Islamabad: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday instructed the Ambassador of Pakistan in Kyrgyzstan Hasan Ali Zaigham to make all necessary arrangements regarding the special plane to bring back Pakistani students from Kyrgyzstan.

In his telephonic conversation with Hasan Ali Zaigham, the Prime Minister directed him to stay in touch with all Pakistani students and their families in Kyrgyzstan.

The Prime Minister said injured Pakistani students should be brought to Pakistan on priority basis.

He said repatriation of family members residing in Kyrgyzstan with Pakistani students should also be arranged on a priority basis.

On the instructions of the Prime Minister, a special plane will leave for Bishkek Kyrgyzstan this evening and will bring back 130 Pakistani students tonight.

The Pakistani Ambassador informed the Prime Minister about his meeting with the Kyrgyz Deputy Foreign Minister.

According to him, the Kyrgyz government has said that the situation has been completely brought under control and there were no new incidents of violence last night and today.

The Kyrgyz Deputy Foreign Minister said security has been enhanced and Pakistani and other foreign students are absolutely safe.

The Minister said even if the situation returns to normal and any Pakistani student wants to return home, he should be provided with all kinds of facilities.

Lahore: Japanese Ambassador in Pakistan, Wada Mitsuhiro met Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz in Lahore on Sunday.

During meeting, both discussed ways to strengthen bilateral trade and investment.

They reviewed exchange of cultural and academic delegations between Punjab and Japan and agreed in principle for promoting faculty programs for students.

In a separate development, the State Bank of Pakistan released a half year report on the state of the country's economy.

According to the report, the country’s macroeconomic conditions improved during the first half of the financial year 24 and the real economic activities moderately recovered against the contraction last year.

It noted that the current account deficit narrowed considerably, amid continued contractionary monetary and fiscal policies, better agricultural produce and ease in global commodity prices.

The real GDP, driven by the agriculture sector, grew by 1.7 percent in H1-FY24.

The recovery in the agriculture sector also supported some of the agro-based industries. In addition, withdrawal of import prioritization measures improved availability of raw materials for industry.

The report highlighted that despite some improvement in macroeconomic indicators, the economy continues to grapple with the structural bottlenecks. The major issues include limited savings, low investments in physical and human capital, weak productivity, stagnant exports, narrow tax base, and inefficiencies in Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs).

The report noted that despite restrained domestic demand, inflationary pressures remained persistent at elevated levels.

The Report expected continuation of modest economic recovery in the second half of FY24.

Islamabad:  Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Munir Akram said Pakistan is contesting for a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council (UNSC) for the term 2025-26.

Delivering a virtual talk to the Pakistan Students Association Coalition based in the United States, he said the election would provide Pakistan an opportunity to articulate the aspirations and the rights of the developing countries and push for peace and security in the Middle East, and Africa.

Ambassador Munir Akram informed the student body about Pakistan’s active role within the United Nations including its presidency of the UN Economic and Social Council, the non-permanent membership of the Security Council and the chairmanship of the Grouping of G-77 and China.

He said that as the second-time President of the ECOSOC in 2021, Pakistan played a leading role in advocating the concepts of vaccine equality, and the creation of new money for the developing countries enabling them to fight off the impact of COVID-19.

Likewise, the establishment of the instrument of Special Drawing Rights of 650 billion dollars by the IMF led to the provision of additional resources to the developing countries in navigating the economic challenges.

The Ambassador said we are now asking for redistribution of the unused SDRs among those developing countries that are in acute need to realize their commitment to Sustainable Development Goals and deal with the challenge of climate change.

Ambassador Munir Akram also explained the state of the world including the key global and regional challenges.