KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board announced on Thursday it had decided to postpone the ongoing Pakistan Super League cricket series after a number of players tested positive for the coronavirus.
Three players tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. Islamabad’s two foreign cricketers, including Australian leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed, and another unnamed foreign player, are already in isolation after testing positive earlier this week.
“Following a meeting with the team owners and considering the health and wellbeing of all participants is paramount, the Pakistan Cricket Board has decided to postpone the HBL Pakistan Super League 6 with immediate effect,” the PCB said in a statement. “The decision was made after seven cases were reported in the competition, which had started on 20 February.”
“The PCB, as an immediate step, will focus on the safe and secure passage of all participants, and arrange repeat PCR tests, vaccines and isolation facilities to the six participating sides,” the statement said.
PCB has also decided to offer coronavirus vaccine doses to all participants of PSL, becoming the first cricket board to do so.
“The decision has been made in the line with the PCB’s duty of care policy and to ensure all participants of the league remain safe and healthy during the event, which concludes on 22 March,” PCB said in a separate statement on Wednesday. “The vaccine doses will be administered on Thursday and will be offered to all those inside the biosecure bubble. However, it will solely be the players and officials’ decision if they want to get the vaccine shots.”
PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan said the cricket board took the “health, safety and wellbeing of its players and officials very seriously.”
Pakistan Super League cricket series postponed with ‘immediate effect’
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Pakistan Super League cricket series postponed with ‘immediate effect’
- PCB says decision made after seven coronavirus cases reported in the competition
- Says will focus on the secure passage of all participants, arrange tests, vaccines
Pakistan stocks fall amid Afghanistan tensions, recover from intraday lows
- Index drops as much as 3,081 points before paring losses after no retaliation reported from Kabul
- Banking and energy stocks drag benchmark lower as regional tensions weigh on investor sentiment
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s benchmark KSE-100 index fell on Friday amid escalating tensions with Afghanistan as Pakistan bombed government targets in Kabul and Kandahar where the Afghan Taliban leadership is based, triggering early selling pressure before the market recovered from sharp intraday losses.
The strikes marked a significant escalation in cross-border tensions between Islamabad and Kabul, raising concerns about potential retaliation and broader regional instability. The development comes at a time when relations between the two sides have been strained for months over security issues along the border and militant attacks in Pakistan that it blames on Afghan-based groups. Kabul denies it harbors such outfits.
Heightened geopolitical risk tends to weigh on investor sentiment, particularly in emerging markets, as uncertainty over security and diplomatic fallout can prompt risk-off positioning and capital outflows. Traders said investors reacted swiftly to the headlines, pricing in the possibility of further escalation.
“KSE 100 Index opened on a negative note and declined to make an intraday low of -3,081 points (down by -1.82 percent), this negativity can be accredited to regional tension with Afghanistan, where Pakistan targeted key military installation of Afghanistan Taliban regime in Kabul,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its market review.
The index dropped as much as 3,081 points, or 1.82 percent, during the session before recovering part of the losses after no retaliatory strikes were reported.
It settled at 168,062 points, down 0.49 percent on the day.
Losses were led by United Bank Limited, Fauji Fertilizer Company, Oil and Gas Development Company, Pakistan Petroleum Limited and MCB Bank Limited, which together shaved 658 points off the index.
National Bank of Pakistan, MCB Bank, Pakistan Petroleum Limited, Bank of Punjab and Bank Alfalah led trading by value.
Traded volume and value for the day stood at 533 million shares and 25.5 billion respectively.
Separately, a brokerage house said Pakistan’s headline inflation is likely to rise to around 7.4 percent in February ahead of the State Bank of Pakistan’s March 9 monetary policy meeting.
“Headline inflation is estimated at ~7.4 percent for Feb’26, compared to ~1.5 percent in SPLY and ~5.8 percent in preceding month,” Insight Research said. “The increase in mainly driven by low base effect.”
