Connect with us

Foreign News

Pakistan to sell national carrier PIA for IMF loans, Munir’s Fauji firm among bidders

Published

on

Pakistan government has directed authorities to expedite and complete all phases of the privatisation of PIA with complete transparency

Pakistan’s sale of its flag carrier PIA is its first major privatisation in two decades. The divestment comes because of an IMF bailout condition. With four bidders, including military-led Fauji Fertiliser, the auction on December 23 is key for a debt-ridden economy and its crippled national carrier.

Pakistan, which has been surviving on loans and doles, will auction off its debt-ridden national carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), on December 23, 2025, in a live-broadcast bidding process that the government describes as the “final step” to meet a key condition of its $7 billion IMF’s bailout package,  reported Geo TV.

The sale of between 51% and 100% of PIA shares — including full management control — is a formal structural benchmark under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). The IMF’s Executive Board is scheduled to meet on December 8 to release the next $1.2 billion tranche ($1 billion EFF + $200 million climate facility); completion of the PIA bidding process by year-end is explicitly required for future disbursements.

Among the four companies that have pre-qualified for the bidding is Fauji Fertiliser Company Limited, part of the military-controlled Fauji Foundation.

“We’re targeting Rs 86 billion in privatisation proceeds this year. For PIA, in the last round of bidding, 15% of the proceeds were going to the government, with the rest staying within the company,” Pakistan’s Privatisation Minister Muhammad Ali told Reuters last month.

The divestment of PIA stakes would be Pakistan’s first major privatisation effort in two decades, according to Dawn.

“Four bidders have been pre-qualified for the sale: Lucky Cement Consortium, Arif Habib Corporation Consortium, Fauji Fertiliser Company Limited and Air Blue Limited,” it reported.

Fauji Fertiliser is part of the Fauji Foundation, which has emerged as one of the biggest corporate players in Pakistan, a country where the military has fingers in every pie.

Field Marshal Asim Munir, the most powerful person in Pakistan today, does not hold a direct position on the Central Board of Directors (CBDs) of Fauji Foundation. He appoints the Quartermaster General (QMG) who is part of the CBD of the Fauji Foundation.

Munir, as the head of the Pakistan Army, and now the unified defence forces, also exerts indirect influence over Fauji Foundation through the military’s institutional control, including appointments to key positions and alignment with national security and welfare priorities.

Government rules mandate that majority ownership must remain with Pakistani nationals; foreign entities are barred from acquiring controlling stakes.

The PIA divestment is crucial for Pakistan as it takes loans to refinance loans. In 2023, Pakistan was on the brink of defaulting on its debts, a result of its years of financial mismanagement. One of its major expenditure is on defence forces.

The $7-billion loan programme of the IMF for Pakistan was approved in September 2024 While $1 billion was  given immediately, the rest of the money was to be disbursed over a period of 3 years.

Pakistan, whose economy is in tatters, is the IMF’s fifth-largest debtor. It has taken more than 20 loans from the IMF since 1958.

(India Today)

 



Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Foreign News

Rare pink diamond goes on display in France 100 years after amateur heist

Published

on

By

The nine-carat, pear-shaped gemstone was one of few royal jewels to survive the French Revolution (BBC)

A rare pink diamond is going on display in France for the first time since it was stolen almost 100 years ago to the day – the last time it was shown to the public.

The nine-carat, pear-shaped gemstone known as the “Grand Condé” was pilfered in an overnight raid on the Château de Chantilly in October 1926 and concealed in a hollowed-out apple.

The diamond – one of few royal jewels to survive the French Revolution – was recovered a few weeks later when a hungry maid at the hotel in which the thieves were staying took a bite of the apple.

It will once again be on display in the Condé Museum at the Château de Chantilly until 3 January.

The museum’s director Mathieu Deldicque said that while the apple story may sounds far-fetched, it was widely covered by newspapers at the time.

Deldicque has faced questions about whether the exhibition may be tempting fate, especially given the string of heists on European cultural institutions in the past 12 months, including the daring daylight robbery of jewellery from the Louvre museum in Paris.

While he declined to reveal to CNN how much the diamond was insured for, he noted that extensive academic study into the properties of the diamond had taken place to make it uniquely identifiable.

The results of this analysis, as well as previously unseen archive material about the gem’s history and theft, form part of the exhibition, according to the museum.

Naturally occurring pink diamonds are exceptionally rare and often sell for tens of millions of dollars. The highest price ever fetched for one at auction was $71.2m (£53.6m) in 2017, according to Sotheby’s.

The exact origins of the Grand Condé remain a mystery.

It was first mentioned in 1740 in an inventory of Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, drawn up following his death, the Château de Chantilly said.

It then became part of the collection of Queen Marie-Amélie of Bourbon-Sicily, the wife of French King Louis Philippe I, and then her son, Prince Henri of Orléans, the Duke of Aumale.

He bequeathed it to the Institut de France, which now owns the Château de Chantilly, 50km (31 miles) north of Paris, along with thousands of artworks and manuscripts which became the Musée Condé collection.

(BBC)

Continue Reading

Foreign News

Nursery owner in China jailed for life after hundreds of children poisoned

Published

on

By

Kitchen staff was instructed to use inedible paint to enhance the look of meals to attract more students, the court found (BBC)

A nursery owner and five members of her staff have been jailed after they were found to have poisoned more than 200 children with lead-tainted food.

Li Huifang, who operated the Heshi Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui, in the Gansu province, was sentenced to life in prison for producing and selling toxic and harmful food, according to Chinese state media.

In July 2025, 247 pupils and staff at the nursery were found to have abnormally high blood lead levels after children began falling ill.

A report into the incident found that chefs at Heshi Peixin had used inedible paint to “enhance the look” of its meals to attract more students – despite the paint being being clearly marked as such.

In addition to the sentence, the Lanzhou Intermediate People’s Court also ordered the confiscation of 500,000 yuan (£56,200; $74,700) of Li’s personal assets, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Nursery executive principal Zhi Jinglin was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 300,000 yuan.

Four other members of staff who worked in the nursery’s kitchen received sentences of between six to eight years, according to state media.

The court found the four had been instructed by Li and Zhi to add toxic and harmful ingredients to food served to children and staff.

Food samples were later found to contain lead 2,000 times in excess of China’s national safety limit.

The investigation into the poisoning began after 235 children from Heshi Peixin nursery had to be treated for lead poisoning after eating steamed red date cakes and sausage corn buns.

Investigators found that the red date cake and the corn sausage rolls had lead levels of 1052mg/kg and 1340mg/kg respectively, both of which far exceed the national food safety standard limit of 0.5mg/kg.

Lead poisoning is “particularly harmful to young children” and can “severely damage the brain and central nervous system”, according to the World Health Organization.

Officials later found that dozens of provincial officials and hospital staff attempted to cover up the incident by tampering with blood tests and accepting bribes from a nursery investor.

China has since published a set of national guidelines for the provision of meals on campuses. Among the measures is the requirement for every new batch of food to be tested, and for flour, rice and cooking oil to be purchased from centralised procurement points only.

(BBC)

Continue Reading

Foreign News

Houthi missile attack on Yemeni presidential palace kills five, minister says

Published

on

By

Verified video footage showed smoke above the presidential palace in Aden (BBC)

Five people have been killed and 16 injured in a Houthi missile attack targeting the presidential palace in the port city of Aden in southern Yemen, which is the seat of the internationally-recognised government, officials say.

Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani told the BBC that the prime minister and other ministers were unhurt when five ballistic missiles hit al-Maashiq Palace.

The Houthis’ military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, said they struck “the Saudi enemy’s military operations headquarters in Aden”.

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia backs the government and is providing air support for an offensive by pro-government forces against the Iran-backed Houthis.

Yemeni health minister Qasim Buhaibeh said the casualties included “those working to guard the site and civilian employees”.

The country’s Prime Minister Shaya Zindani condemned the Houthis’ attack on Aden, calling it “cowardly” and a “continuation of their criminal behaviour”.

He said the government continued to carry out its duties and vowed that it would not weaken the resolve of its forces to continue operations against the Houthis on Yemen’s south-western Red Sea coast and other front lines.

Earlier, the Houthis denied that they had attacked Saudi Arabia on Thursday, after the coalition said its forces had intercepted a cruise missile in the Medina region, home to one of Islam’s holiest shrines.

Maps of Yemen and Saudi Arabia, showing Houthi control of territory and recent advances by pro-government forces (11 October 2026)

The Houthis have been launching missiles and drones at airports, oil and gas facilities, and military bases in Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the strikes on the territory that they control in western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

On Saturday, a Houthi missile strike killed 13 people at Riyadh’s international airport, which was the deadliest attack in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade.

Saudi Arabia’s deputy foreign minister accused Iran of encouraging the Houthis to escalate their conflict with the kingdom.

“Iran continues to arm, train and support the Houthi militia in violation of UN Security Council resolutions,” Rayed Krimly told reporters, according to AFP news agency.

“We think that the escalation by the Houthis at this latest stage of the conflict is encouraged by Iran,” he added.

There was no immediate response from Iran’s government. However, it has previously denied supplying weapons to the Houthis and said it only supports them politically.

Iran’s foreign minister has also said it is ready to provide “any assistance necessary to facilitate the start of talks” between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.

Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the internationally-recognised government from Sanaa. The conflict escalated in 2015, after the Saudi-led coalition of Arab states intervened in an attempt to restore the government’s rule.

A four-year-old informal ceasefire began to unravel in July, when the Houthis announced a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.

The Houthis said they were retaliating for what they call a Saudi blockade of their territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blamed on the kingdom.

The conflict escalated in September after the Houthis seized part of Yemen’s south-western Red Sea coast near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a chokepoint for global shipping. Their advance contributed to a rise in oil prices following six months of war between the US, Israel and Iran.

Last week, pro-government forces said they had regained control of territory overlooking Bab al-Mandab after launching a major counter-offensive with the support of Saudi air strikes.

At least 1,282 people have been killed and 5,890 injured in the fighting in Yemen since 6 August, according to the government’s health ministry.

The UN says another 201,000 people have been displaced and that there has been an alarming surge in suspected cholera cases.

(BBC)

Continue Reading

Trending