Day: May 17, 2020

Pakistan will soon start production of the antiviral drug remdesivir, which has shown promise in treating the novel coronavirus, the country’s top health official and a pharmaceutical company’s chief executive announced on Friday. Production should start “within weeks,” said Osman Khalid Waheed, the chief executive of Ferozsons Laboratories Ltd, which will produce the drug. He spoke at a news conference alongside Pakistan’s de facto health minister, Zafar Mirza. “Pakistan will be among the first three countries in the world where it will not only be produced but will also be…

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KARACHI: Chairman Businessmen Group (BMG) & Former President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Siraj Kassam Teli has urged the Sindh Government to completely do away with the ongoing lockdown at least during the last week of Ramadan ul Mubarak in which all the shops and shopping malls be permitted to operate 24-hours a day, which would not only help in dealing with the overcrowding issue at various commercial markets due to limited timings but would enable the small traders/ shopkeepers to recover some of the previous losses suffered…

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ISLAMABAD: The National Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) sees cash injection to ease circular debt in the power sector as a stopgap measure and ineffective until privatisation is promoted to break monopoly of state-run entities and rid consumers of higher energy costs. Nepra said measures such as injection of cash in the sector would only provide temporary support as long as the real issues are not addressed. Centralised control of power distribution companies (Discos) and public sector generation companies (Gencos) is one of the main reasons for substandard performance and accumulation…

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The circular debt, higher transmission losses and inefficiency of power firms continued to haunt the power sector in financial year 2018-19, reveals a report released by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra). The power sector regulator, in its annual Industry Report 2019, called for retiring all inefficient state-run power plants and privatising all power distribution companies. Nepra observed that centralised governance models for distribution companies failed to bring any noticeable improvement over a period of more than 15 years. It noted that 12,000 megawatts of electricity was added to…

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Russia is seeking direct award of a construction contract for the $13 billion Diamer Bhasha Dam in a government-to-government deal without resorting to international competitive bidding, sources say. Faced with water and power shortages, Pakistan is looking for funds from China and Russia, who in turn want a government-to-government deal without international bidding. The government’s search for funds came after multilateral donors asked Pakistan to get a no-objection certificate from India for the dam’s construction. China and Russia want a similar arrangement for undertaking the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, which…

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