Category: Highlights

ISLAMABAD: The Petroleum Division (PD) has planned to auction 27 new Exploration and Production (E&P) blocks for stepping up oil and gas drilling activities in different hydrocarbon potential areas of the country. “The advertisement for the award of 20 E&P blocks will be given in the first week of October, while seven offshore blocks will be offered in December,” a senior official privy to petroleum sector developments told APP. The official said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was fully aware of the prevailing energy situation in the country and taking…

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When the government first announced that it had renegotiated contracts with independent power producers (IPPs) that it deemed excessively favourable to the power companies, it was almost uniformly hailed as a successful policy achievement. There seemed to be a general consensus that electricity generation in Pakistan was too expensive (it is), and that the supposedly excessive profits of the industry were to blame (not really). However, in the aftermath of the initial celebration, what is now emerging more clearly than before are two key problems that have been largely ignored…

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The signing of the contract and the Prime Minister’s visit to the site, is of great satisfaction to me since I have been struggling for hydroelectric development and dams on the Indus  since 1975. What is reprehensible is that its construction could have been started after 1984, when its feasibility had been prepared. There have been several impediments as well as opportunities lost in these 36 years. These will be explained in this article. The West Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority was established in 1958, recognizing that Pakistan had…

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For decades, Afghanistan’s untapped mineral wealth has been touted as the country’s trillion-dollar El Dorado. But while the Afghan government has never been able to monetize mountains of copper, iron ore, gold, and gemstones, the Taliban have—and are ramping up their mining operations as just-started peace talks aim to shape the future of a postwar Afghanistan. In recent years, the Taliban have deliberately moved to secure control over regions of Afghanistan rich in mineral deposits, from lapis lazuli mines in northern Badakhshan to gold, lead, and zinc in Helmand and…

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LAHORE: Though Pakistan is operating under the principle of open market economy the consumers at large, however, always remain at the receiving end due to weak regulations and unholy cartels that thrive in such environments. The absence of state writ has given free hands to the price manipulators. Consumer exploitation by the entrenched entrepreneurs has reached a level that rates of most items do not retreat even during extreme recessions in the country when supplies are higher than demand. The principle of supply and demand no longer applies. When demand…

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