KHYBER: Pakistani customs authorities on Monday issued gate passes to as many as 26 World Food Programme (WFP) containers carrying food and essential supplies at the Torkham border to cross into Afghanistan.
Since October 2025, the Torkham border — a key trade route between Pakistan and Afghanistan — has been closed due to the “escalating security situation” along the border.
Customs clearing agents, who had earlier in the day submitted Goods Declaration (GD) documents to the customs authorities, told Dawn that the containers were issued gate passes for crossing into Afghanistan late in the evening, despite the fact that the gates had officially been closed for any cross-border movement.
The agents said that the containers were made to wait throughout the day as officials awaited a final “nod” from the higher authorities after the containers arrived at the Torkham import terminal early on Monday morning.
They said that the authorities had informed them that all cleared vehicles would be allowed to proceed to Afghanistan on Tuesday, as the necessary customs clearance procedures, including electronic scanning, had been completed.
The containers were loaded with food and essential supplies for Afghanistan as part of humanitarian assistance from the WFP, they added.
It is pertinent to mention here that a similar convoy of about 20 containers from the WFP was sent back to Karachi earlier this year after the Afghan Taliban authorities in Kabul refused to accept any assistance from the UN body.
The fate of the 26 containers that have currently arrived would be known early on Tuesday if the Taliban authorities permit them to enter their country.
Pakistan counts 7.14 million business establishments in its Economic Census, and only 9.8 per cent of them sit in manufacturing. Wholesale and retail trade accounts for 45.1pc, nearly five times as many. Twenty-seven years of measuring small and medium enterprises (SME) policy success by headcount and GDP share, never by whether small firms are actually financed for production, has led the government to finance consumption.
Trade and consumption-facing services recycle domestic demand; they do not build export earnings, productivity growth, or foreign exchange. An SME policy that channels financing toward that segment by default, because it is sector-blind, not because it is deliberate, is financing consumption growth and calling it SME development.
This is in a scenario where consumption as a percentage of GDP has consistently exceeded 97 per cent, while investment as a percentage of GDP has lagged at an average of 12pc over the last five decades. There does not exist a single example of a middle-income economy that graduated to middle-income status solely on the basis of consumption, without producing or exporting much.
The value chain that actually sustains growth runs the other way, from export-oriented large-scale manufacturers, down through the SME suppliers, component makers, and processors that feed them. That value chain is where Pakistan’s SME financing is not going, and the numbers say so on their own.
Nothing in the current design distinguishes a rupee of credit reaching an exporter’s supplier from a rupee reaching a neighbourhood retailer
A decade of lending data demonstrates that only 5.5pc of all bank credit extended to the manufacturing sector reached SME borrowers. In trade, the same figure rose from 33.4pc to 40.6pc. A bank lending into trade today is more than eight times as likely, proportionally, to be lending to a small firm as a bank lending into manufacturing, and that gap has only widened in the last decade.
Manufacturing’s position within the SME loan book has deteriorated further, more recently. Manufacturing’s outstanding SME credit stock increased to a peak of 46pc in 2021, and it has fallen every year since then, closing May 2026 at 30.4pc. A 15.6-point collapse in five years, even as the national SME loan book grew at a compound 12.5pc a year. The money is flowing somewhere, and that somewhere is trade and services.
Pakistan’s manufacturing base is large in firm count and thin in scale. Roughly, 95pc of manufacturing establishments employ fewer than ten people, as per the Economic Census 2023; a formally registered factory is outnumbered 28-to-1 by an informal production shop.
The magical number of ten can be linked to policy or legal arbitrage, where, as the number of employees increases beyond ten, multiple regulatory and legal requirements begin to shape up, increasing the cost of doing business. Instead of scaling up, firms increasingly prefer to split into multiple entities after hitting the sweet spot of ten employees.
The lending data explains why formalisation does not happen. A firm that cannot borrow against its own production has no route to invest in the certification, equipment, or working capital an anchor exporter’s order size would require. It stays small, stays informal, and drifts toward trading, where credit is actually available.
Manufacturing SME credit does not even track large-manufacturer credit in any stable way, as the year-on-year correlation between SME and non-SME manufacturing lending is a weak 0.19, and its 24-month rolling version has run negative over the past two years.
In trade, the same correlation is 0.59, three times as coherent. The credit market does not connect Pakistan’s SME sector to large-scale manufacturing. A robust SME sector remains a function of strong linkages with large-scale manufacturing.
Germany’s SMEs, called Mittelstand, generate 68pc of national exports from a base that is over 99pc small and medium firms. These firms are embedded as specialised suppliers within large industrial value chains, financed through a network of regional guarantee banks explicitly built to substitute for the collateral that a growing SME does not yet have. Independent studies of those guarantee banks find that roughly 60pc of supported loans would not have been made at all without the guarantee.
Taiwan built the same instrument alongside its subcontracting system from the 1970s onward, guaranteeing SME loans with up to 95pc coverage and no collateral required, so a small supplier could take on a subcontracting relationship with a large exporter before it had the balance sheet a bank would normally demand. That subcontracting layer is where Foxconn and TSMC came from.
Bangladesh increased the value addition in its ready-made garment sector from 19pc to roughly 75pc in knitwear by making backwards-linkage textile mills as bankable as direct exporters through bonded warehouse and deemed export status.
Textiles is the sub-sector in Pakistan most directly comparable to Bangladesh’s story, and it remains Pakistan’s largest export earner. Its SME credit book has grown at a compound rate of 8pc a year since 2015, slower than the national SME average of 12.5pc and trade’s 14pc. The sub-sector most obviously suited to backwards-linkage financing is not receiving it at pace.
SME policy in Pakistan is sector-blind by design, but that needs to change if we actually want any kind of sustainable growth, rather than doubling down on consumption-oriented growth, which hasn’t really worked well. Can’t expect different outcomes while making the same mistakes time and again.
A trading firm and an export-grade component manufacturer qualify for the same refinance schemes, the same subsidised credit lines, the same policy attention, as long as their headcount or revenue fits the arbitrary count that defines a SME.
Nothing in the current design distinguishes a rupee of credit reaching an exporter’s supplier from a rupee reaching a neighbourhood retailer. Both count identically toward the aggregate SME credit growth figure, but the economic impact of credit extended to an exporter remains considerably more than a retailer.
We need to rethink SME policy here. Any policy or intervention for SMEs needs to align with an industrial policy, which may or may not exist. National priorities need to focus on increasing the investment-to-GDP ratio to 30pc, which requires reallocating all policy and financial capital to export- and production-oriented interventions, rather than more trade.
None of this requires new legislation or new institutions, but it does require SME policy to stop treating a rupee of credit as fungible across sectors that share nothing but headcount. A thriving SME ecosystem requires a robust large-scale manufacturing space, strong linkages between the two, and policies that incentivise graduation and institutional scaling, rather than incentivising lemming-like firms.
The writer is an assistant professor of practice at IBA and CEO of National Credit Guarantee Company Limited
Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, July 13th, 2026
Italian top seed Jannik Sinner resisted an all-out onslaught by an inspired Alexander Zverev to retain his Wimbledon crown in a thunderous final and claim a fifth Grand Slam title on Sunday.
Zverev, in his first Wimbledon final hot on the heels of winning the French Open, threatened an upset after taking an intense opening set, but eventually ran out of firepower as Sinner found another gear to win 6-7(7) 7-6(2) 6-3 6-4.
The destiny of the title was still on a knife edge nearly three hours into an absorbing contest but second seed Zverev’s resistance finally cracked after a nasty tumble in the third set and Sinner surged on to the title.
Sinner, 24, became the first Italian to win a Wimbledon singles title last year by beating Carlos Alcaraz, and now joins an elite list of 10 men to successfully defend it in the professional era.
It was a 10th successive victory for Sinner over Zverev but this time he was pushed to the limit by the 29-year-old who had been bidding to become the first German man to win the Wimbledon title since Michael Stich in 1991.
Zverev’s first serve percentage hovered around 80 per cent for much of the match while his forehand, often his Achilles heel at big moments during his career, proved a fearsome weapon as he went toe-to-toe with his opponent.
Sinner’s second-round meltdown at the French Open and then a close shave in the first round here against Miomir Kecmanovic a fortnight ago raised doubts about his form and condition.
But he ended the tournament showing why he is the best in the world, not dropping a single service game in a semi-final defeat of Novak Djokovic and in a ferocious final.
No better place
“There’s no better place, honestly, to play tennis,” Sinner said as he cradled the pineapple-topped Challenge Cup.
“I’m standing here. You can feel the nerves in a Sunday morning when you wake up, that this is a very special day, and you never know how many times you can come back. So I never take things for granted.
“It always takes two players. We try to give everything we have, I’m very happy about the win but mostly very happy also about the level we played.”
On a hot and breezy Centre Court, an intense 65-minute first set full of heavy-metal tennis boiled down to tiny margins.
Only one break point was on offer in the opening 12 games with Sinner missing his chance at 4-3 on the Zverev serve when he uncharacteristically framed a forehand wide.
The pace and accuracy of Zverev’s forehand shook Sinner early on while the 6-foot-6 German dropped only eight points on serve in the opening set.
Zverev ended run of losing 14 successive sets against Sinner
Zverev reached set point first in a high-quality tiebreak but was passed at the net after chasing a drop shot.
He then saved set point with an ace and when his chance came again, the free-flowing German cracked away a forehand to end Sinner’s run of winning 14 successive sets against him.
Frustration began to show on Sinner’s face early in the second set as he could make no impact on Zverev’s service games with the German striding around the court in confident fashion.
But in the day’s second tiebreak, Zverev wavered for the first time and Sinner turned up the heat to level the match.
The booming serves and ferocious ball-striking continued into the third set but just when Zverev threatened to strike, the match suddenly veered towards Sinner.
Zverev shaken by fall
At 3-3, Zverev earned his first break point of the match after two hours and 42 minutes but when Sinner conjured a deft drop shot, Zverev slipped behind the dusty baseline and fell awkwardly.
Sinner walked around to check on his opponent and while Zverev said he was okay, he was clearly shaken.
Sinner held and then broke serve for the first time as Zverev was moving a little gingerly, the German flinging away his racket across the turf in frustration.
Zverev recovered his poise in the fourth set but Sinner was locked in and broke serve for 4-3.
The best was saved for last with Sinner winning an incredible 23-stroke rally with an angled dink to bring up match point before sealing victory — his 100th in Grand Slams — with a forehand winner after three hours and 46 minutes.
Despite a fourth Grand Slam final defeat, Zverev can reflect on the best stretch of his career after winning his first major title in Paris and finally cracking the code on Wimbledon’s lawns after never previously going past the fourth round.
“That’s the tennis I want to play. That’s the game style I want to play,” said Zverev, who will move above Alcaraz to second in the rankings on Monday.
“The more I do it, the better I’ll become hopefully.”
HYDERABAD/KARACHI: PPP on Sunday staged rallies across Sindh to condemn India’s unilateral attempt to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and its plans to divert Pakistani waters in the Indus river system.
Water and the IWT remain a contentious issue between India and Pakistan, following New Delhi’s unilateral abeyance of the accord last year — a move that was followed by a brief military conflict between the two sides in May 2025.
PPP activists held demonstrations in several districts and cities, including Karachi, Hyderabad, Thar, Mirpurkhas, Larkana, Shikarpur, Naushahro Feroze and Dadu. They gathered under the slogan ‘marsoon marsoon, Sindhu na desoon’ (We will die, but we will not give up the Indus).
Leading a rally in Hyderabad, PPP Sindh chapter president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had raised the issue at global forums and would take it to a logical end.
The rally started from Shahbaz Building Chowk and culminated outside the local press club in the evening. PPP district president and MNA Tariq Shah Jamot, general secretary Waseem Rajput, Hyderabad divisional president Ajiz Dhamra and others also spoke.
Khuhro asserted that PPP had always stood for Pakistan because it has a federalist colour. He said Bilawal had challenged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an international forum, adding that Modi “would get an answer now”.
Khuhro, also an MPA, said that since the PPP had taken the decision to raise the issue of water in public, the party would mobilise people in every village.
He said Bilawal had decided to approach people on the issue of Pakistan’s share of the Indus waters. He said that PPP supporters would make Bilawal the prime minister so that he could protect the country’s interests.
The IWT, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, regulates the distribution of the Indus river system between India and Pakistan. It allocates the eastern rivers — Ravi, Beas and Sutlej — to India, while the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum and Chenab — are largely allocated to Pakistan.
Khuhro asserted that Pakistanis would never tolerate an attack on their country and its integrity. He remarked that Bilawal could even single-handedly deal with the issue because he “has the courage”.
Recalling that the PPP had opposed the construction of the controversial Kalabagh Dam during late military dictator Pervez Musharraf’s tenure, Khuhro said, “How could anyone build any controversial canal?”
The senior politician stressed that Bilawal was clear in his stance over provincial autonomy and the water issue. He criticised “parties like PTI” for saying that the federation had gone bankrupt due to provincial autonomy.
He wondered why parties such as the PTI and the MQM-P allegedly never questioned India when the latter was hitting at their country’s integrity.
Meanwhile, MPAs Ejaz Shah Bukhari and Khurram Karim Soomro led another rally on Hyderabad’s Phulelli road.
PPP activists attending the rally vowed to protect the Indus river as it was the only source of livelihood for millions in Sindh and described India’s actions as “water terrorism”.
The participants sounded the alarm on Sindh’s standing crops facing damage due to water shortage, while sea intrusion was devouring the agricultural land in the Indus delta.
Contending that the Water Accord of 1991 was not being implemented by the federal government, PPP leaders said the party would take up this issue with the Centre to seek Sindh’s share of water.
Water shortages in Sindh and Balochistan deepened last month as Punjab drew excess water, threatening the downstream provinces’ agricultural activities and drinking water supplies.
PPP district information secretary Dr Mir Hassan Mallah, district council vice chairman Ghulam Mustafa Jat and others were also present at the demonstration.
Saeed Ghani says war would be only option if water denied
In Karachi, Sindh Labour and Social Protection Minister Saeed Ghani addressed a rally organised by the PPP’s South district chapter, while Senator Waqar Mehdi spoke at the Keamari chapter’s gathering and MNA Sharmila Faruqui led the East chapter’s rally.
The rally led by Ghani marched from the Sindh Assembly building to the Karachi Press Club (KPC).
Ghani, also the PPP’s Karachi division president, said that the waters of River Indus were not just an issue for Sindh or Karachi alone, but a matter affecting the entire country, as the river provides drinking water and irrigation for Pakistan’s 250 million people.
Speaking to demonstrators outside the KPC, the PPP leader described the Indus river as the “lifeline of Pakistan” and said no law in the world permitted India to unilaterally suspend the IWT.
Referring to Bilawal’s recent public address in Sukkur, Ghani said the PPP chairman had warned that Pakistanis would not remain silent if water was prevented from flowing in the Indus.
“We are a peaceful people and do not want war because we believe war is not the solution to any problem,” Ghani said.
However, he warned that if Pakistan’s people were deprived of water and food, leaving them to face hunger, “there would be no option left except war”.
Earlier this week, the army’s top brass affirmed its “resolute commitment” to undertake “all measures necessary” to ensure the availability of Pakistan’s rightful share of water.
It took note of the “Indian rhetoric surrounding” the IWT and reaffirmed the guidance given in last year’s National Security Committee (NSC) directive, which said any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water under the treaty would be an “act of war”.
Stating that the campaign against India’s alleged water aggression was not the struggle of the Pakistani leadership alone, Ghani urged the public to raise their voice.
He further alleged that India was seeking to avenge its previous setbacks and warned that if New Delhi failed to act responsibly, Pakistan’s political leadership should consider declaring war.
The minister added that any aggression would be met with a response “that generations would remember”.
Ghani maintained that neither Pakistan nor India had the authority to disregard the treaty unilaterally. Any amendment to the agreement, he said, required the consent of both countries.
He pointed out that despite the wars of 1965 and 1971, neither side had withdrawn from the treaty, demonstrating its enduring legal status.
The rally was attended by PPP District South President Javed Nagori, General Secretary Taimur Sial, Abdul Majeed Mulla, Fareed Memon, Aslam Samoon, Khalil Houth and a large number of people.
Meanwhile, addressing his rally in the Keamari district, Senator Mehdi said that India’s unilateral attempt to suspend IWT posed a grave threat to regional peace and stability.
He stressed that using water as a weapon or an instrument of political coercion was an extremely dangerous and inhumane act.
He warned that any attempt to block or usurp Pakistan’s share of water would be considered an attack on the country’s economy, agriculture, food security, national security, and the fundamental rights of its people.
He reiterated PPP’s resolve to continue its struggle to protect Pakistan’s water rights through every constitutional, legal, diplomatic, and democratic forum.
He has led multiple wars, outlasted several American presidents, and watched his political obituary written — only to be shredded — more times than any other leader in modern Israeli history.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, faces an international arrest warrant over alleged war crimes in Gaza, a long-running corruption trial, and a spiralling multi-front conflict that has dragged on for nearly three years and has seen his country’s first direct military confrontations with arch-foe Iran.
Now the silver-haired 76-year-old, nicknamed “Bibi”, is staring down an election that many believe could finally draw the curtain on one of the most consequential and contested careers in Israeli politics — or extend it once again.
Netanyahu has declared that he “intends to win” in the election scheduled for October 27, setting the stage for what could be the defining contest of his political life.
Shattered image of ‘Mr Security’
Netanyahu built his entire career on a single promise: that he alone could keep Israel safe.
It was the deadliest day in Israel’s history, with Hamas’s attacks leaving more than 1,200 people dead and shattering the image of “Mr Security” that Netanyahu had spent decades cultivating.
The wars that followed have become both a political lifeline and his legacy’s greatest threat.
Netanyahu has overseen relentless bombardment of Gaza for two years that left tens of thousands dead. Israel’s actions under his watch were declared a genocide by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and experts, which Tel Aviv rejects.
The conflict quickly spread beyond the Palestinian territory, drawing in Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and eventually Iran, fundamentally reshaping the Middle East’s strategic landscape.
Militarily, Israel demonstrated overwhelming reach, striking deep inside Iran, yet the diplomatic endgame has largely unfolded outside Netanyahu’s control.
Whether these wars ultimately redeem or irreparably taint his leadership remains the central question in the elections.
Born in Tel Aviv on October 21, 1949, Netanyahu is the son of a right-wing Zionist historian — an ideological inheritance that shaped his entire career.
He served in Israel’s commando unit and fought in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
Netanyahu has two sons with his third wife, Sara and a daughter from a previous marriage. In his early life, his elder brother Yonatan was killed leading the Entebbe hostage-rescue mission in Uganda.
“When the news reached me that Yoni had died, I felt as if my life had ended,” Netanyahu later wrote.
Reshaping Middle East
Raised partly in the US and educated at MIT, he became one of Israel’s most effective international advocates — a polished, English-speaking envoy equally comfortable in Washington television studios and UN halls.
He entered parliament in 1988, took control of the Likud party in 1993 and, three years later, became Israel’s youngest prime minister at 46.
In all, he has spent nearly two decades in the role across multiple terms.
For years, Netanyahu argued that Israel’s security rested on military strength, intelligence superiority and deterrence.
The Hamas assault exposed catastrophic failures in all three under his watch.
As the war widened, Netanyahu cast the conflict in increasingly historic terms: not merely as a battle against Hamas, but as a once-in-a-generation struggle to reshape the region and break Iran’s regional influence.
“We are going to change the Middle East,” he vowed after the Hamas attacks.
Supporters say he responded to Israel’s darkest hour with unprecedented military determination, challenging Tehran more directly than any predecessor.
Critics tell a different story: a leader who used the war to delay a reckoning over the failures behind October 7, and who, they argue, fell short of his own war goals — namely eliminating Hamas and toppling the Iranian leadership.
The conflict has also unfolded against a backdrop of a collapsed Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the continued expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, developments that critics say have pushed the prospect of a Palestinian state further out of reach than ever.
The Trump alliance
Netanyahu has survived and often frustrated successive American administrations, but few foreign relationships have mattered more to him than his ties with US President Donald Trump.
Since Trump’s return to the White House, the two have maintained a close relationship, with Netanyahu hailing him as “the greatest friend” Israel ever had in the White House.
But even that alliance has shown signs of strain, with Trump unleashing profanity-laced tirades on his ally amid the fraught negotiations over the Iran deal, which Israel watched from the sidelines.
At home, the criticism has grown sharper.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is a man blessed with talents, but he has grown old and tired, and is surrounded by the least suitable people to run a country,” opposition leader Yair Lapid said recently, insisting that accountability for October 7 and Netanyahu’s continued leadership are irreconcilable.
Tough polls
Polls remain challenging, with a majority of Israelis wanting Netanyahu out amid lingering public anger over the October 7 security failures, and he is still fighting corruption charges in court.
For decades, Netanyahu has defied every prediction of his downfall — most dramatically in 2022, when he returned to power backed by far-right allies.
Now, the battle over his legacy may prove the hardest fight of all.
The wars waged under his watch will determine how history remembers him.
In a recent interview, Netanyahu expressed his comfort with making unpopular decisions that he felt were right, saying he felt little need to be lionised in the press.
“I would rather get a bad editorial than a positive obituary,” he said.
Jude Bellingham scored twice, including the extra-time winner, as England ground out a 2-1 victory over a battling Norway side at Miami Stadium on Sunday to reach the World Cup semi-finals for the fourth time.
The teams were locked up 1-1 at the end of regulation time after Andreas Schjelderup had opened the scoring for Norway with a wonder strike in the 36th minute and Bellingham skipped into the area to equalise just before halftime.
Three minutes into extra time, though, Morgan Rogers fired a long-range shot at the Norwegian goal that Orjan Nyland could only parry and Bellingham stole in to bury the rebound, delighting the white-shirted fans in the crowd of 64,478.
England will face Argentina or Switzerland in Atlanta on Wednesday in their fourth semi-final in their last five major championships, looking to stay on course for a repeat of their sole World Cup triumph of 1966.
“The result is fantastic. We’re in the last four. It’s amazing, but I’m not happy with the performance,” England coach Thomas Tuchel said.
“We made life very, very difficult for ourselves in the way we played. Sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough. We were lucky today.”
Norway will feel they deserved more out of the game, even if England kept Erling Haaland scoreless for the first time in his last 16 matches for his country, and will exit their first World Cup in 28 years with heads held high.
“It is a bit bitter, but it has been an adventure,” said Norway skipper Martin Odegaard. “We must be proud. We are here for the first time in a long time, and we are making our mark. The whole world is talking about us.”
Cagey first half
Perhaps because of the stifling heat, the first half was a cagey affair but Norway exploded into life when Julian Ryerson crossed for Haaland to head the ball at goalkeeper Jordan Pickford in the 35th minute.
A minute later, Patrick Berg stripped Harry Kane of possession near halfway and released Schjelderup down the left, the winger turning makeshift England full back Ezri Konsa inside out before crashing a shot-cum-cross into the net.
England were rattled and Norway took full advantage with Alexander Sorloth hitting a rising drive over the bar and Martin Odegaard drilling in a low shot that Pickford parried away.
They should have doubled their lead in the 44th minute when they briefly had a two-on-one inside the England half but Sorloth decided not to pass to Haaland and the defenders recovered their ground to snuff out the danger.
Norway would regret their profligacy in stoppage time at the end of the half when Bellingham conjured up an equaliser of real quality from Anthony Gordon’s clever ball across the edge of the box.
Bellingham took one touch to steer the ball into the area, another to take him past a defender, before turning to whip it across goalkeeper Nyland into the far corner of the goal.
The remainder of the half was all England with Kane getting the ball into the net again only to be adjudged offside, a decision confirmed by VAR.
VAR rules out Norway goal
VAR was again called upon 10 minutes into the second half when Torbjorn Heggem thought he had put Norway in front from a corner, his goal scratched off for a shove by Haaland on Elliot Anderson.
Norway’s introduction of pacey winger Oscar Bobb in the 67th minute triggered another period of dominance with England fortunate not to concede when David Moller Wolfe headed the ball over Pickford and on to the bar.
England’s right-wing substitute Bukayo Saka came close to helping his team take the lead with a dangerous cross that flashed across goal in the 78th minute and he carved out another great chance when he got to the byline and fired a low cross across the box that none of his teammates were able to get to.
England substitute Djed Spence caught Nyland napping in possession towards the end of normal time but the second half was destined to finish goalless.
VAR was to intervene once more after Bellingham’s second goal to rule out an extra-time penalty awarded to England for a foul on Spence.
Haaland, unable to add to his tournament tally of seven goals, was substituted at halftime of the extra period and although Norway poured forward looking for an equaliser, England held on to match their progress to the last four at the 1966, 1990 and 2018 World Cups.
“I feel sorry for the lads, but this is top level sports at its best or its most gruesome,” said tearful Norway coach Stale Solbakken. “We played fantastic football against a super team, but we didn’t make it.”
GWADAR: Gwadar Port has conducted its first commercial bunkering (ship refuelling) operation as part of efforts to expand its maritime operations.
The operation was conducted between July 9 and 11 through a collaborative effort involving the Gwadar Port Authority (GPA), National Logistics Cell (NLC), Gwadar International Terminals Limited (GITL) and global energy giant Vitol Asia.
During the operation, the LNG carrier Enugu — jointly owned by world-renowned companies QatarEnergy, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Vitol — was supplied with 2,500 metric tonnes of very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) at Gwadar Port.
The refuelling of the 285.4-metre-long vessel was carried out by the bunker barge Marine Ista.
Pakistan Customs, port authorities, and local shipping agent Pak Traders Gwadar were involved in ensuring the safe and efficient completion of the operation.
The operation expands the range of services available at Gwadar Port, which can now provide bunkering and other marine services to international vessels in addition to cargo handling.
Boosting the blue economy
According to experts, the development could create new opportunities for foreign exchange earnings and revenue generation. They said it could also enhance Gwadar Port’s ability to attract international shipping services.
This achievement directly aligns with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) vision to transform Gwadar into a key regional trade and energy hub.
Port authorities stated that this marks the formal launch of commercial bunkering services in Gwadar. In the future, more international vessels are expected to refuel at the port, which is anticipated to significantly boost Pakistan’s blue economy, logistics, marine services, and local employment opportunities.
