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Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to establish power transmission line costing $28 million

Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to establish power transmission line costing $28 million
This file photo, taken on January 24, 2023, shows a power transmission tower in Karachi. (REUTERS/File)
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Updated 02 November 2024
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Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to establish power transmission line costing $28 million

Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to establish power transmission line costing $28 million
  • Official says this will be the first time ever that a province will lay a transmission line on its own
  • In the first phase, a 40-kilometer section of the line will be built from Matiltan to Madyan in Swat
Updated 02 November 2024
Muhammad Ibrahim
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ISLAMABAD: The government in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has signed an agreement with a private firm to establish a power transmission line in the province, an official said on Saturday.
The power transmission line will be established in one and a half year with a cost of Rs8 billion ($28.8 million), according to Muhammad Ali Saif, KP chief minister’s adviser on information.
In the first phase, a 40-kilometer section of the line will be built from Matiltan to Madyan in Swat to supply power to local industries and national grid.
“Industries will be provided very cheap electricity through the transmission line,” Saif said in a statement. “The completion of its first phase generate Rs7 billion for the province.”
Pakistan has enough installed capacity to meet its demand for electricity, but the South Asian country lacks adequate resources and cannot afford to invest in new infrastructure and power lines, which often result in transmission losses. 
In January 2023, the country suffered a nationwide blackout due to a frequency failure in the national grid, which happened because of a major mismatch between demand and supply. It was the second nationwide shutdown in three months. 
In November last year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved $250 million loan for Pakistan to help the South Asian country deliver reliable electricity by expanding and improving its power transmission network in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces.
 

Topics: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Pakistan electricity KPK power transmission National Grid

Punjab invites China’s Jinko Solar to set up manufacturing plant in Pakistan

Punjab invites China’s Jinko Solar to set up manufacturing plant in Pakistan
Updated 33 sec ago
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Punjab invites China’s Jinko Solar to set up manufacturing plant in Pakistan

Punjab invites China’s Jinko Solar to set up manufacturing plant in Pakistan
  • Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif meets Chinese solar company officials in Shanghai during factory visit
  • Experts say Pakistan has ideal climatic conditions for solar power generation with over nine hours of daily sunlight
Updated 33 sec ago
Hasaan Ali Khan

ISLAMABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has invited China’s Jinko Solar Company to set up a manufacturing plant in Pakistan’s most populous province, according to televised comments by the provincial chief executive released on Friday.

Pakistan’s energy sector has long struggled with financial strain due to circular debt, power theft and transmission losses, leading to blackouts and high electricity costs. 

Experts say Pakistan has ideal climatic conditions for solar power generation, with over nine hours of daily sunlight in most parts of the country. According to the World Bank, utilizing just 0.071 percent of the country’s area for solar power generation would meet Pakistan’s entire electricity demand.

Currently, only 5.4 percent of Pakistan’s installed power generation capacity of 39,772 megawatts comes from renewables like wind, solar and biomass, while fossil fuels still make up 63 percent of the fuel mix, followed by hydropower at 25 percent, according to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority.

“I think it’s high time that you set up a manufacturing unit in Pakistan,” CM Sharif said in televised comments during a factory visit to Jinko Solar Company in Shanghai.

“Pakistan has abundant solar resources. It’s a country that has sun all the time.”

She said Pakistan, with a population of around 240 million people, was a huge market where the demand for solar power was increasing, with the potential to make it Jinko Solar’s fourth biggest market.

“The cost of the energy power in Pakistan’s electricity is coming down and there is no dearth of workforce in Pakistan which should not be a problem,” Sharif added. “Then we have the infrastructure that is required to set up a factory, we’ve got tax-free zones where we have all the facilities available.”

Sharif said the Punjab government was incentivizing the use of solar power and launching two projects where free solar panels would be given out to users of 200 or fewer units.

“We are also providing long-term loans with easy instalments without interest for a huge, huge population that consumes electricity between 200 to 500 units,” she said. “And this is an upcoming project, we haven’t yet started it but we’re working on it, it’s been finalized and we will be launching it in a week.”

According to a World Economic Forum report last month, Pakistan was now the sixth-largest solar market in the world.

Topics: Jinko Maryam Nawaz Sharif Punjab Pakistan China Ties

Pakistan reports four new polio cases, raising 2024 tally to 63

Pakistan reports four new polio cases, raising 2024 tally to 63
Updated 27 min 18 sec ago
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Pakistan reports four new polio cases, raising 2024 tally to 63

Pakistan reports four new polio cases, raising 2024 tally to 63
  • New cases detected in DI Khan, Tank, Jacobabad and Sukkur
  • Pakistan, Afghanistan are last polio-endemic countries globally
Updated 27 min 18 sec ago
REHMAT MEHSUD

PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s polio eradication program said on Friday four new cases of the crippling virus had been detected in the country, bringing the nationwide tally for 2024 to 63.

Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world. 

The next national polio vaccination campaign is planned from Dec 16-22 to reach more than 44 million children under five in 143 districts. Pakistan’s chief health officer said last month an estimated 500,000 children had missed polio drops during a recent countrywide inoculation drive due to vaccine refusals.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of four wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan, bringing the number of total cases in the country this year to 63,” the polio program said.

The lab said one polio case each in female children had been detected in DI Khan, Tank and Jacobabad, and one male child had contracted the virus in Sukkur.

This is the ninth polio case from DI Khan, third from Tank, third from Jacobabad, and the first from Sukkur this year.

The polio program said 26 cases had been confirmed this year in Balochistan province, 18 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 17 in Sindh, and one each in Punjab and the federal capital, Islamabad.

Poliovirus, which can cause crippling paralysis particularly in young children, is incurable and remains a threat to human health as long as it has not been eradicated. Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain.

In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021. 

Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies. Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams. 

In July 2019, a vaccination drive in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was thwarted after mass panic was created by rumors that children were fainting or vomiting after being immunized.

Public health studies in Pakistan have shown that maternal illiteracy and low parental knowledge about vaccines, together with poverty and rural residency, are also factors that commonly influence whether parents vaccinate their children against polio.

Topics: Polio Pakistan

Pakistan Taliban emerging as Al-Qaeda arm with ‘regional, global terrorist agenda’ — envoy

Pakistan Taliban emerging as Al-Qaeda arm with ‘regional, global terrorist agenda’ — envoy
Updated 9 min 51 sec ago
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Pakistan Taliban emerging as Al-Qaeda arm with ‘regional, global terrorist agenda’ — envoy

Pakistan Taliban emerging as Al-Qaeda arm with ‘regional, global terrorist agenda’ — envoy
  • Acting envoy to UN says Afghan government fighting Daesh but not addressing other groups such as Al Qaeda, TTP 
  • Says TTP also collaborating with suicide squad of separatist Baloch Liberation Army in Pakistan’s Balochistan province
Updated 9 min 51 sec ago
Hasaan Ali Khan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s acting UN envoy Usman Jadoon said this week the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group, which Islamabad accuses of operating from safe havens in neighboring Afghanistan, was poised to become Al-Qaeda’s regional and global arm, with a far-reaching “terrorist agenda” that threatened international security.

Islamabad says the TTP uses Afghanistan as a base to launch attacks, accusing the ruling Taliban administration of providing safe havens to the group along their shared border. Pakistan also says Afghans have been found to be involved in multiple recent attacks, amid a militancy spike. The Taliban deny militants are using Afghan soil to launch attacks or that Afghans are involved in militancy in Pakistan. They say Pakistan’s security challenges are a domestic issue. 

The TTP is separate from the Afghan Taliban movement but pledges loyalty to the group that now rules Afghanistan after the US-led international forces withdrew in 2021.

“Given its long association with Al Qaeda, the TTP could emerge as Al Qaeda’s arm with a regional and global terrorist agenda,” Jadoon said on Thursday while addressing a UN Security Council meeting. 

“Terrorism within and from Afghanistan poses the single most serious threat to the country, to the region and the world … While the Afghan interim government is fighting Daesh, the threat from various other terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, TTP and others is yet to be addressed.”

Jadoon said the TTP was fast emerging as an “umbrella organization” for other terror groups in the area with the “clear objective of destabilizing Afghanistan’s neighbors.”

“We have evidence of its collaboration with other terrorist groups like the Majeed brigade which is utilizing terrorism to disrupt Pakistan’s economic cooperation with China, especially the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,” the diplomat added, referring to the suicide squad of the separatist Baloch Liberation Army which has been fighting a decades long insurgency in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province. 

Jadoon said with 6,000 fighters, TTP was the largest listed militant group operating close to Pakistan’s borders.

“In countering the TTP cross-border operations, our security and border officials have confiscated some of the modern weapons acquired by the Afghan interim government from stocks left behind by foreign forces,” he said, adding that the TTP also received external support and financing from Pakistan’s adversary India. 

Last month, the Pakistan army said it had killed three militants trying to infiltrate its frontier with Afghanistan, calling on Kabul to ensure “effective border management” on its side. 

A deportation drive launched last year against Afghans living in Pakistan and border restrictions have also led to a spike in tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan. 

Topics: Taliban Al-Qaeda Afghanistan

Pakistan top court allows army to announce military trial verdicts of pro-Khan protesters

Pakistan top court allows army to announce military trial verdicts of pro-Khan protesters
Updated 13 December 2024
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Pakistan top court allows army to announce military trial verdicts of pro-Khan protesters

Pakistan top court allows army to announce military trial verdicts of pro-Khan protesters
  • On Oct. 23 last year, three-member Supreme Court panel had declared military trials of civilians unconstitutional, suspending all proceedings
  • On Dec 13, six-member bench provisionally approved military court trials of over 100 supporters of ex-premier Imran Khan 
Updated 13 December 2024
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday conditionally allowed military courts to announce the reserved verdicts of 85 civilians tried over their alleged involvement in last year’s May 9 riots, a major blow to the party of jailed ex-premier Imran Khan that the violence has been linked to. 

The ruling comes a little over a year after a three-member bench of the top court said last October military trials of civilians were unconstitutional and ordered the trials of some 103 people moved to civilian criminal courts, a relief for dozens accused of ransacking military installations during protests after the brief arrest of Khan on May 9, 2023. However, on December 13, 2023, a six-member bench conditionally suspended its own Oct. 23 ruling, pending a final judgment as it heard a set of intra-court appeals (ICAs).

Hundreds of alleged Khan supporters were arrested after they stormed military and government installations, and even torched a top commander’s house, following the former premier’s brief arrest by paramilitary soldiers in a land bribe case. Though Khan was released just days after the violence of May 9, he was arrested again that August following an accountability court’s ruling in another corruption case and has been in jail since, facing a slew of legal charges he says are trumped up to keep him away from politics. 

The military initiated army court trials of at least 103 people accused of involvement in the violence and there have been widespread reports it also plans to prosecute Khan under the Pakistan Army Act on charges of treason and attempting to incite a mutiny in the military.

Announcing Friday’s verdict, Justice Aminuddin Khan, the head of the constitutional bench said:

“Suspects who can be accorded concessions in their sentences, should be given so and released … Suspects who cannot be released should be moved to jails once their sentence has been pronounced.”

In March, a six-member SC bench had also conditionally allowed military courts to pronounce reserved verdicts in the May 9 cases. It had also modified its Dec. 13 injunction, ordering that military courts could commence trials but they would not convict or acquit any suspects as long as the government-instituted intra-court appeals were pending.

Local and global rights groups have expressed concerns over the military trials, saying such courts do not have the same standards of evidence and due process as civilian courts.

Pakistan’s Army Act of 1952 established military courts primarily to try members of the military or enemies of the state, and they operate under a separate legal system.

The decision to use military courts was taken by the government of Khan’s rival, Shehbaz Sharif, and backed by the army.

Topics: Pakistan military courts Imran Khan PTI May 9 riots Arab News Pakistan

Punjab says will work with Huawei to transform Lahore into Pakistan’s first smart city

Punjab says will work with Huawei to transform Lahore into Pakistan’s first smart city
Updated 13 December 2024
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Punjab says will work with Huawei to transform Lahore into Pakistan’s first smart city

Punjab says will work with Huawei to transform Lahore into Pakistan’s first smart city
  • Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif is on a week-long visit to China from Dec. 8-15
  • Smart city is an urban area where technology and data collection are used to improve quality of life
Updated 13 December 2024
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has discussed various proposals with officials at Chinese information technology giant Huawei to turn the provincial capital into Pakistan’s first smart city, Radio Pakistan reported on Friday.

Sharif is on a week-long visit to China from Dec. 8-15 and on Thursday visited Huawei Technologies in the Longgang district of Shanghai. Longtime ally China has invested heavily in Pakistan through the $65 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that encompasses infrastructure, energy and other projects and is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.

“During the visit, it was decided, in collaboration with Huawei, to transform Lahore into Pakistan’s first state-of-the-art smart city,” Radio Pakistan reported on Sharif’s visit to the headquarters of the Chinese company.

“Chief Minister discussed various proposals and recommendations with Huawei’s President of Government Affairs Mr. Wang Chengdong, or turning Lahore into a modern digital city, including e-commerce, ecosystem production, and the digitization of the health and education sectors.”

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif (right) attends a briefing at Huawei Technologies in the Longgang district of Shanghai, China, on December 13, 2024. (PML-N)

According to the report, Huawei officials also assured full cooperation in setting up an assembly and manufacturing plant in Punjab.

A smart city is an urban area where technology and data collection help improve quality of life as well as the sustainability and efficiency of city operations. Smart city technologies used by local governments include information and communication technologies (ICT) and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Areas of city operations where ICT, IoT and other smart technologies increasingly play an important role include transportation, energy and infrastructure.

Technologies to collect data, including real-time data, are central to smart city initiatives and the benefits they promise. Data-driven insights help local governments improve urban planning and the deployment of city services, ranging from waste management to public transportation, leading to better quality of life for residents.

More efficient city services can also help cut carbon emissions, contributing to global efforts to address climate change while also improving local air quality. In addition, smart city solutions can be an engine for economic growth, as better infrastructure and technological innovation can encourage job creation and business opportunities.

Topics: Pakistan maryam nawaz Lahore Huawei Smart city Arab News Pakistan

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