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Wednesday, 1 June, 2022 I 1 Dhul-Qadah, 1443 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XII No 332 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition
ready to buy russian oil if not faced us sanctions: Miftah g
Says country would be ‘happy to buy’ wheat from Russia, Ukraine
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INANCE Minister Miftah Ismail said on Tuesday that Pakistan would be open to buying Russian oil at cheaper rates if it was offered and no sanctions were imposed on any such a deal. When questioned in an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson if Pakistan was open to procuring cheap Russian oil just as India doing, the finance minister said he would “surely consider” it. However, Ismail remarked that he did not think it was possible for Pakistani banks to make arrangements to buy Russian oil, also claiming that Moscow had not offered any such discounted deals to Pakistan anyway. “The previous government talked about buying oil from Russia but I think Russia is under sanctions and they haven’t responded to the letter written by the previous government,” he told the CNN anchor. Ismail said that with Russia being under sanctions, it was “very difficult” for
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Russia didn’t respond to letter written by previous govt
him to imagine buying oil from there. Meanwhile, on the subject of imported wheat, Ismail, in the CNN interview, said Pakistan had asked both Ukraine and Russia and would be “happy to buy” from whichever country was ready to sell. It is pertinent to mention that according to a Reuters report, the current US sanctions against Russia do not prevent other countries from buying Russian oil, although Biden administration officials have considered secondary sanctions that could restrict those purchases in future. PTI leader Shireen Mazari disagreed with Ismail’s remarks, dubbing him an “ignorant” and saying: “There are no sanctions on purchasing oil from Russia. Ask India. So what’s actually stopping him from buying other than fear of US.” Pakistan’s oil industry is facing challenges in arranging international finances for the import of crude and oil products. Informed sources told an English newspaper that the Petroleum Division had told the prime minister and finance
minister that arrangements for oil imports were getting tough by the day as foreign banks were not providing financing against letters of credit opened by oil marketing companies (OMCs) and refineries with the local banks. A senior official told the paper that except two large corporations — Pakistan State Oil and Pak-Arab Refinery Limited — all OMCs and refineries were struggling to arrange the import of petroleum products and crude. Meanwhile, India has received 34 million barrels of discounted Russian oil since Moscow invaded Ukraine on Feb 24, according to Refinitiv Eikon data, more than trebling the value of total imports from Russia, including other products, compared with the same period of 2021. India’s oil imports from Russia have been rising since February, as Asia’s third-largest economy and the world’s third-biggest oil importer, turned to deeply discounted Russian oil, mostly Urals crude, to cut its imports bill. The country received more than 24m barrels of Russian crude this month, up from 7.2m barrels in April and about 3m in March, and is set to receive about 28m barrels in June, according to Refinitiv Eikon oil flows. Meanwhile, the prices of petroleum products were kept unchanged on Tuesday on the directives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, according to a press release from the Finance Division. It said the measure was taken with the "view to provide maximum relief to the consumers" despite the loss in revenue due to globally rising petroleum prices. The press release said the prices with effects from June 1 (tomorrow) would continue to be those notified on May 27. Last week, the federal government decided to raise the prices of petroleum products by Rs30 per litre.
ECP decreases NA seats to 336 in preliminary delimitation of constituencies islamabad staff report
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Tuesday issued the preliminary delimitation of constituencies in which it revised the National Assembly seats from 342 to 336. According to the ECP’s preliminary report, the number of general seats in the NA will decrease from 272 to 266. Balochistan will have 16 general seats in the NA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will have 45, Punjab 141, Sindh 61, three seats will be of Islamabad. Seats of erstwhile federally administered tribal areas have been merged with KP. On the other hand, women will have 60 reserved seats while minorities will have 10 seats. A National Assembly constituency in KP has been demarcated at 788,933 people, Islamabad 667,789, Punjab 780,069, Sindh 784,500, and
Balochistan 77,946. KP’s NA will begin with Chitral from NA-1 to NA-45. Seats from Islamabad will be from NA-46 to NA-48, Punjab’s constituencies will start from Attock’s NA-49 and end at NA-189 in Rajanpur. Furthermore, Sindh’s lower house seats will start from NA-190 Jacobabad and continue till NA-250 Karachi. While Balochistan’s constituencies will be from NA-251 to NA-266. The Balochistan Assembly will have 65 seats overall out of which 51 will be general seats, KP Assembly will have 145 seats out of which 115 will be general seats. Punjab will have 371 seats out of which 297 will be general seats while the Sindh Assembly will have 168 seats out of which 130 will be general seats. The ECP said that a constituency of KP Assembly will consist of 308,713 voters, Punjab Assembly 370,336, Sindh Assembly 368,112 and Balochistan Assembly 241,864.