Olive Plantation, IMF Talks, Fuel Shortages, Election Date, Turkey-Syria Earthquake, Google Shares Fall $100b, Russia-Ukraine War.

TOPLINE

• 1.2 million olive plants will be planted during the current olive plantation campaign across the country.
• Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari demanded the Centre and the IMF give targeted subsidies and soften its tough conditions of a bailout package for Pakistan to protect the flood victims in the country. Talks between Pakistan and the IMF centered around the credibility of the government's assurances and reliability of foreign loans committed by other nations, delaying the handover of MEFP.
• Long queues have been witnessed at filling stations in Punjab following a reduction in supplies by oil companies.
• President Dr Arif Alvi wrote a letter to ECP to announce the election date for the dissolved assemblies of KP & Punjab at the earliest or else it would be held responsible for violation of the Constitution.
• The death toll from the Turkey-Syria earthquakes has risen to more than 15,000. Residents of southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria are criticizing what they call slow search and rescue efforts.
• Google shares fell nearly 8% to roughly $99.40 on Wednesday—erasing more than $100 billion in market value, including a nearly 5% uptick on Tuesday after the tech giant announced an AI-equipped service called Bard to compete with the popular ChatGPT bot.
• Thousands of Russians are being sent to eastern Ukraine as part of an offensive planned after 15 February.

COMMODITIES - CROPS, LIVESTOCK & HORTICULTURE

• Olive Afforestation: 1.2 million olive plants will be planted during the current plantation campaign across the country. [ET]
• Wheat Production: Chief Scientist Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) Dr Javaid Ahmad has said that the government is utilizing all available resources to increase wheat production in the country. [UP] [The Nation]
• Gold Prices: The price of a single tola of 24-karat gold in Pakistan is Rs 193,700 on Thursday. The price of 10 grams of 24k gold was recorded at Rs 166,070. Likewise, 10 grams of 22k gold were being traded for Rs 167,318 while a single tola of 22-karat gold was being sold at Rs 195,157. Gold prices on the world market were quoted for $ 1,880 per ounce. [DP]

AGRI-INPUTS, WEATHER, WATER & POWER

• Qatar Agrees to Buy OGDCL Shares: Qatar has reportedly agreed to consider Pakistan’s offer to buy shares/ stakes of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) and sell Mirage-2000 fighter aircrafts to Pakistan. [BR]
• Stuck Containers: As efforts are on to get 5,630 stuck-up containers released, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has announced that the 18th “My Karachi — Oasis of Harmony Exhibition” would be held next month to show the world that the business community remains resilient and continues its battle for survival. [Dawn]
• Post Flood: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednesday demanded the Centre and the IMF give targeted subsidies for the flood-hit people of Sindh, saying the world should understand that the province was going through a massive humanitarian crisis. [Dawn]
• Boats worth millions of rupees destroyed in blaze. [ET]
• Fuel Shortage: Long queues of two-wheelers and cars have been witnessed at filling stations in most parts of the Punjab province following a reduction in supplies by oil marketing companies. OGRA has identified 19 illegal storage points and warehouses located in Punjab that have been used to dump and store petroleum products to make inventory gains by hoarders and black marketers. [BR] [Dawn] [ET]
• 10,000 MW Hydel Electricity: Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) will add as much as 10,000 MW of low-cost, green and clean hydel electricity to enhance the power generation capacity of the country by 2030. [The Nation]

AGRI UPDATES & PAKISTAN POLICY

• Dissolved Assemblies of KP & Punjab: President Dr Arif Alvi, Wednesday, wrote a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to announce the election date for the dissolved assemblies of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab at the earliest or else it would be held responsible for violation of the Constitution. [BR] [Dawn] [ET] [PO] [ARY]
• One-Day Transit Remand of Sheikh Rashid: A local court on Wednesday granted one-day transit remand of Awami Muslim League (AML) chief former interior minister Sheikh Rashid to Murree police in a case registered against him for threatening police personnel. [BR]
• By-Polls on Nine NA Seats: As many as 189 aspiring candidates, including senior leaders of rival political parties, filed nomination papers in the two-day exercise that ended on Wednesday to contest the upcoming by-elections on March 16 on nine National Assembly seats of Karachi that fell vacant after the resignation of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers. [Dawn]
• Bilawal Asks IMF to Soften Loan Terms: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday to soften its tough conditions of a bailout package for Pakistan to enable Islamabad to protect the flood victims in the country from the spiral of ‘price hike’. [ET]
• Army Declines Troops for Election Duty: The Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) task of conducting vote for the vacated National Assembly seats as well as the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies got harder after its requests for army soldiers for security and judicial officers for conducting voting were declined. [ET]
• IMF Talks: Talks between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday boiled down to two most crucial issues – credibility of government’s assurances and reliability of foreign loans committed by other nations, delaying the handover of Memorandum for Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP). [ET]
• CPEC’s ML-I Project: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has offered to fund China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)’s $10 billion Mainline-I (ML-I) project, said the administration head of the planning ministry on Wednesday – a move that may require Beijing’s consent in order to onboard a second financier. [ET]
• Solarization Plan Failure of Govt Buildings: Power Division has reportedly held State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) responsible for failure of solarization of 330 government buildings projects as there is uncertainty among vendors regarding opening of LCs, well informed sources told Business Recorder. [BR]

INTERNATIONAL – OVERVIEW & MARKET OUTLOOK

• Turkey & Syria Quake Updates: The death toll from the Turkey-Syria earthquakes has passed 15,800. At least 12,873 people have died in Turkey, according to officials, while at least 2,950 have been killed in Syria. Hopes of finding survivors are quickly fading and residents of southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria are criticizing what they call slow search and rescue efforts. The Istanbul stock exchange announced on Wednesday that it would close for five days in response to this week’s deadly earthquake, the first such shutdown since 1999. [Al Jazeera] [Dawn] [WP] [BR]
• A.I. Powered Chatbots: Google shares fell nearly 8% to roughly $99.40 on Wednesday—erasing more than $100 billion in market value, including a nearly 5% uptick on Tuesday after the tech giant announced an AI-equipped service called Bard to compete with the popular ChatGPT bot. The stock plunge worsened after Reuters reported Wednesday morning that a Twitter advertisement for the service, which generates answers for user queries and is debuting to a limited group of testers before a wider release, included inaccurate information. [Forbes]
• Oil Prices: Oil rose for a third straight day on Wednesday as investors felt more comfortable with risk a day after remarks from the Federal Reserve chairman eased their worries about future interest rate hikes. Brent crude rose 82 cents, or 1%, to $84.51 a barrel by 11:07 a.m. EDT (1607 GMT). US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed 93 cents, or 1.2%, to $78.08. Global oil prices may rebound to about $100 per barrel in the second half this year as Chinese demand recovers while supply remains limited. [BR] [ET]
• Wall St Falls: U.S. stocks ended down on Wednesday, paring most of the previous session's strong gains. Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. Alphabet Stock Plunge Erases $100 Billion. Its shares sank 7.7% after the new AI Chatbot gave the wrong answer in Ad. [BR] [Forbes] [Bloomberg] [Reuters] [Inv] [CNBC]
• Russia-Ukraine War: Tens of thousands of Russians are being sent to eastern Ukraine as part of an offensive planned after 15 February, according to the Ukrainian governor of Luhansk region. "We are seeing more and more reserves being deployed in our direction," said Serhiy Haidai, who expected a three-pronged Russian advance. [BBC]
• Opinion: Domestic Focus Despite Global Challenges - “When President Biden delivered his State of the Union address a year ago, war had broken out in Europe just days before and it appeared inevitable that Vladimir V. Putin would quickly take control of Ukraine. China, the Pentagon kept repeating, was America’s “pacing” challenge, a long-term technological and financial competitor, but not likely to pose an imminent challenge to Taiwan or the United States.” - By David E. Sanger [NYT]

PAKISTAN - REMAINDERS

• Opinion: Saving the IWT - ”The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) that governs Pakistan-India water relations is under siege. The future of the treaty is threatened by recent Indian proposals, as leaked in the media, to amend its conflict-resolution clauses. The reported amendments propose that, instead of taking differences to neutral experts or arbitration courts, they be resolved bilaterally by the two countries, without engaging a third party.” - By Ali Tauqeer Sheikh [Dawn]
• Opinion: Learning from Vietnam’s Transformation - “The re-organisation of Vietnam’s economic structure that started in 1986 encourages industrialisation through private investment. New reforms were initiated and new laws were enacted to bring private capital into the economy. State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) were revamped through equitisation. Focus on productivity and efficiency was enhanced, which led to growth in industrial production.” - By Jazib Mumtaz [ET]