ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani Taliban have asked the government to release 300 people they say are non-combatants, as part of an ongoing peace process to end the seven-year insurgency.
A list handed over by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan includes women, children and elderly, a negotiator for the group said, adding their release would boost dialogue that began in February.
Fund to receive foreign grants
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Development Fund (PDF) will serve as a pool to receive foreign grants, aids and loans for mega projects Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif plans to start. “We are working on infrastructure projects costing $20bn to $25bn,” Finance Minister Ishaq Dar told The News daily. “Funds to be transferred to PDF by friendly countries will be shifted by their central banks into the State Bank of Pakistan. All will be official transactions.”
Dar said although the government welcomes grants and gifts, it has not sought any money from them. However, the finance minister has been briefing foreign dignitaries on the projects, focusing on financial constraints and funds Pakistan can mobilise on its own.
Tunnel farming gains popularity
PESHAWAR: Farmers in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province are treading into tunnel and net farming as both techniques have paid dividends in the central and southern districts of the province, according to stakeholders.
Off-season vegetable production has becoming popular with horticulturists after some colleagues in Peshawar, Nowshera, Mardan, and Swabi districts profited from tomato and cucumber yields in the past couple of years.
“Tunnel farming provides answers to depleting farming areas and increasing demand for vegetables due to population growth,” said Fazle Mabood, head of the Directorate of Agriculture Extension, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A couple of years ago the province took a cue from Punjab where tunnel farming has been under practice for some time.
Agencies
