The Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) on Saturday directed the public to not deal with fake loan apps downloaded from Google Play Store.
Asaan Qarza, which has been downloaded over one million times from Google alone, is one of 74 fake loan apps that entitlement to be a “professional 100% online loan application” that provides cash.
These applications claim to offer people easy loans at low-interest rates. Those who download these apps give access to their phone data including their picture gallery and contact list.
Once these applications are downloaded, they get access to the personal data of the user.
The financial regulatory authority told Geo Fact Check that only 10 micro-credit apps are legit which include Finja, Muawin, Credit Per, Easy PK Loan, Zoodpay & ZoodMall, Qisstpay CreditCat RazCash, Abhi, Barwaqt, Udhar-Paisa, and Zaroorat Cash.
These apps are registered with SECP as non-banking monetary companies, under the Companies Act, of 1956.
KARACHI: Digitalization offers innovative employment scenes to 23 per cent of Pakistan’s population that falls in the 20 to 34 years of age group and can add $60 billion to the Pakistan economy within the next seven to eight years.
The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) has equipped a Digital Report 2022 titled, “Recommendations for Digital Transformation in Pakistan”.
The OICCI Managing Committee presented the Digital Report 2022 to the President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi, with an objective to set the country on its digital journey. The report covers suggestions on e-commerce, fintech, IT exports and web 3.0 technologies, etc.
The president showed his concern about the decline in business confidence influenced by the highly challenging political and economic situations during the last six months.
He also appreciated the OICCI for taking the lead in presenting recommendations to digitalize the economy.
According to a recent report by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is estimated to launch a foldable iPad in 2024. According to Kuo, the next iPad will not be released this year, and mass manufacturing of the new iPad Mini will start in Q1 of 2024.
These iPads will be manufactured by Anjie Technology and will contain a carbon fiber kickstand at their back.
Apple will “continue benefiting from the growing trends of foldable devices, equipped with kickstands in the future,” said Kuo. It’s likely that the kickstand Kuo mentioned will be fixed in the iPad case since foldables can easily stand without the need for a kickstand. On the other hand, the foldable iPad might not be as stable and need a kickstand at its back for support.
While the tech giant is currently undergoing a 15 per cent decline in tablet shipments, analysts believe that the announcement of the first foldable iPad will be a big break for the company.
USD to PKR (Dollar Price in Pakistan Rupee) – US Dollar to Pakistani Rupee interbank exchange rate is PKR 228.91 as per Pakistan Interbank. This is the inter-bank closing currency exchange rate for the US Dollar to the Pakistani Rupee which is provided by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
KARACHI: The business community has said that the recent pledges for the restoration of the flood victims will not resolve the economic crisis in the country, a statement said on Saturday.
The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s Businessmen Panel (BMP) has said the multilateral donors and friendly countries’ huge aid pledges might not bring any significant influence on the struggling economy, as the sustainable solution to Pakistan’s economic issues lies in the structural reforms and consistent policies.
FPCCI former president and BMP Chairman Mian Anjum Nisar said that it is high time that the government should start thinking about debt rearrangement, including foreign and domestic.
The verdict to take more loans will keep confusing the problems in the long term, as the government needs $23 billion in foreign debt repayments for this fiscal year, which is the direct result of such decisions of taking loans from foreign nations.
For Nisar, the country’s economy is plunging into an ever-deepening ravine with plummeting foreign exchange reserves, with the continuation of the flawed policy of keeping the interbank dollar rate artificially low that is increasingly being attributed to the government rather than the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) irrespective of the autonomy granted to it.
Meezan Bank, Pakistan’s leading Islamic bank, has recently signed an agreement with Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), the largest combined gas company in North Central Pakistan, to enable digitalization of consumer bill collection via the bank’s state-of-the-art transaction banking solution (eBiz+), a statement said on Tuesday.
Irfan Siddiqui, founding president and CEO of Meezan Bank, and Ali J Hamdani, managing director and CEO of SNGPL, signed the agreement in the presence of other key management members, including Ariful Islam, deputy chief executive officer; Abdullah Ahmed, group head corporate and official banking; M Saqib Ashraf, head transaction banking; and M Munir, head payments and cash management from Meezan Bank; and Faisal Iqbal, the chief financial officer of SNGPL.
As per the pact, Meezan Bank will provide transaction banking services (eBiz+) to SNGPL, enabling the payment of gas bills by the residents of Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K) via e-channels and branch banking avenues offered by the bank.
On the instance, Hamdani shared SNGPL’s ambition to become a leader in sourcing energy across Pakistan, while providing ease of access to its consumers via eBiz+ collection services. Siddiqui said: “The agreement between Meezan Bank and SNGPL will not only strengthen the bank’s transaction banking portfolio but will also improve the bill collection process by making it more accessible to millions. SNGPL is already a trusted corporate client for the bank and this agreement further fortifies our relationship.”
Twitter proclaimed Sunday it would no longer allow users to promote their accounts on several rival social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram, but the site’s mercurial owner Elon seemed to backtrack on the new policy just hours later.
The sudden shift in the rules was the newest in a series of contentious changes made by Musk since he took over the company in October — upheaval that has led a growing number of users to encourage followers to view their posts on other sites.
The random billionaire even put his future as Twitter’s CEO to a vote.
“Should I step down as head of Twitter?” he tweeted, asking the site’s users to click yes or no.
“I will abide by the results of this poll,” he added, with the vote open until the early hours of Monday.
Twitter had proclaimed that the company would “no longer allow free promotion of specific social media platforms.”
“At both the Tweet level and the account level, we will remove any free promotion of banned 3rd-party social media platforms, such as linking out (i.e. using URLs) to any of the below platforms on Twitter, or providing your handle without a URL,” the company explained in a statement.
Users would thus be barred, for example, from posting “Follow me @username on Instagram,” Twitter said.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey questioned the new policy with a one-word tweet: “Why?”
Multan: Zameen.com — Pakistan’s largest real estate enterprise — successfully organized a 3-day property sales event in the city. The event was attended by a large number of people and their families.
Zameen.com’s Associate Director Sales Multan Rana Farukh Nadeem attended the event.
The event showcased over 11 real estate projects, which are already popular among property buyers and investors of Multan.
These included Downtown Rumanza, Golf View Rumanza, Boulevard Heights, De Orion Mall, Platinum Villas and Snapish Villas. The projects on display were exclusively sold and marketed by Zameen.com.
Speaking at the event, Zameen.com Associate Director Sales Multan Rana Farukh Nadeem said that all projects marketed and sold by Zameen.com are not just modern and safe for investment, but these projects also provide profitable capital to the investors.
He also mentioned that the number of people attending the Property Sales Event shows how profitable real estate industry is in Multan.
He reiterated that the Zameen.com doesn’t onboard any project without first checking the requisite government approvals and documents from all the authorities concerned.
Zameen.com recently organized another successful Property Sales Event (PSE) in Lahore. More than 45 investment projects were also presented at the event, including Beach Resort by Icon, Jinnah Square Residential Apartments and Urban Premium Residences.
It is pertinent to mention that all projects on display are exclusively marketed and sold by Zameen.com. Moreover, to make the event even more lucrative, special deals and discounts were offered for on-spot bookings.
Zameen.com’s high-ranking officials were present for this grand one-day property affair, including Senior Director Sales (Lahore) Chaudhry Laeeque Iftikhar, Directors Project Sales Basil Hafeez, Hafiz Usman Sarwar, and Ali Rehan, along with other relevant stakeholders.
During the event, launching ceremonies of Residency One and B 45 projects were also held.
On the occasion, Zameen.com Senior Director Sales (Lahore) Chaudhry Laeeque Iftikhar stated that Zameen.com had introduced innovative property trends in Pakistan’s real estate market, which had resulted in the overall progress of the sector.
As Mary Demuth has rightly put what a home is for a woman, “I want my home to be that kind of place–a place of sustenance, a place of invitation, a place of welcome”, we can’t agree more. Every woman dreams of her own home. A home that is not made of just bricks but built with her own hands. Where every brick has a memory and a story to tell to the next generation. Home is where love resides, memories are created, friends always belong, and laughter never ends. A house is made of bricks and beams. A home is made of hopes and dreams.
Rafay Rumi has a knack for telling stories through the ad film and who doesn’t love that? We all love that, to be connected with. Ads that have touched us and are still etched in our memories.
A woman who has been brought up within the four walls of a house with restriction is fearful of the outside world. She can’t fulfill her little dreams of riding a bike or may be traveling to places on her own for fear of safety. On top of that when she lost her husband at an early age, whom she was dependent on scary. Our society doesn’t spare such a woman.
Rafay Rumi, in Faisal Town’s ad film talks of the woman who takes the charge of her house after her husband passed away. He has beautifully portrayed that women young or old can-do wonders if given a chance and a safe environment. No one can stop them.
The ad is produced by Faisal Town Group, where security and safety are ensured. A place that nourishes your dreams. As they say, there is nothing more important than a good, safe, and secure home.
The ad starts with an elderly woman carrying a planter in her hands as they are leaving the house. She touches and looks at everything for the last time.
As Robert Montgomery says, “Home, the spot of earth supremely blest, A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest.” Home is nostalgia where endless memories are made. She never had a home of her own.
When her son gets a house, she is happy yet sad about leaving a place that had memories attached to her husband.
The director and team had beautifully shown a contrast between both young and old women. Her daughter-in-law is an independent woman. She asks her mother-in-law to pick up her daughter from her school to which she agrees. In a normal place, she might have had a fear of going out, getting lost, and maybe being insecure too. But here in Faisal Town, she is safe, where she can roam around, walk and enjoy herself without even thinking of anything. She comes across the school picking up her granddaughter at the hospital in a shuttle service vehicle that is provided by the society.
She enjoys these little moments that she had missed after her husband’s demise when she had to chin up and sacrifice everything for the sake of her son.
Her son helps her to ride a bike, a dream she had as a young girl. A sense of pride and fulfillment can be seen.
She had always dreamt of a place safe for the next generations which was honored by Faisal Town, a safe and secure place for your generations.
The ad continues with how she is at peace now that they have a home. The planter she had in her hands is now placed on the lawn. Where she and her granddaughter are putting soil and her son is watering it, therefore completing the home and being safe and secure.
The ad has touched our hearts, as we can emotionally connect with it. These days there are a lot of housing societies that do the big talk, but with no value added to it. Who doesn’t want value for their money? Faisal Town is the place of your dreams, a world that you have always wanted to make for yourself and the generations to come, the perfect Rehnay Ki Jagah!
The ad explores all the gaps that are left leaving a void for the residents of other housing societies. Faisal Town has covered it all. The cherry on top is the way the team has executed these very emotions translating them into visuals. A sense of warmth, coziness, and closeness can be felt throughout the five minutes ad.
Connecting with the audience in a not-so-traditional manner has worked its way through our hearts. We are compelled not to skip it and are glued to the ad till the end.
Adan Fatima 