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Naya KPK | News & Updates on the development in KPK.

اللّه خیر کرے کیسی کیسی چیزیں تعریف کر رہی ہیں

 
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Total revamp: K-P government all set to restructure PEDO

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Workers consider move akin to privatisation; officials say it will help attract investment. PHOTO: FILE

PESHAWAR:
In another show of institutional reforms, the energy and power department is set to restructure and overhaul the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO).

A summary of the proposed changes in the organisational structure was sent to the chief minister for approval and insiders say it is just a matter of weeks. The move irked employees of PEDO who are unhappy with the proposed structure, calling it “privatisation and a waste of money”.

The powers that be in the department are committed to implement the summary once it gets approval from the chief minister.

Attracting investment

Senior officials believe the department needs competent people from the market to come forth and grab financing for the execution of provincial projects in the hydel sector.

“We need large sums of money to execute our projects and the pace of PEDO has not met our requirements or the energy needs of the country,” said a senior official of the department, requesting anonymity.

The department’s apex committee held a meeting in June 2015 and approved a plan under which Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Power Company Limited would be formed in place of PEDO alongside special purpose vehicles (SPV)—private companies—to execute and operate hydel power projects.

The new structure

According to a copy of the summary sent to the chief minister, the KPPCL would be incorporated with the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) under the Companies Ordinance 1984.

The company will have an authorised capital of Rs5 billion and paid up capital of Rs2.5 billion. The fee of the SECP and paid up capital would be provided from the Hydel Development Fund (HDF) after getting approval from the fund’s board.

The department has 12 hydropower projects—Malakand-III, Pehur, Reshun, Shishi, Machai, Ranolia, Daral Khwar, Koto, Jabori, Karora, Lawi and Matiltan.

Under the new set-up, each project will become a separate power company and KPPCL will own equity in each of the SPVs on behalf of the K-P government. The authorised capital for each SPV would be Rs3 billion and paid up capital will be a function of project costs.

According to summary documents, operational projects included Malakand-III, Pehur, Reshun and Shishi which require no further cash injection. Funds for the remaining would be allocated in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) and HDF could be used for the purpose.

Big money for big guns

The KPPCL will have a chief executive officer (CEO) as will each SPV, said an insider at the PEDO union. He and his peers are against the change and the hefty salaries proposed for the CEOs and other staffers of the companies.

“The CEO will get Rs1.4 million every month, while the human resource manager will get Rs0.7 million. Similar salaries have been offered for other staffers,” he said.

“This means the profit which PEDO currently generates for the provincial government will be spent on salaries,” said employee union president Fazli Rahim Khan.

Fazli Rahim said PEDO currently generated Rs3 billion annually for the K-P government through 105 megawatts of power generation. However, the province has a generation capacity of 3,500 megawatts.

“It is a one-time investment and then profit for a lifetime,” said Fazli Rahim. He alleged central leaders of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were eying jobs for their own people to make some money.

Looking for long-term benefit

However, a senior official at the department rejected the union’s reservations. “This is not privatisation, just restructuring which is needed because we require financing to execute these projects.”

The official added they would pick up competent people from the market at good salaries who would find financing for the projects as HDF can only meet the monetary needs of a single initiative.

“We want to complete projects through non-recourse financing as loans for the projects will be taken by the SPV and it will have no impact on the provincial government if it is fails,” he added. The senior official stressed once completed, the projects would become the property of the K-P government and the revenue generated from each one, for the first five to 10 years, will be used to pay back loans taken for the project.

The official denied allegations PTI central leaders were eying the sector and said at least Rs64 billion were needed for the execution of five projects – Matiltan, Koto, Lawi, Jabori and Karora. These would produce 216 megawatts of electricity collectively.

“We have Rs15 billion in the HDF; we have a Rs49 billion shortfall and we get Rs3 billion in the ADP which means we would need 16 years to complete these projects from the latter funds.”

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دیوار مہربانی
پشاور حیاتآباد میں ایک دیوارہے، جہاں لوگ اپنےغیرضروری کپڑے چھوڑجاتے ہیں، اورجن کو ضرورت ہوتی ہے وہ لے جاتے ہیں. پاکستان میں ایسی اور دیواریں چائیے .


 
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GDC to expand Nashpa field


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ISLAMABAD: The Oil and Gas Development Company is going to expand its Nashpa field by setting up a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plant to meet the growing energy demand in the country, official sources in the company said.

“Under the expansion plan, the LPG project will be completed in two years and local manpower will be hired for the plant in Nashpa field, Karak district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa,” the sources told APP.

The field is one of the places from where the company made new oil and gas discoveries recently and after the new find the Nashpa-well would produce 1,032 barrels oil per day.

They informed that OGDCL had set a target of drilling 31 new wells for the current financial year and the company was confident of meeting it.

Presently, they said, 17 wells were under the drilling process, adding that nine new ones had been spud and five were in testing phase. In next month, six more drills would be carried out and the company would complete all the process by June, 2016.

They said that around 125 mmcfd (million cubic feet gas per day) gas would be added to the system and a 380-ton plant of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) would also be installed in March this year.

Currently, the sources said, the company had 24 exploration licences and it was actively busy in exploration and production activities in Balochistan where some areas were inaccessible earlier.

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Zoological Gardens, in c.1930-1940s



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Working on steel bridge to connect with lower tunnel.
Lowari Tunnel Project

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Dunya News Report (Humaira Sajid)

HARIPUR- While talking to media after inaugurating the billion tree tsunami in Haripur on Saturday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan assured that WWF has declared 85 per cent of the campaign as successful.

During a briefing by the Environment Secretary Syed Nazar Hussain Shah and representatives of the International Monitoring Organization, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), officials of WWF presented findings of a monitoring report that had scientifically monitored 50 per cent of the implemented target in 28 forests and 10 watershed divisions. The WWF officials disclosed that the survival rate of the newly planted sapling was recorded at 82pc. Amid the appraisal of the initiative for growing 1bn trees and controlling deforestation, the WWF representatives termed BTTP an ambitious, sincere and committed initiative for protecting ecological environment.

Chairman Imran Khan has stated that more than 11 crore trees have been planted in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (KPK) and further 1.2 billion trees will be planted in the province by 2018, thus making the jungles 10 times larger than the ones in Changa Manga.

In response to the recent criticism raised on KP’s Billion Tree project by Chief spokesperson for the federal government, Information Minister Senator Pervez Rashid, PTI chairman accused the federal government of wasting funds on metro bus service and the orange train project. He also raised the issue timber mafia that had constructed buildings on the forest land and unconcerned behavior of the Punjab government to take an action against them.

At the Makhniyal village of Haripur District, the KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and PTI Chairman Imran Khan were briefed about the ‘Billion Tree Tsunami’ project and it was stated that the KP government has so far planted 115 million saplings and sown seeds at a cost of Rs1, 578m. The briefing further stated that an amount of Rs9, 826m has been allocated for phase II of the project which was launched last year and would conclude in 2018 with the targeted plantation of one billion saplings.

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Early in December the chief spokesperson for the federal government Pervez Rashid said Imran Khan’s statement of planting 100 million trees was just an addition to his false claims. While addressing the press conference in Lahore, Pervez Rashid said that the PTI leader did not provide any details about the massive workforce required, mode of purchase, and the transportation of such a huge number of saplings. “When did this gigantic task take place?” the minister questioned. He said: “Either there was no existence of these trees, or the resources of the KP government were being plundered under the garb of ‘100 million trees’.”

This eventually triggered a counterargument from PTI spokesperson Dr. Shireen Mazari who criticized Pervez Rashid and said: “Unfortunately, PML-N cannot think beyond concretized projects like the metro or the Orange Line, which threatens to destroy the nation’s rich cultural heritage.” She said if requested by the minster KP government can take him to the plantation sites so he can see the Billion Tree Tsunami project for himself. “After all, it is not a fake project like the Nandipur project was,” she added.

Dr. Shireen Mazari also requested the senator to realize KP government’s relentless efforts concerning environmental preservation and a strong vision to take actions against climate change. She referred to the Prime Minister’s speech as uninspiring at the recently held Climate Change Conference in Paris and said: “While Prime Minister Sharif had no concrete specific proposal to put up at the Climate Change Conference in Paris, PTI’s Amin Aslam gave a presentation on the Billion Tree Tsunami project at the pavilion of the IUCN in Paris as part of the Climate Change Conference.”

The government of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa assigned Rs15 Billion for the Billion Tree Tsunami Project and it was acknowledged and formally registered by under the global Bonn Challenge, a voluntary regime set up under the UNFCCC umbrella for restoring 350 million hectares of forests around the world. With the help of this project, KPK became the first sub-national entity in the world to enter this monitored regime, which also includes big forest countries such as the US, India and Brazil.
 
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