Category: Highlights

First things first. Understanding of petroleum pricing in the Pakistani mass media at large is amateurish at best. No surprise that the reporting if often devoid of ground realities. There should be no second opinions that the understanding and the subsequent quality of reporting needs to improve drastically. That said, how does this qualify for the electronic media regulator to “request” all TV channels to carry out a “media campaign and narrative of government on petrol prices?” The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) thought it was only fair to…

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ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB’s) investigation against Independent Power Producers (IPPs) has reportedly put first installment of 40 per cent of agreed amount of over Rs 400 billion in limbo, well-informed sources old Business Recorder. Earlier, the IPPs, established under the pre-1994 Power Policy and 1994 Power Policy were expecting installment of 40 per cent agreed amount before the end of current month. “Power Division has written a letter to NAB, requesting anti-graft body to go through all the agreements and other available documents and issue a clean chit before…

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ISLAMABAD: The government is expected to complete gas and electricity transmission lines to Rashakai special economic zone by this yearend, officials said on Friday. The representatives of the developers informed a meeting that the first Unit of a steel plant is under construction in the SEZ and plant and machinery would soon be imported. In the first phase, they plan to set up first unit with an investment of $79 million to produce 500,000 tons of rebar/ construction steel. In the second phase, they intend to set up their second…

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Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Petroleum Nadeem Babar has been asked to resign from his position over last year’s fuel crisis, federal minister Asad Umar announced on Friday. Addressing a press conference, he said Prime Minister Imran Khan had asked Babar to step down from the position for a 90-day period, during which the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) will conduct a forensic investigation into the “criminal acts” that led to the fuel crisis. The agency will be bound to submit its report within 90 days based on which…

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Poor governance, incompetence, lack of transparency, distribution and transmission losses (a euphemism for theft), have made powering Pakistan a transMission Impossible. A recently released book by the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars (Wilson Center) reviews the energy crisis in Pakistan and raises the question if there is a way out of Pakistan’s endless energy crisis? A careful read of the book reveals that while there may be a way or more out of this mess, there are, however, no shortcuts. Given the challenges and structural constraints, Pakistanis may have to live…

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