Islamabad: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar Saturday vowed to collectively steer the country out of current economic challenges.

Talking to a delegation of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said the government will come up with new ideas in the weeks to come for the long term economic improvement.

The Finance Minister stated: “We will bring agriculture revolution, establish a sovereign wealth fund and the IT sector will be focused. We will do the things which were ignored in the past”.

“The delay in International Monetary Fund (IMF) program is unprecedented as there is no technical reason behind it,” added Dar.

Finance Minister once again ruled out the default and regretted the statements being made by certain elements within the country in this regard.

He continued to say that Pakistan is a solvent country having assets worth trillions of dollars.

“Our external liabilities are around one hundred billion dollars but at the same time our only one asset of gas infrastructure is about forty to forty five billion dollars. There is no need to worry,” he assured.

The minister asked the business community to put forward their reasonable demands with regards to the upcoming budget, assuring the government will cooperate with them.

Bhubaneswar: At least 288 people were killed and 900 injured when two passenger trains collided in Odisha on Friday, according to government officials in the eastern Indian state, in India's deadliest rail accident in over a decade.

The death toll is expected to increase, state Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena said in a tweet.

Sudhanshu Sarangi, the director general of the fire department in Odisha, told Reuters that 207 bodies had been recovered so far.

Images from the scene showed rescuers climbing up the mangled wreck of one of the trains to find survivors. Videos shared on social media showed the arrival of several ambulances and people being pulled out of the upturned train coaches.

"I was there at the site and I can see blood, broken limbs and people dying around me," an eyewitness told Reuters by phone.

Hundreds of young people lined up outside a government hospital in Odisha's Soro to donate blood.

Rescue teams have been mobilized from Odisha's Bhubaneswar and Kolkata in West Bengal, federal Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a tweet late on Friday.

Three National Disaster Response Force teams are at the site of the accident, and six more teams are being mobilized, the country's National Disaster Response Force said.

The collision occurred at about 7pm local time (1330 GMT) when the Howrah Superfast Express, running from Bangalore to Howrah, West Bengal, derailed and became entangled with the Coromandel Express, which runs from Kolkata to Chennai, railway officials said.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said authorities' priority was "removing the living to the hospitals".

Rescue operations were underway at the site and "all possible assistance" was being given to those affected, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet.

SOURCE REUTERS

Ankara: The oath-taking ceremony of the newly elected President of Turkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will be held today in the capital city Ankara, in which heads of 20 countries, including Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, will participate.

Tayyip Erdoğan’s swearing-in ceremony will be held at 3:00pm (Pakistan Standard Time), for which preparations have been completed.

Secretary General of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Emir of Qatar, President of Azerbaijan, Speaker of Russian Parliament and other world leaders will also be present in the ceremony.

Notably, Erdoğan has been elected as the President of Turkey for the third time after winning the run-off stage on May 28.

On the other hand, major changes are expected in the new cabinet of Turkiye as important names like Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Foreign Minister Hulusi Akar and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu will no longer serve as ministers but as members of parliament.

The most important news for the state is that Mehmet Simsek is going to take on three important responsibilities. He was also the former deputy prime minister and finance minister of Erdoğan.

However, he was removed by President Erdoğan for not reducing the interest rate. Now again he is being brought back on his terms who will simultaneously hold the duties of Vice President and Advisor on Economy and Finance Minister.

The head of Turkiye's intelligence agency, Hakan Fidan, will now be Turkey's foreign minister, while presidential spokesman İbrahim Kalın will lead country’s intelligence agency, MIT (Millî İstihbarat Teşkilatı). The constitutional court judge, Hon Enje, is likely to be appointed as interior minister.