Tahir Imran Mian

What happened with the bidding for the national flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), was not unexpected because right from the outset, I was of the view that this process was a sham. The sad part is that PIA will end up losing over $550 million by the end of December this year. A big part of these losses are due to the stupid mistakes made by the caretaker government and its successor, the incumbent government, especially the privatisation ministry.

An Islamabad court overturned on Saturday a seven-year prison sentence and Rs500,000 fines imposed on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and former first lady Bushra Bibi, for contracting marriage far too soon after the latter had secured a divorce from her first husband, Khawar Maneka. The court of Judge Afzal Majoka read out a short version of the 28-page reserved verdict on appeals filed against their sentence on Saturday.

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) granted the federal government's request for a Rs7.12 per unit increase in the power base tariff for residential users, who are already struggling with rising living costs. The power regulator approved the federal government's application to increase electricity rates for household, business, general services, bulk, and agricultural users. The basic pricing for residential users has been raised by up to Rs48.84 per unit.