Year: 2020

The most pragmatic statement in this regard was probably given by the Russian President Vladimir Putin when he stated that whosoever would become a leader in AI would lead the world. This statement reflects that today states are driven towards this technology in a fear of being left out. This has generated a competition and arms race with a special focus on utilizing AI in military strategies. In South Asia, India aspires to dominate the region in this evolved domain as well. In this regard, India has been actively involved…

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Liquefied natural gas (LNG) may be the only solution to the gas crisis in winter. However, it has not worked due to the monopoly of government companies on LNG import, marketing and distribution. Deregulation of any business sparks competition, better service delivery and a boom in relevant sectors. Owing to the monopoly of state-owned firms, competition is absent in Pakistan’s gas sector. The previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government managed to import LNG for the first time in country’s history. But it has not grown in terms of increasing the…

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ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has recently ordered the federal government to establish an electricity tribunal forthwith. The Appellate Tribunal for electricity sector has been provided in the Electricity Law 2015. It could not be implemented partly due to active and passive opposition from the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) itself. Such opposition was actually ill-placed for Nepra suffered due to the lack of an intermediary fast-action institution like a tribunal. Under the current situation, the affected parties file petitions in higher courts where cases remain pending for years and…

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Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Power Tabish Gauhar has revealed that Prime Minister Imran Khan will personally promise the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a time-bound road map for power sector reforms in return for a freeze on the tariff increase — in fact, lower flat rates for the industrial and SME sectors to spur economic activity and absorb surplus capacity. The prime minister has had a series of meetings on this issue over the last couple of weeks. Mr Gauhar has recently replaced Shahzad Qasim, his former senior colleague at…

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