Latest news with #Sindh-based
Business Recorder
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
2 Sindh-based DISCOs' working irks PD
ISLAMABAD: The Power Division has expressed displeasure at the performance of two Sindh-based power Distribution Companies (DISCOs) — SEPCO (Sukkur Electric Supply Company) and HESCO (Hyderabad Electric Supply Company). Responding to questions during a meeting of National Assembly Standing Committee on Power, presided over by Muhammad Idrees, Federal Minister for Power, Awais Leghari stated that the performance of SEPCO and HESCO is disappointing. Power Division is using all its influence to change the incumbent Boards of both Discos but did not succeed due to political interference by the Peoples Party. Acting CEO HESCO, who is a Charted Accountant continues to occupy the office contrary to the wishes of Power Division. Poor performance of 3 Discos earns PD's ire 'The level of losses is decreasing in other DISCOs, but in these two Companies, the loss rate is increasing,' said the Minister. In the last meeting of Standing Committee, acting CEO HESCO had challenged the claims of both the Minister and Ministry's officials about losses in HESCO. During the committee proceedings, Rana Muhammad Hayat enquired if electricity tariffs will be reduced further in the upcoming fiscal year? Nepra Chairman Waseem Mukhtar replied that as of now, the electricity rates are expected to remain the same. Rana Hayat noted that 30 per cent tariff relief has been given to industry and asked why agriculture has not been given any concessions? Secretary Power Division, Dr. Fakhray Alam Irfan stated that the relief to the industrial sector was made possible by ending cross-subsidy. PAC Chairman Junaid Akbar, who is also member of Power Committee stated that four months ago he had offered to personally remove illegal connections (Kundas), adding that they cooperated and yet the line losses are not decreasing. 'Because line losses aren't reducing, consumers are without electricity for up to eight hours. The work isn't done, yet elected representatives are blamed,' Akbar maintained. Answering Junaid Akbar, Chief Executive PESCO stated that due to cooperation there has been significant improvement, and more is expected in the next month, adding that the power utility company provides relief on annual basis instead of monthly. He, however, was directed by the Minister for Power to extend relief in load shedding to the consumers on monthly basis. The committee was informed that for vulnerable consumers, the price has been reduced by 48 to 50 percent. The number of such consumers is 17 million. Power Division has sought an increase in the subsidy of Rs. 294 billion for protected consumers. The burden of consumers' subsidies for the poor falls on the middle class. The new base electricity tariff will be implemented from July 1, 2025. The impact of the July re-basing will be reflected in the August electricity bills. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
India Today
21-05-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Sindh turns battlefield over Pak Army's Indus canals, 2 shot dead
The agitation in Pakistan's Sindh province against the controversial, army-backed canal project on the Indus River System has gained fresh momentum. Two activists were shot dead on Tuesday as protests intensified after having subsided last month following the shelving of the project. Blaming Punjab's domination for their water woes, Sindh protesters attacked the house of a minister belonging to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP).advertisementSindh and Punjab are two of Pakistan's four provinces. Inhabitants of Sindh have held Punjab, which is the power centre of both the civilian and military establishments, responsible for putting it lower on the priority protests and police action turned northern Sindh into a "virtual battlefield", Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairperson of the PPP, came in for sharp criticism for its shaky stance on the canal protests from Sindhi nationalist party Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM). The Sindh-based PPP is part of Shahbaz Sharif's ruling coalition in Islamabad and holds power in Chairperson Shafi Burfat accused Pakistan's military establishment of using an "immature, power-hungry, and unserious" Bilawal to advance its own geopolitical objectives and suppress the canal NORTHERN SINDH TURNED INTO A BATTLEFIELDTensions escalated on Tuesday after Zahid Laghari, an activist of the Sindhi nationalist party Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM), was shot dead by police. In response, protests turned violent in Naushahro Feroze district of northern Sindh, turning it into a "virtual battlefield".advertisementDemonstrators blocked a national highway and set a couple of oil tankers on unrest in Sindh intensified further as protesters stormed the residence of Sindh's Interior Minister, Ziaul Hassan Lanjar. They vandalised the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader's house and set parts of it, including the drawing room, on from JSMM activist Laghari, another unnamed protester died as a result of indiscriminate police firing, reported the Karachi-based The News than 15 protesters were injured, at least five of them critically, after police opened fire on protesters in Moro town of Naushahro Feroze district, according to the Karachi-based independent media outlet The Rise had died out after the federal government claimed to have shelved the Indus canals project, but the protesters never left the agitation sites, alleging that construction activities continued secretly. Many also saw the shelving as a tactical move by the army-led regime to defuse backlash without actually abandoning the aggressive protests began on May 19, marked by mostly affiliated with the Sindh Saba Party led by Ashfaq Malik, blocked the Moro bypass road to protest against corporate farming and the proposed construction of canals, reported Dawn, a Karachi-based with rods and sticks, protesters chanted slogans as police tried to disperse situation escalated quickly, with police resorting to baton charges and aerial firing. Over a dozen people, including a DSP and six police officers, were injured in the chaos and a police van was were shut down and roads were deserted as the area turned into a "virtual battlefield", noted the Dawn report. In response, policemen from multiple districts of northern Sindh were deployed to restore from the protests in Moro, similar demonstrations erupted in nearby towns, including Kandiaro and Faiz Ganj, reported Samaa a similar protest planned in Hyderabad was thwarted by police, who cordoned off the area and detained two Sindh Saba activists, according to Dawn.$3.3-BILLION ARMY-BACKED CANAL PLAN DREW SINDH IREThe $3.3-billion canal project, officially known as the Green Pakistan Initiative, was launched in February 2025 by Army Chief Asim Munir and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. They said the project in the Indus River system would irrigate millions of acres of previously uncultivable land in Punjab and parts of including the military and Shahbaz Sharif's federal government, touted it as a solution to Pakistan's food security the project sparked outrage in Sindh in April, where it was perceived as a move to divert water from the Indus River, critical to the province's agriculture and including Sindhi nationalists, argued that the canals would primarily benefit Punjab's feudal landlords and corporate farming interests, exacerbating water scarcity in project also revived the long-standing provincial rivalry between Sindh and Punjab. The unrest was compounded by India's suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty after the Pakistani deep-state-sponsored Pahalgam attack, which heightened fears of water shortages in already-parched hybrid Islamabad-Rawalpindi regime faced widespread opposition from Sindh's political parties, nationalist groups, and civil weeks of protests in April, including highway blockades that disrupted transport to Karachi Port, the Pakistani government announced on April 24, 2025, that the project would be shelved until a consensus could be reached at the Council of Common Interests (CCI) this, protests continued, demanding a permanent cancellation of the several prominent voices, including Sindhi writer-activist Ustad Rahi Soomro, alleged that despite official claims of halting the canal project, work on it had quietly continued."The canal project has not stopped. With modern machinery, work is going on. The project has added three more canals to six controversial canals, making them nine," said Soomro on May AND BILAWAL BHUTTO FACE BACKLASH OVER INDUS CANALS PROJECTBilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairperson of the Sindh-based PPP and son of Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, has come under fire for his and his party's stance on the canal project, as well as for consistently "failing to represent the genuine interests of Sindh and its people".Bilawal had initially endorsed the army-backed canal project, describing it as "vital" for Pakistan's interests. However, as public outrage grew, he shifted his position and criticised the federal government's handling of the issue, saying, "The people of Sindh have rejected the canal projects, yet those in Islamabad remain blind and deaf to our voices".After the project was "shelved" by the federal government, Bilawal also played the India card, saying, "India's announcement on the Indus Waters Treaty was not illegal, but against humanity... As long as the PPP exists, not a single drop of Sindh's water will be given away".Bilawal tried to use the India card and New Delhi's move to the IWT, where his stance remained shaky stance did not shield him from fierce criticism from the chief of JSMM, whose activist was killed by police firing on Burfat, the chairman of the Sindhi nationalist party JSMM, accused Bilawal of being a pawn of the "Punjabi military establishment".He further labelled Bilawal as "immature, power-hungry, and unserious", accusing the PPP of abandoning Sindh's interests to serve Punjab's feudal elite rather than standing up for Sindhi rights or also alleged that the military was manipulating Bilawal to spearhead Rawalpindi's objectives, including its anti-India campaign, promising him political power in the Indus canal protests have exposed fault lines in Pakistan's federal structure, Sindh's resentment against the Punjab-dominated establishment has now reached a boiling point. Even as Islamabad tries to fire-fight, the continued unrest signals that trust has eroded far beyond InMust Watch
Business Recorder
07-05-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Traders reject SRO 175, issue ultimatum
KARACHI: Expressing deep frustration and alarm over the Presidential Ordinance introducing SRO 175, trader representatives from across Pakistan strongly condemned the measure in an emergency meeting held here on Tuesday. Organised by the All City Traders Ittehad Association, the gathering marked a unified and forceful rejection of the ordinance, which businessmen described as a "draconian law" that grants unchecked powers to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Participants voiced grave concerns that SRO 175 would lead to the misuse of authority by tax officials, disrupt commercial activity, and violate fundamental business rights. In response, trader leaders issued a 15-day ultimatum demanding the immediate withdrawal of the ordinance, warning of escalating protests and a nationwide shutdown if their demands are not met. The meeting, held at a local hall, featured physical participation from local trader leaders and video-link attendance by representatives from across the country. Sharjeel Goplani, Patron-in-Chief of the All City Traders Ittehad Association, provided an in-depth critique of the ordinance, calling it economically destructive and constitutionally questionable. He warned that the law empowers the FBR to operate without oversight, posing a serious threat to both businesses and the broader economy. Among the key attendees were Atiq Mir, Hakeem Shah, Minhaj Gulfam, Zahid Amin, Jameel Paracha, Waqas Azim, Rana Rais, Rana Waheed, Muhammad Ahmed Shamsi, Yaqoob Bali, Nasir Makani, Ejaz Bhatti, Chaudhry Ayub, Syed Muhammad Saeed, Aslam Parvez, Muhammad Zaki, Haseeb Akhlaq, Tayyab Siddiqui, Muhammad Ismail Lalpuriya, Maqsood Faraz, Shakir Fancy, Arshad Khan, Asif Gulfam, and others. Via video link, the meeting was joined by Ajmal Baloch (President, Anjuman Tajiran Pakistan), Kashif Chaudhry (President, Tanzeem Tajiran Pakistan), Abdul Rahim Kakar from Quetta, and Sindh-based leaders Ameen Memon and Haroon Memon. Traders unanimously declared SRO 175 a black law and announced the launch of the 'Save the Economy Movement.' They vowed to resist the ordinance through organized civil disobedience. Measures include barring FBR teams from entering marketplaces, boycotting and besieging banks that release funds without account holder consent, and surrounding FBR offices nationwide. If the government fails to respond within the deadline, traders warned of countrywide strikes and potential demonstrations at FBR headquarters and Parliament. 'There is complete national unity among traders on this issue,' the association's spokesperson affirmed in the joint declaration. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Indian Express
27-04-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Why Pakistan has put its ambitious canals project on hold
After weeks of protest in Sindh, the Pakistan government on Thursday (April 24) put its ambitious canals project on hold. The project, meant to irrigate millions of acres of previously uncultivable land, triggered a political storm in Pakistan, revived old provincial rivalries, and fomented tensions within the ruling alliance of the Punjab-based Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the Sindh-based Peoples Party of Pakistan. Green Pakistan Initiative The canals project is the centrepiece of the larger $3.3 billion Green Pakistan Initiative (GPI), launched by Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif and army chief General Asim Munir in 2023. Run by an army-owned private company, GPI seeks to 'modernise' Pakistan's agriculture sector by introducing new technologies, providing farmers high-quality inputs, and creating irrigation infrastructure. The ultimate goal is to increase yields, and bring new areas under cultivation. 'Revitalising agriculture is essential for the economy, particularly as Pakistan faces climate-related threats,' retired army general Shahid Nazir, who heads the GPI, told Al Jazeera. In recent years, the crisis-ridden Pakistan has struggled with food shortages, forcing it to expend valuable foreign exchange to import foodstuff. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the country's import of food commodities will once again cross the $9 billion mark in the FY 2025. (It has crossed $6 billion in July-March 2024-25, data released earlier this month show). Six 'strategic' canals In July 2024, President Asif Ali Zardari, also the co-chairman of the PPP, approved the construction of 'six strategic canals' which he said were 'vital for agricultural development and food security'. The most significant among these — and also the most criticised — is a 176-km long canal meant to irrigate the arid lands of Cholistan in southern Punjab. Bordering the state of Rajasthan in India, Cholistan is a part of the larger Thar desert, and 'faces significant challenges in meeting its total water requirements' according to a 2023 paper by the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources. 'The construction of the Cholistan Canal is therefore seen as a critical intervention to transform the region by bringing reliable and sustainable water supplies to large areas of previously uncultivable land,' according to the working paper prepared by the federal Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Al Jazeera reported. To be built at an estimated cost of almost $800 million, upon completion, the Cholistan Canal will irrigate almost 5,000 sq km (1.2 million acres) of land, Dawn reported. Its construction began earlier this year, but has since been halted, according to reports from local media. Officially, the Cholistan Canal was meant to be supplied entirely by flood water released by India on the Sutlej. However, according to data from Pakistan's Ministry of Water Resources, in 2018-19, only 3.4% of the water (4.9 million acre feet) received by the country from the Indus and its five tributaries came from the three India-controlled 'eastern rivers' — Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi. As such, experts say that it is virtually impossible to supply the canal from the Sutlej alone. This raises a larger issue. Pakistan is dependent on the Indus and its tributaries for water. And the river system is already very stressed. Critics say the six new canals will exacerbate pre-existing water scarcity. As a lower riparian province, this is of particular concern to Sindh. As one opinion article in The Nation put it, '…the federal government seeks to cultivate 1.2 million acres in Cholistan at the cost of jeopardising 18 million acres of Sindh's land.' Sindh is already a water-stressed province. The new canals will not only make things worse for its people, it will also starve the Indus delta, and thus hasten seawater intrusion and decimate fragile eco-systems, according to Dawn. So when Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, of the PML-N, and General Munir inaugurated the construction of the Cholistan Canal in February, the people of Sindh took to the streets in huge numbers. Student leader Muneer Hussain, leading a sit-in in Karachi, told The Nation: '… this issue is existential… it is the poor people who will suffer…'. One reason why opposition to the canals project is so resonant among the people of Sindh is its larger historical gripe with Punjab. Over the years, many have called Pakistan 'Punjab-istan' owing to the dominance of Punjabis in all walks of life, from the military to its cricket team. All other states — Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa — have felt (or continue to feel) marginalised. The canals project evokes larger anti-Punjab sentiments among the people of Sindh, who have historically felt hard done by upstream hydro projects in Punjab. 'Punjab's own share of water is guaranteed through the existing system of canals. But when new irrigation areas are planned, without explaining where the water is coming from, it is inevitable that people in Sindh will express their anger and protest,' Naseer Memon, an Islamabad-based environmentalist, told Al Jazeera. PPP in a pickle Caught in the crossfire of the ongoing controversy is the PPP, the party which is in power in Sindh and whose support ostensibly keeps the government in Islamabad afloat. That its initial response to the GPI bordered on an endorsement — indeed party co-chairman Zardari called the canals 'vital' to Pakistan's interests — was not received well on the streets of Karachi. Various reports indicate that it was also not received well by the rank-and-file members of the party, as well as parts of its leadership in Sindh and beyond. The PPP has since made a drastic u-turn. In recent weeks, there were even murmurs that the PPP and PML-N were headed for an immediate split, largely over the canals project and the protests it had triggered in Sindh. But that's not what happened. The decision to put the project on hold was announced by Shebaz with PPP co-chairman Bilawal Ali Bhutto-Zardari sitting next to him. Bilwal later said 'as long as the PPP exists, not a single drop of Sindh's water will be given away,' but added his party would 'continue to work with the PML-N'. As the canals project is deliberated further — as the PM said it will be — people from Sindh remain wary. Indeed the strikes have not yet been called off, despite repeated requests from the Chief Minister, who belongs to the PPP. If the project is reintroduced — perhaps with some modifications and more guarantees for Sindh, as some experts say is likely — it will be interesting to see how the PPP responds.
