Power shortage…Where where???

Published in Frontier Post August 02 2008

By Emaad Qureshi



“India is facing a power shortage of 70,000 MW” said Lok Sabha, power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, “The potential for hydro power generation in the country was 1.5 lakh MW but merely 20% of it was exploited”, he said.

There is a serious misconception prevailing amongst most of people that Pakistan is the only country which is facing Power shortage but if we Google it we will find that, there are also countries that are facing more severe power shortage such as our own shinning India and next super power China.

Especially India is passing through its worst Power crisis. There are cities in India which are facing alarming situation; continuous load shedding in Bangalore has led to diesel shortage as people are using generators. States like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh West Bengal, Haryana are worst hit by this crisis and they are facing electricity shortfall of about 5,000MW, 1,000MW, 2000MW, 1,500MW respectively,. In Maharashtra officials are asking industries to lower their demand by 10% or ready to face forced load shedding. Cities and towns are facing 7 to 13 hours load shedding; one reason is under capacity working of .Dabhol Power plant.

Punjab's power crisis has been exacerbated because states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, AP, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala, which form the south and western regions of the National Power Grid, are facing shortages themselves and have backed out of an earlier agreement to bank electricity with the PSEB. Far south in Kerala, government has announced 25% power cut for all industrial units. Economic analysts fear that this power breakdown can hit economic growth of the country.

In Assam, a drought like situation leading to poor hydropower generation and a weak distribution network have led to the state facing the worst ever power crises, prompting the state government to approach neighboring states as well as the Himalaya kingdom of Bhutan for power supply.Situation in China which is ready to be next Super power is not so bad but is serious. Chinese officials fear that it can seriously affect Olympic campaign. .According to an official of the State Grid Corporation (SGC) (Beijing).China's power shortage as of July 15 reached 14 gigawatts.Some analysts are of the view that China is facing at least facing 70 GW electricity shortfall and 13 provinces are mostly affected by this deficit

Experts are saying that the major reason for this power shortage is .forced shut down of smaller power plants that are badly hurt by rising coal prices and low Government controlled electricity rates, as in china mostly electricity is produced by Coal. Coal based generation accounts for 80% of China’s Power generation.

Where is Pakistan????


Compared to India and China, Pakistan is in better position. Pakistan is only facing 3000 to 5000MW electricity shortfall
People criticize Previous Pakistani Government that it failed to add even single Megawatt during their tenure but this is wrong assessment.

In 1999, our installed capacity was merely 15,860 MW. (With Hydel 4826 + Thermal 10,897 + Nuclear 137).In 2005-06, our installed capacity increased to become 20,495 MW. (With Hydel 6499 + Thermal 13,534 + Nuclear 462). The first unit of 290-megawatt of Ghazi Brotha Hydel Project (GBHP) went into operation in June 2003, and contributed around 50mw of electricity to the national grid. Four more units were added every quarter, and by 2004 the GBHP was contributing 1,450 mw.

Three rental power houses would start generating 1,067 megawatts of electricity by end of year 2008, respectively. Agreements had been signed with China to establish power plants at Nandipur and Chichu ki Malian, and tenders had been issued for two 500MW power plants at Dadu and Faisalabad which would be run by gas and furnace oil. An 800MW power plant would be set up at Guddu.

The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) is investing in a new 220-megawatt power plant that will help control the power shortages in the city. The plant has started generating 192MW by March and the remaining 28MW will start being distributed by December 2008.


The Ongoing Power Projects for which allocations were made in 2007-08 Budget, are Mangla Dam Raising Project (Rs 20 billion), Mirani Dam (Rs 500 million), Sabakzai Dam (Rs 200 million), Kurram Tangi Dam (Rs 2.84 billion), Sadpara Multipurpose Dam Rs (900 million), Gomal Zam Dam (Rs 1.8 billion), the Greater Thal Canal Phase I (Rs 8.5 billion), the Greater Thal Canal Phase II (Rs 2.5 billion), construction of 20 small dams in NWFP (Rs 870 million), Bhasha/ Diamer Dam (Rs 500 million), Khan-Khawar hydro project (Rs 1.3 billion), Dubir Khawar hydro project (Rs 2.1 billion), transmission arrangements for power dispersal of Ghazi Barotha (Rs 1.67 billion) and Neelam-Jhelum hydro project (Rs 10 billion).

So there is no need to fluster, we can easily take control of this crisis if we complete all these projects in time.

Emaad.qureshi@gmail.com

Writer is Pakistani Commentator based in Rawalpindi

What time is it?

By Emaad Qureshi Emaad.qureshi@gmail.com


“Which time you are asking old time or new time” This was the reply of School teacher when I inquired him about the latest time. This was not the answer i was expecting from him because he was an educated individual, who should know why we have moved our clocks one hour ahead and what are benefits of this system. This prompted me to write something about this issue which would be enough to enlighten the minds of our public.

Ist June 2008 was the date when Pakistan Government introduced Day light saving system and moved the clocks one hour ahead of the previous time. Now it is mid July but still Pakistani nation is confused about this system, including our educated class. We think that this system is just a fruitless exercise having no benefit for us. Our people are still stuck in old time new time confusion.

Before implementing this system Government should have launched a debate on media and there are also issues of publicity and dissemination of information about the DST program among the under-privileged, semi-literate, and illiterate sections of the society, which constitutes a large portion of the country’s population and whose access to the national electronic and print media is limited. Now because of unawareness most Pakistanis still have their watches set on Pre Ist June 2008 time system...

What is Daylight saving system (DST)?

Daylight saving time (DST) is the convention of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn. Modern DST was first proposed in 1907 by William Willett

What are benefits?

In summer courtesy Day light saving system more out-door activities possible; more people will travel in daylight which will reduce road accidents. In the countries like Pakistan, where sunrise time in summer and winter varies too much, this system is very useful to take best advantage from sunlight.
In Pakistan where there is lot of difference in sunset time of summer and winter, without this system we were wasting one to two hours of daylight in the morning because these days sunrises at about 5 am and it is complete bright day after one hour of sunrise. When School/college going students will sleep one hour early and rise one hour early then it will save their time and also the energy which was previously used by them at night.

Many industrialists are upbeat about this system; they are expecting after implementation of this system we can save at least 50 to 100 MW of electricity. It will make available one additional hour of sunlight which will save at least 60 minutes of electricity usage and this a better option than the one hour load-shedding.
Every system has its merits-demerits and Daylight saving system is no different. We should also keep in mind that this system is followed by many advanced countries like England for many years; this fact proves that this system can be very useful.

Writer is Pakistani commentator based in Rawalpindi

Who will tell them?

Published in Frontier post 21st July 2008



Emaad.qureshi@gmail.com By Emaad Qureshi

Mohammad Asif has been an amazing bowler for Pakistan Cricket team, he has troubled many class players with his immaculate line- length and with his in-cutters and out-cutters but his off the ground activities have many times brought bad name for our country. First in June this year he was arrested by Dubai police on Dubai when he was coming back from India after playing IPL Twenty 20 Tournament, he was kept in jail for more than two and half weeks on the charges of carrying illegal drugs with him but Asif was insisting that it was some kind of “Hakeem kii Dua”.Someone should ask him and officials of Pakistan Cricket Board that when u r giving so much medical facilities to every player then what was “Hakeem ki dua” doing in the Wallet of Mohammad Asif?

After investigation Dubai police released Mohammad Asif and Pakistan Cricket Board gave the statement that no offense has been proved against Mohammad Asif, if nothing was proved against Mohammad Asif then why Pakistan Board constituted a committee to investigate the matter of Mohammad Asif.Another noticeable thing in this incident is that Why Indian airport authorities not found anything from Mohammad Asif during checking when he was going for the flight to Dubai?


Before that matter was settled Mohammad Asif lurched into another controversy, again the same banned substance controversy. It seems that Mohammad Asif has not learnt from his past mistakes, according to latest news he has again tested positive for banned substance nandrolone. Two years back along with Fast Bowler Shoaib Akhtar he was tested positive for banned substance nandrolone just before the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 in India. At that time Mohammad Asif was not banned from the Cricket but this time Pakistan Cricket Board should investigate this matter properly that why Mohammad Asif taken this medicine, what was his intentions? If he is found guilty he should be treated according to the law of cricket because no one is above Law. Pakistan Cricket Board should make an example of Mohanmmad Asif so that no one dare to do such type thing in future. This was indeed shocking news for Pakistani Cricket lovers, if a player at this level and of his caliber will indulge in this type of activities then it will further tarnish our image abroad.

Writer is Pakistani Commentator based in Rawalpindi

Judicial


By Emaad Qureshi Emaad.qureshi@gmail.com

09March 2007 Friday was just another day when a presidential reference was filed against sitting Chief Justice according to article 209 of the constitution of Pakistan on the charges of corruption and misconduct. Then this reference became the cause for lawyers’ movement .They say they are struggling for the independence of judiciary but critics have some concerns about this movement.

Critics say that why the deposed Chief justice Ifthikar Choudry was silent when political parties were trying to politicize this entire legal issue. When political parties were trying to convert this legal movement into Anti-Musharaff movement why he was silent? They were hoisting their party flags on his car and were arranging huge rallies for deposed Chief justice but why he never refused them?

Then came the series of Suo muo notices, Judges were issuing suo muo notices to administration for their every action e.g. Traffic jams, inflation etc but no Suo muo notice to Ex-Chief justice who was attending huge political rallies and who was becoming cause one of the biggest traffic jam of Pakistan’s history while traveling Islamabad to Lahore.

Then came the historic judgment of 20th July in which 15 member larger bench of Supreme Court declared Ex-Chief Justice Ifthikar Choudry innocent and reinstated him on his previous post. On that day everyone was happy and chanting the mantra of Independent judiciary and that now doctrine of necessity is buried forever. In August 2007 Supreme Court gave orders to release PML-N leader Makhdom javaid Hashmi from jail, again same voices of Independent Judiciary were coming out from everywhere.

In last week of August 2007 Supreme Court declared that PML-N leader can come to Pakistan and no one can stop him from coming to Pakistan, then again same voices of Independent Judiciary were coming out from everywhere.
Then Sher afgan niazi leader of Government spoke against the decision of Supreme Court in an interview with a private TV Channel, on this statement Supreme Court issued suo muo notice to Sher afgan of contempt of court.

Then Supreme Court allowed President General Pervaiz Musharaff to contest elections of President for the second time, this time surprisingly lawyers started protesting against this decision and many lawyers were tearing apart the decision papers in front of whole media, but this time Supreme Court issued no suo muo notice to any lawyer…but why?was that not contempt of court?? One more thing why they were protesting against this decision? Was that not a decision by an Independent Judiciary? Why this time they were not accepting this decision?

These type of things raises doubt in the eyes of common public and educated class that is this movement is for Independence of Judiciary or it has some other motives??


Writer is Political and Economic Commentator based is Rawalpindi

Issues

Published in Pakistan Observer 12 June 2008

By Emaad Qureshi Emaad.Qureshi@gmail.com

Actually they want to divert public attention from the real issues like Inflation, Power shortage, Law and order etc, this is why they are dragging the issue of reinstatement of deposed judges .This is what an old man was saying when I asked him about his opinion on recent political scenario. This is what masses of Pakistan are thinking about the recent political situation in Pakistan.

We daily listen politicians saying and they don’t tired of saying that “The issue of deposed judges is a national issue and public is really curious about this issue” but when we go into streets and do survey about public opinion we discover altogether different situation. People are curious about next meal, how will they get that? Flour that was Rs15/kg some days ago now is Rs 20/kg, 20 Kg Bag that was Rs300 is now Rs 375. If we talk about Rice it was Rs60 to 70 per Kg some days ago but now it is more than Rs100/Kg.

Power shortage is another grave problem faced by our country, is hurting our industry and especially our general public very badly.Goverment should solve this problem as early as possible because general public can’t afford generators as their prices are now touching skies. New government has promised to add 3000MW of electricity in next one year lets see what happens.

Public is really puzzled about the situation on ground, on one day our politicians say that all is decided only we have to sign the agreement but other day Ruling Coalition breaks, if everything is decided then why so much delay? Need of hour is that politicians should solve this Judicial issue as early as possible because our public wants solution of this problem very soon and they want attention of our rulers towards their real problems such as inflation, power crisis, law and order. After all our public has given them huge mandate in the Elections 2008 to solve their problems.

Writer is Political and Economic commentator based in Rawalpindi

Spoiled Child or Mishandled Child?

Published in Frontier Post June 08 2008

By Emaad Qureshi Emaad.qureshi@gmail.com




“He will certainly perform in front of glamorized girls” These remarks are for Shoaib akhtar by our own Left arm wizard Waseem Akram in a recent interview on Sports Channel, when he was asked about expected performance of Shoaib akhtar in Upcoming twenty 20 championship (IPL) being played in India. There is no doubt about the bowling abilities of the star bowler Shoaib akhtar but in recent times he is among lot of controversies more than anything else.

If we go back in recent times we will see Shoaib Akhtar involved in so many controversies, more than any cricketer in the world. He was always involved in controversies throughout his career but in last 3 to 4 years we see him more involved in controversies than Cricket.

If we talk about the controversies, first it was during much hyped test series between Pakistan and India in 2004, when during last test he was accused of showing lack of commitment for his team when he was out there for bowling. Critics allege that he was not unfit, actually he was pretending to be. Nevertheless he was cleared by the medical board of Pakistan Cricket Board later. Then it was in January 2005 during all important Australian tour in which he was caught red-handed dancing in Nightclub with girls in Sydney. He was penalized this time on the grounds of indiscipline.





Next it was turn of Mohammad Asif along with Shoaib Akhtar ,both involved in most dangerous controversy of Pakistan’s cricket history. They have to return back from India when they both were tested positive for Performance enhancing Drug during dope tests conducted by Pakistan Cricket board. They were trailed by inquiry commission formed by Pakistan Cricket Board and banned for two years.Shoaib Akhtar & Mohammad Asif cleared later by Appellate Tribunal after hearing their appeals.

In January 2007 during test series against South Africa, it was in 2nd test when he performed really well and was instrumental in Pakistan’s win but again he faced lot of fitness problems, sent back to Pakistan. In that test at the end of Pakistan’s ist innings he was involved in heated debate with Late Bob Woolmer.

Then in September 2007 just before the ICC Twenty 20 world Cup in South Africa, he was again sent back to Pakistan. This time Shoaib akhtar was involved in a very funny incident, a childish fight with Mohammad Asif and Shahid Afridi.This time he was fined heavily but again cleared later.

In 2008 while giving interview to Newspaper he criticized very badly the Cricket board for not maintaining good standards of domestic cricket. This time he was again trialed in front of inquiry commission by Cricket Board and banned for 5 years from any type of cricket but allowed him to play for IPL( International Premier League), a Twenty 20 Cricket Tournament being played in India. His inquiry is still going on.

Question is Is he a spoiled or mishandled child, some people say he was not properly handled by the Cricket board but if we analyze very carefully then we will see that most of the times Shoaib akhtar was on fault, right from the dancing in nightclub to childish fight with Mohammad Asif. He has more germs of Spoiled Child.Now you will decide am i wrong or right??

Writer is Editor of Online Magazine “The Rise”

Laboratory Tests

By Emaad Qureshi Emaad.qureshi@gmail.com

Everyone is happy after the 18th Feb. 2008 election because it seems that, democracy is back and dictatorship is over forever. Real test of democratic forces has just started. They have to solve the real problems of the public,which are standing in front of public like monsters.
New Government has to pass number of tests during their tenure which are follows.
Their Test number 1 is how they can maintain the coalition government for 5 years. People are really worried about this coalition because they remember the days of 1990`s when both main parties of coalition PML-N and PPPP were always seen busy in creating hurdles for each other but here they have to show political maturity and stability.
Test number 2 is test of tolerance, especially for freedom of speech. When both parties PML-N and PPPP were in the Government in 90`s ,their was no independent media present at that time,then there was only one television channel at that time ( Ptv) which was busy dancing on the tones of the government.
Now situation is altogether very different, there are more than 70 satellite Television channels and more than 150 Fm Radio channels. Now media is very critical about the policies of the Government.
This thing is very important because in 1999 when there was no independent media but still the famous tussle between Nawaz sharif and Jang group was one of the main reasons of the fall of his Government.
Some political analysts are predicting tussle between new government and Media in next 6 months.
Test number 3 is the issue of restoration of deposed judges and implementation of charter of democracy signed by Chairpersons of Both main parties sitting in Government ( PML-N and PPPP ).There is a point in this charter about the judges,according to that point no party will accept the judges who had taken oath under PCO ever in their professional careers. Judges who were deposed on 3rd November 2007 under emergency are the same judges who took oath under PCO of issued by General Musharaff on 13th October 1999.This means that according to charter of democracy these judges should be unacceptable to politicians of PPPP and PML-N but that is not the case,they are insisting to restore these judges .
This is very surprising and confusing that both parties are violating their own drafted and signed charter.
Nawaz sharif is maintaining the stance of restoring the judges who were deposed under emergency declared on 3rd November 2007 by president of Pakistan Pervaiz Musharaff., since he landed on Lahore airport after 8 years of exile.
If the deposed judges restored ,then appeals against the NRO ( National Reconciliation Ordinance ) can prove to be serious test for credibility and independence of Pre- Nov 2007 judiciary.
Test Number 4 is keeping economy stable in the wake of increasing prices of oil ,rising fiscal and current account deficit.New Government should concentrate on searching new international markets to meet these challenges.In international market Pakistan`s cheap labor and low cost of production can be Pakistan’s advantage .
As far as Current account deficit is concerned it is due to many reasons. Main reasons are import of latest machinery by Pakistani industry, Import of mobile phones due to huge demand by Pakistani mobile consumers. Mobile imports in 2007 has crossed colossal figure of 1 billion dollars.Pakistan can save precious foreign exchange of one billion dollars if Government try hard to attract investment in mobile manufacturing like India where Nokia has invested billions in mobile industry.
These are some serious challenges standing in front of new Government, if they overcome these challenges that would be great for them and for whole Pakistan.

Writer is Editor of Online magazine “Counter Attack”