leadership has pledged peaceful but sustained mobilization against what it calls politically motivated cases against Khan and other party leaders.
Police arrested more than 240 opposition party activists at the protests calling for the release of Khan, security and police officials told Reuters. Most of the detentions were made on Monday night and early Tuesday in the eastern city of Lahore, where the PTI had promised its biggest demonstration.
KP, a province the PTI has ruled since 2018, saw widespread mobilization on Tuesday. District-level convoys converged on motorway interchanges and city centers across the province, but there was no clue of Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who was to supposed to lead the main gathering in Peshawar.
“At the call of their captain Imran Khan, the nation once again came out and proved that Imran will be there,” the PTI wrote on X on Tuesday evening.
Rallies were held in Swabi, Charsadda, Mardan, Nowshera, Mohmand, Battagram, Abbottabad, Upper Chitral, Shangla, Upper Dir, Mansehra and Kurram, among other areas.
“Free Imran Khan!” chanted supporters outside a Lahore courthouse, while smaller groups staged protests across the city, Reuters reported.
The federal capital of Islamabad and the nearby Rawalpindi city remained largely quiet, with heavy police deployments on main roads, while police fired teargas in the cities of Karachi and Muzaffarabad.
The protests followed a national call to action by PTI, which announced in July it would stage “do or die” demonstrations every week for 90 days to demand Khan’s release. The party’s leadership claims he is facing over 170 cases, including charges of corruption, sedition and terrorism, which they allege are part of a military-backed crackdown to keep him out of politics. The government and army deny the charges of political persecution.
The PTI ruled Pakistan from 2018 until 2022, when Khan was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote. He was arrested in May 2023 and again in August 2023, and is currently imprisoned at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, where he is serving sentences in multiple cases. He has also been disqualified from holding public office by Pakistan’s election commission.
The PTI has staged several protests in recent years to secure Khan’s release and demand an audit of the February 2024 general election, with a number of demonstrations resulting in clashes with law enforcers and in some cases paralyzing the capital Islamabad for days.
Pakistan’s election authorities deny the allegation of election irregularities, while the federal and Punjab governments have repeatedly warned in recent weeks that they would not tolerate any form of violence, accusing the PTI of trying to derail efforts for sustainable economic growth.
Khan’s party had always created “chaos,” Uzma Bukhari, a spokesperson of the Punjab provincial government, told a press conference on Monday.
“No political party can be barred from politics in Pakistan, but a terrorist organization disguised as a political party is not allowed to disrupt Pakistan’s peace.”
KARACHI: Pakistan has confirmed 19th polio case of this year after a 5-month-old child tested positive for the virus in the northwestern Lakki Marwat district, the country’s polio program said on Tuesday.
The latest infection marks the 12th polio case in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, which has long been identified as a high-risk zone for poliovirus transmission due to insecurity, vaccine hesitancy and operational challenges.
Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only effective protection is through repeated doses of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) for every child under five during each campaign, along with the timely completion of all essential immunizations.
“The continued detection of polio cases highlights the ongoing threat to children, especially in areas with low vaccine acceptance,” the polio program said. “It is crucial for communities to understand that repeated vaccination is essential to protect every child against poliovirus.”
Despite significant improvements in the quality of polio vaccination campaigns nationwide, the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remain a key area of concern due to restricted access, lack of female vaccinators and operational challenges in conducting house-to-house vaccination, according to the polio program.
“These barriers continue to hinder immunization efforts in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, leaving thousands of children unvaccinated,” it said. “Multiple doses are needed to build and maintain immunity. Every unvaccinated child remains at risk and may contribute to further transmission of the virus.”
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remains endemic. Islamabad made significant progress in curbing the virus, with annual cases dropping from around 20,000 in the early 1990s to just eight in 2018. Pakistan reported six cases in 2023 and only one in 2021, however, the country witnessed an intense resurgence of the poliovirus in 2024, with 74 cases reported.
Efforts to eradicate the virus have been repeatedly undermined by vaccine misinformation and resistance from some religious hard-liners who claim that immunization is a foreign plot to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western espionage. Militant groups have frequently targeted polio vaccination teams and the security personnel assigned to protect them, particularly in KP and Balochistan.
Health authorities will begin their next polio vaccination campaign in Pakistan on September 1, with a special focus on high-risk and priority areas including southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“Parents and caregivers are strongly encouraged to ensure their children receive polio drops during this important campaign to help protect them from lifelong paralysis,” the polio program said.
Indian army says no violation of ceasefire after reports of Pakistani firing
Social media reports claimed violation in Poonch region of Indian-administered Kashmir
Pakistan Army did not respond to a request for comment outside regular hours
Updated 05 August 2025
Reuters
NEW DELHI: The Indian army on Tuesday said there had been no violation of ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) that separates Indian-administered and Azad Kashmir, after some Indian media reported that Islamabad had violated the truce by opening fire.
“There have been some media and social media reports regarding ceasefire violation in Poonch region. It is clarified that there has been NO ceasefire violation along the Line of Control,” the army said.
The Pakistani army did not respond to a request for comment outside regular hours.
KARACHI: Pakistani real estate magnate Malik Riaz Hussain said on Tuesday his property empire was on the verge of total shutdown, blaming a widening state crackdown over what is widely believed to be his links with jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.
Hussain — one of Pakistan’s wealthiest and most influential businessmen, best known as the chairman of Bahria Town Limited — has spoken publicly for months about being pressured due to “political motives” and facing financial losses as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) opens cases against his property development projects across Pakistan. While he has not explicitly named who was pressuring him or why, media and analysts widely speculate the crackdown relates to the Al-Qadir Trust case, which involves accusations Khan and his wife, during his premiership from 2018-2022, were given land by Hussain as a bribe in exchange for illegal favors. In January, a court sentenced Khan to 14 years imprisonment in the Al-Qadir Trust case.
In January, NAB said it had kickstarted the process of seeking the extradition from the UAE of Hussain in connection with the land bribe case. Hussain has been widely known for decades for his links with political parties, the media and the civil and military establishment, and has been considered ‘untouchable’ in the past.
In a post on social media platform X on Tuesday, the property tycoon said authorities had frozen Bahria Town’s bank accounts, seized vehicles and arrested dozens of employees, which had “paralyzed” the company’s operations and brought development work to a halt.
“The situation has reached a point where we are being forced to completely shut down all Bahria Town activities across Pakistan,” Hussain said. “We apologize to the residents and stakeholders of Bahria Town.”
This file photo, taken on January 10, 2025, shows Pakistan's real estate tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain. (Photo courtesy: Malik Riaz/ Facebook/File)
In January, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said the government would pursue Hussain’s return from the United Arab Emirates. The same month, NAB had put out a public notice cautioning people against investing in Hussain’s new real estate venture to build luxury apartments in Dubai:
“If the general public at large invests in the stated project, their actions would be tantamount to money laundering, for which they may face criminal and legal proceedings.”
Responding to NAB on X at the time, Hussain had said “fake cases, blackmailing and greed of officers” had forced him to relocate from the country because he was not willing to be a “political pawn.”
More recently, local media has reported that Hussain may have left the UAE for an unknown location to avoid extradition proceedings.
In his X post on Tuesday, Hussain appealed to state institutions to adopt a more conciliatory approach:
“I make a final appeal from the bottom of my heart for a chance to return to serious dialogue and a dignified resolution. For this purpose, we assure you of our full participation in any arbitration process and our commitment to implementing its decision 100 percent. I also assure you that if the arbitration decision requires payment of money from our side, we will ensure its payment.”
Bahria Town, founded in the late 1990s, is one of Pakistan’s largest private employers and a major developer of luxury housing schemes across the country. Over the years, the company has been the subject of multiple investigations over illegal land acquisitions and unauthorized development but has continued to operate.
AL-QADIR TRUST CASE
In 2019, Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said Hussain had agreed to hand over 190 million pounds held in Britain to settle a UK investigation into whether the money was from the proceeds of crime.
The NCA said it had agreed to a settlement in which Hussain would hand over a property, 1 Hyde Park Place, valued at 50 million pounds, and cash frozen in British bank accounts.
The NCA had previously secured nine freezing orders covering 140 million pounds in the accounts on the grounds that the money may have been acquired illegally.
The agency said the assets would be passed to the government of Pakistan and the settlement with Hussain was “a civil matter, and does not represent a finding of guilt.”
The case made against Hussain and ex-PM Khan was that instead of putting the tycoon’s settlement money in Pakistan’s treasury, Khan’s government used the money to pay fines levied by a court against Hussain for illegal acquisition of government lands at below-market value for development in Karachi.
Hussain, who hasn’t appeared before an anti-graft agency to submit his reply to summons issued to him, has denied any wrongdoing. Khan and his wife have also pleaded innocence.
ISLAMABAD: The Abu Dhabi (AD) Ports Group, a leading Emirati maritime and logistics provider, on Tuesday announced the opening of its first representative office in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad, aiming to facilitate partnerships in maritime, logistics and other key domains.
The announcement comes months after AD Ports signed four memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with Pakistan in November last year to explore opportunities to upgrade the country’s maritime, rail, airport, customs and logistics infrastructure.
The move coincides with Pakistan’s efforts to attract international investment, particularly from Gulf countries, with a focus on strategic sectors such as ports and shipping, aviation and logistics to drive sustainable economic growth.
“The new office will serve as a critical platform for deepening engagement with government stakeholders and advancing priority infrastructure and trade initiatives,” the AD Ports Group said in a statement.
“As a client-facing and administrative hub, the Islamabad office will also support ongoing operations and facilitate strategic partnerships in the ports, maritime, logistics, and industrial development sectors.”
The development reflects the depth of the bilateral relationship and shared vision for long-term economic cooperation between the two countries, according to the Emirati port operator.
It follows a series of high-impact investments by AD Ports Group in Pakistan, including $295 million committed toward the development and enhancement of container, bulk, and general cargo terminals at Karachi Port’s East Wharf, which are central to the Group’s strategy to support the transformation of Pakistan into a regional trade and logistics hub.
On the occasion, AD Ports CEO Capt. Mohamed Juma Al-Shamisi said the opening of the Islamabad office marks a significant milestone in the Group’s global expansion strategy.
“This move will enable closer collaboration with government entities and strategic partners, positioning AD Ports Group as a key contributor to Pakistan’s economic transformation,” he said.
“Our growing footprint, underpinned by significant investments in critical port infrastructure, aligns with our wise leadership vision for trade facilitation, industrial diversification and sustainable development.”
The UAE is Pakistan’s third-largest trading partner after China and the United States, and the second biggest source of foreign remittances to Pakistan after .
Pakistan holds a strategic geographic position as a maritime gateway to Central Asia, making it a crucial element in AD Ports Group’s vision to establish an integrated trade corridor stretching from China to Europe, according to maritime and logistics provider.
AD Ports Group entered Pakistan in 2022 with a landmark 50-year concession to develop and operate container berths 6–10 at Karachi Port’s East Wharf in partnership with Kaheel Terminals. This was followed by a second 50-year agreement in 2023 to manage berths 11–17 for general and bulk cargo.
In July 2024, the group also signed an agreement to invest $250 million over the next decade in Pakistan with plans to develop a state-of-the-art port facility in the coastal city of Karachi.
