Author: i2wtc
A logo sits illuminated at the Accenture booth in Mobile World Congress 2025 on March 03, 2025 in Barcelona, Spain.Xavi Torrent | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesTech consultancy Accenture has laid out plans to lay off staff that aren’t able to reskill on artificial intelligence amid a broader restructuring strategy which will see the company prioritize AI efforts.Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said in a call Thursday that as advanced AI becomes “a part of everything we do” and the global professional services company continues to invest significantly in the area, it expects employees to “retrain and retool” at scale.”We…
ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court judge Athar Minallah has issued a handwritten dissenting note in a case related to initiation of contempt proceedings against the SC Additional Registrar Judicial Nazar Abbas. The judge was part of the six-member larger bench that took up the additional registrar’s intra-court appeal against a show cause notice issued by a division bench. The petitioner had later filed an application requesting permission to withdraw the appeal filed under section 19 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003. On January 27, two members of the bench — Justice Shahid Waheed and Justice Minallah — dismissed the appeal on…
ISLAMABAD: An official on Thursday informed the Standing Committee on Power Division that Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) and Sukkur Electric Power Company (SEPCO) had suffered losses of around Rs60 billion in one year due to non-recovery and technical issues. The committee’s 10th meeting was chaired by Muhammad Idrees. Members reviewed the issue of discriminatory load-shedding by HESCO and denial of basic utility rights to bill-paying consumers, raised by MNA Syed Hussain Tariq. Tariq clarified that his criticism was directed at the company’s policies and structural weaknesses, not its CEO or staff. He highlighted the plight of consumers in Hyderabad’s…
Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval of a deal that could keep TikTok alive in the U.S. on Thursday, China has remained conspicuously quiet — a notable silence as Beijing still can ultimately decide the app’s fate.Chinese state media remained silent about the deal, while social media discussion was limited. One state-affiliated Weibo account cited a Fudan University professor, who described the agreement as a “win-win” for both countries.During the signing of an executive order on the deal, Trump said that he had “gotten the go ahead” from Chinese President Xi Jinping.No representatives from ByteDance were present at the signing,…
DERA GHAZI KHAN/KARACHI: A bitter exchange of words between leaders of the two federal coalition partners over how to assist tens of thousands of flood-affected people in Punjab has laid bare the underlying tensions simmering beneath the veneer of political unity. Thursday marked the second consecutive day of public sparring between the PPP and PML-N over the Punjab government’s flood relief efforts. The PPP maintains that the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) is the most effective and fastest mechanism to assist flood victims, while the PML-N government in Punjab insists on channeling aid through its own “relief card” initiative. PPP…
Pakistan have at least upheld the status of being second best team in the continent. FOR all the talk about their apparent mediocrity after their twin thrashings against India in the Asia Cup, Pakistan have at least upheld the status of being the second best team in the continent. The status was sealed on Thursday, when Pakistan edged Bangladesh by 11 runs in a tense, low-scoring Super Four encounter. The win meant Pakistan have beaten all their opponents in the campaign apart from India, and that the archrivals will meet for the third time in three weeks in the Asia…
LAHORE: The Pakistan Industrial and Traders Association Front (PIAF) has cautioned that Pakistan’s overdependence on energy-focused foreign investment is holding back broader economic growth, calling on policymakers to expand investment opportunities in mining, manufacturing, IT, and other underdeveloped sectors. PIAF Patron-in-Chief Mian Sohail Nisar said that heavy concentration of foreign capital in a single sector is concerning. “Foreign investors continue to channel funds primarily into energy, but Pakistan has far greater potential in mining, information technology, and value-added manufacturing,” he said. Over the past 10 years, FDI into Pakistan has ranged from $2 billion to $3 billion annually, with roughly…
Guillaume Pousaz, CEO and founder of payment platform Checkout.com, speaking at the annual Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2022.Horacio Villalobos | Getty ImagesLONDON — Fintech unicorn Checkout.com is giving staff a way of cashing in their shares: buying them out.The London-headquartered payments platform said Friday that it plans to launch a share buyback initiative for employees to “provide them with a path to liquidity.”The share buyback program is based on a new internal valuation of $12 billion, Checkout.com said. Although internal, the valuation marks a significant drop from its last fundraising round.Checkout.com was valued at $40 billion…
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday hosted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for talks at the White House in the latest sign of warming relations between Washington and the South Asian nuclear power. Sharif was among top officials from eight Arab and Muslim countries who met with Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week to discuss strategy on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The two leaders discussed bilateral relations. The prime minister was given a red-carpet welcome as he was arrived in Washington DC along with the Pakistani delegation to meet the US president. Upon…
LAHORE: The Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) has written a letter to Salman Butt, the coach of star javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, seeking the reasons behind a sharp decline in the athlete’s performance including his below-par show in the World Athletics Championship held in Tokyo last week. The 28-year-old Arshad, who made entire Pakistan feel proud by winning gold medal with a record 92.97-metre throw at the 2024 Paris Olympics, finished a poor 10th in the world championship. In the letter, a copy of which is available with Dawn, the AFP has asked several questions from Salman and directed him…