Latest News
Official data: Foreign funding to Pakistan up 83% YoY basis
The country has witnessed a large increase in foreign finance during the current fiscal year, as per official statistics that has shown a significant jump in external inflows compared to the last year.
The country got $11 billion in external loans between July and April, up by roughly 83% from $6 billion in the same time last year, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Both bilateral and multilateral inflows had aided the rise in foreign financing, as had deferred payment arrangements and rollovers of existing deposits.
The ministry said overall external financial inflows during the period included $8.31 billion of non-project financing and $2.7566 billion of project financing.
Pakistan also got $120 million in grants over the same time compared with $570 million in the same period last year.
Much of the inflows came in April 2026 alone, when the country received roughly $4.5 billion.
Saudi Arabia was among the primary contributors, providing a $1 billion oil finance facility through deferred payment agreements. The Islamic Development Bank provided loans of $480 million.
Multilateral lenders also made a major contribution, including $1.924 billion from the Asian Development Bank and $1.6639 billion from the World Bank Group.
The article also stated that $3 billion in deposits from Saudi Arabia had already been rolled over, with an additional $9 billion in safe deposit rollovers planned from Saudi Arabia and China throughout the fiscal year.
Pakistan repaid $3 billion to United Arab Emirates in April 2026. In sum, the Ministry of Economic Affairs forecasts the overall external inflows for the current financial year to be $19.39 billion.
Latest News
Amazon raised worries about Anthropic AI models before US crackdown, source says
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was among tech titans who raised security concerns to senior Trump administration officials this week over Anthropic’s most advanced AI models, a person familiar with the subject told Reuters.
Jassy’s presence underscores the dramatic step taken by Anthropic on Friday to shut down its newest models worldwide under national security demands from the administration of President Donald Trump.
The San Francisco-based AI startup, which has confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering, had previously warned about hacking capabilities of its Mythos model and held it back from wide release, but earlier this week, Anthropic rolled out a public version, called Fable, with what it described as cybersecurity safeguards.
That brief release was over Friday. In a blog post, Anthropic said the U.S. government notified the company it believes there is a way to bypass, or “jailbreak,” a protection against using the model to uncover cybersecurity flaws.
In a blog post, Anthropic said the bypass only revealed “minor” security weaknesses that other publicly available models may find.
The Trump administration told the business to prevent any foreign nationals, inside or outside the U.S., from utilising both its latest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, Anthropic stated. Anthropic responded by saying it would block access to the models worldwide.
Amazon will not say if it had spoken to government officials regarding Anthropic’s models.
“It is not unusual for governments to ask us for advice about potential security issues because we are a leading cloud provider serving a large number of customers in the public and private sectors,” an Amazon spokeswoman said. “When they happen, we don’t disclose the details of these discussions.”
EXPORT RESTRICTIONS
Earlier Saturday, tech news site The Information highlighted Jassy’s concerns. The Information later reported, citing a U.S. official, that the administration was unlikely to require other AI companies to adhere to limits comparable to those placed on Anthropic.
Reuters could not immediately confirm plans by the Trump administration to regulate other corporations.
The U.S. government’s prohibitions were an export control, Anthropic stated in its blog post. The Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Commerce Department, which supervises export controls, did not react right away to a request for comment.
Officials issued the export control “reluctantly” after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei “refused” to “fix the jail break or de-deploy the model”, White House adviser David Sacks stated in a social media post on Saturday.
“The hope now is that Anthropic remediates the safety issue, the export control is lifted, and Fable goes back into general release,” wrote Sacks, co-chair of Trump’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and once the White House’s AI czar.
Some advocates of export limits were puzzled by the Trump administration’s move because it also applies to allied nations, not only rivals.
“This wasn’t thought out very well,” said Jimmy Goodrich, a senior scholar at the University of California’s Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation. “It even prohibits Canadians and Brits working at Anthropic from doing research and development.”
The directive came as a previous fight between Trump administration officials and Anthropic was simmering down among portions of the U.S. government.
Latest News
Met Office forecasts windy weather in Karachi
The weather report said that the port city will have hot and humid weather with cloudy sky and maximum temperatures will hover between 34 and 36 Celsius.
Humidity ratio remained 66% in the air in morning which is predicted to remain between 55 to 75% during day, Met Office stated.
After days of searing hot weather with excessive humidity, Karachi reverted to Seabreeze on Saturday.
The sea wind, a critical factor that controls coastal temperatures, returns, making the usually heat-beaten metropolis more bearable. The influx of humid air from the Arabian Sea provides a relief to residents.
Health officials are urging the public to keep taking measures, particularly during the high afternoon hours. Still, it’s best to stay hydrated, not to get direct sun and use sun protection.
Karachi, being coastal, generally depends on the sea wind to keep the excessive heat at bay. The recent interruption of the breeze had sent temperatures soaring and the city was humid enough to feel considerably hotter.
Business
Aurangzeb says IMF had not asked for a tariff on solar panels
He disputed allegations that the government had considering taxing solar panels before the budget. ‘There was never any such demand from the IMF and the topic was never discussed,’ he said.
Aurangzeb stated in a media interaction that the government is working on a set of structural reforms in the energy sector to bring down electricity rates, improve the business environment and increase the competitiveness of major industries, according to a federal minister.
In reply to questions on the high energy costs and capacity charges carried over by successive governments, the minister said expensive power continues to pose a serious problem to industry including manufacturing, information technology, mining and other energy-intensive industries.
He said the government, in partnership with Energy Minister Awais Leghari, had already taken steps to remove cross-subsidies for industry and was pursuing changes through wheeling policy and other measures to increase efficiency in the electricity sector.
Read More : Solar panels, inverters, lithium batteries’ prices soar ahead of budget
The government is moving from short-term relief to more extensive, long-term structural reforms, the minister said. These efforts are to be expected to bear fruit in the coming years rather than immediately, he said.
Privatisation of energy distribution companies (DISCOs) is a crucial part of the reform agenda. The minister said three DISCOs had already been awarded expression of interest (EOI) and two more EOIs will soon be awarded. He said he was certain that the first batch of distribution businesses would be handed over to private sector management by the end of the year, with the rest to follow in phases.
There would need to be more regulatory control to accompany privatisation and work was beginning to ensure the regulatory system would be robust and effective, he said.
He also emphasised the ambitions to shift away from the existing single-buyer energy market model, controlled through the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA), to a competitive multi-buyer system. “The change will help dismantle existing monopolistic structures and improve market efficiency,” he said.
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