ISLAMABAD (September 08, 2010): The proposal to impose one-time 'flood tax' on urban property and agricultural land is not part of the flood surcharge proposals of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). A senior government official told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that imposition of 'flood tax' on owners of big size property may be challenged in the courts.

ISLAMABAD (September 08, 2010): Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani fears that inflation will touch 20 percent, against the target of 9.5 percent, during the current fiscal year due to unprecedented flood damage on all productive sectors of the economy, according to official documents available with Business Recorder. The budget deficit for 2010-1,1 prior to the crop damage and its impact on food supply, was estimated at 4.5 percent of GDP.

ISLAMABAD (September 08, 2010): Sindh has suffered Rs 446.8 billion loss on account of damage to various sectors of the economy, and the bad news is that it might not be able to even plant the 'Rabbi' crops in standing water. "The situation is that water is not receding in the affected areas of the province, and might remain in the cropping areas for quite some time" said Dr Kaiser Bengali, advisor to Sindh chief minister for planning and development, here on Tuesday at a news conference.

ISLAMABAD (September 08, 2010): The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has reportedly agreed to extend $220 million for 969 MW Neelum Jhelum Hydroelectric Project (NJHEP) in addition to $138 million which has already been leased, official sources told Business Recorder. Sources said that IDB is leasing $138 million for some of the civil work components of the Neelum Jhelum Hydroelectric Project (NJHEP).

PESHAWAR (September 08, 2010): Twenty people, including two children, were killed and 45 others were injured in a suicide car bomb blast on Tuesday evening at Police Lines Colony, Kohat, about 60 km south of here. The KP police chief, Fiaz Ahmed Khan Toru, confirmed the death of two children and wounding of 18 others, who were shifted to hospital s. The district police said that it was apparently a car bomb that ripped through the police headquarters after Iftar time.

JALLOZAI (September 08, 2010): Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie called on Tuesday for constant and long-term assistance for Pakistan to help it cope with its worst ever floods that have wreaked havoc on the impoverished country. The disaster has killed more than 1,750 people, affected more than 18 million and inflicted nearly $43 billion worth of damage to infrastructure and agriculture, the mainstay of the economy, since it began more than a month ago.

ISLAMABAD (September 08, 2010): Flood damage to Pakistan's key cotton crop has cut deep into the forecast for the 2010/11 season, industry officials said on Tuesday, adding the country is likely to import at least 4 million bales. The monsoon flooding, which started over a month ago, damaged about 524,000 hectares (1.3 million acres), out of the total 3.20 million hectares, under cultivation in the major cotton-growing areas of central Punjab and southern Sindh province.

KARACHI (September 08, 2010): The State Bank of Pakistan has asked the development financial institutions (DFIs) to submit their plans for 'Infrastructure Bonds' in concrete shape in the next two days. Chairing a meeting of DFIs here on Tuesday at SBP head office, SBP deputy governor Kamran Shahzad directed DFIs to separately design feasibility for the issuance of 'Infrastructure Bonds' to generate massive funds for the rehabilitation of flood-hit areas and submit by Thursday to finalise the proposal.

ISLALMABAD (September 08, 2010): "We (the 17-member Supreme Court bench) are not sitting here to open Pandora's box on constitutional issues; the bench has assembled merely to address the set of pleas placed before it," observed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Tuesday while hearing petitions challenging several provisions of the 18th Constitutional Amendment.