Month: August 2021

Air quality recorded healthy since January August 12, 2021 Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) Director General Farzana Altaf Shah on Monday told the Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change that the air pollutant ratio in the federal capital was calculated below permissible limits of National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) since January. The committee meeting was chaired by Senator Muhammad Hamayun Mohmand. She apprised the forum that the most hazardous pollutant of particulate matter (PM2.5) was recorded at 17.5 microgrammes per cubic metre which is far below the NEQS of 35…

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The federal government on Wednesday gave an ex-post facto approval to a Rs29 billion road project against its own decision while also relaxing a statutory requirement for conducting feasibility study for another project. Headed by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) took certain decisions, which have raised governance and prudent fiscal management related issues. Ecnec took decisions on four summaries but the Ministry of Finance reported only two in its handout, highlighting increasing lack of transparency in the affairs of the government. Ecnec gave…

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Sindh Minister for Energy Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh on Wednesday said that his department, Engro Energy Limited and a group of Karachi-based industrialists would soon ink a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a 400-megawatt solar-wind electricity generation power house to provide low-cost and uninterrupted power to the industrial units in Sindh, especially Karachi. In a statement, he said that the Sindh government would provide land at Jhimpir for the proposed power plant that would initially produce 50MW electricity in the first phase, and later its capacity will be increased to…

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The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) that met here on Wednesday under Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin did not approve the Pakistan Refinery Policy 2021, as Asad Umar, Federal Minister for Planning and Special Initiatives, opposed it arguing that the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCOE) was the right forum to take up refining policy. Expressing his annoyance over not being given the policy draft by the Petroleum Division, Asad asked how can he give his input for the policy without going through the document first, a senior official who attended the meeting…

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Delay in floating tenders for import of the LNG spot cargoes and awarded contracts at higher rates by Pakistan LNG Ltd (PLL) resulted in losses of Rs10.6 billion in the financial year 2020-21. High prices of the LNG and gas shortages recently witnessed by the country is a result of poor planning for procurement of spot LNG cargoes by the PLL. This has been revealed in the audit report of the Petroleum Division and the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) for the audit year 2020-21. During the audit of…

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