after kP, 11-member Punjab’S interim Cabinet Sworn in

LAHORE

S ta f f R e p o R t tH E 11 - m e m b e r i n t e r i m c a b i n e t o f c a r e t a k e r P u n j a b C h i e f

M i n i s t e r S y e d M o h s i n R a z a

N a q v i t o o k o a t h o f t h e i r o ff i c e s h e r e o n T h u r s d a y Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman administered oath to the caretaker cabinet members They included health expert Dr Javed Akram, former bureaucrat Nasim

Sadiq senior journalist Amir Mir cricketer

kSa-Pakistan agree to enhance bilateral trade volume

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

Wahab Riaz as Sports Minister, Bilal Afzal, SM Tanveer Ibrahim Murad Tamkinat Karim, Dr Jamal Nasir, Mansoor Qadir, and Syed Azfar Ali Nasir

After the caretaker ministers took the oath of office, interim Punjab CM Mohsin Naqvi felicitated them

Talking about the newly-formed caretaker setup, the chief minister said the Punjab caretaker administration was absolutely apolitical and unbiased saying working on a one point agenda of ensuring free, fair and transparent election

Speaking about the polls in Punjab, Mr Naqvi pledged that the elections will take place in a peaceful environment in fair and free manner

Earlier today the members of the newlyformed cabinet of caretaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Azam Khan took oath amid concerns expressed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)

KP Governor Haji Ghulam Ali administered oath to the 12 ministers and three advisers at a ceremony which was attended by the chief minister and other officials The 15-member cabinet comprises former IG Masood Shah, retired Justice Irshad Qaiser Barrister Saawal Nazir Bakht Nawaz, Shafiullah Khan, Haji Ghafran,

Pakistan, Russia reaffirm commitment to peace in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Pakistan on Thursday discussed matters of mutual interests and agreed to enhance bilateral trade volume between the brotherly two countries Nawaf Saeed A Almalkiy, Ambassador and Commercial Attache of Saudi Arabia to Pakistan called on Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar here, said a press release issued by the Ministry of Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar highlighted the need to enhance cooperation in the field of trade and investment between the countries and emphasized the need for closer economic ties

He said that the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Islamabad is making its utmost efforts to promote the economic relationship between the two countries and thanked Nawaf Saeed A Almalkiy for his efforts in this regard

The Ambassador and Commercial Attache expressed his satisfaction over the existing level of economic cooperation between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and expressed the desire to further expand economic cooperation in all areas

Pakistan reiterates raising voice against hr abuses in iiojk

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

Pakistan has reiterated to raise its voice on the continuing grave human rights abuses in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK)

At her weekly news briefing in Islamabad on Thursday Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz

Zahra Baloch said Pakistan will also continue to extend unstinted moral, political and diplomatic support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their quest for self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolution

She said we pay rich tribute to the sacrifices of martyrs of three massacres committed by the Indian occupation forces in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir during the month of January in the 1990s With regard to situation in Afghanistan, the Spokesperson said Pakistan stresses the importance of peace and stability in our neighbourhood She said we underscore our

COntInuED fROM PAgE 01

The exact occurrence that caused this hike in frequency is still unknown, this is simply due to the fact that anything could have occurred at any location on the grid It can be caused by severe weather, human error, equipment failure or even animal interference

Bottom line this spike triggered the power plants safety mechanisms that shut down all of the 23 power plants supplying power to the grid

To put it simply the entire grid works on the fundamental principle of circuit breakers An electrical circuit breaker is a switching mechanism that can be operated manually or automatically to control and protect the electrical power system and the electrical devices that are linked to it

When there is too much electricity flowing through the circuit breaker it trips

Pakistan and Russia have reaffirmed their commitment to continuing practical engagement with Afghanistan to ensure stability and peace in the war-torn country, the Foreign Office said on Thursday

The two governments also expressed their commitment to joint efforts to solve issues related to regional security said the ministry in a statement

The statement came after a meeting between Russian Special Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov and Deputy Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar here Wednesday

The two diplomats agreed to remain actively engaged to promote peace stability and economic development in the region for the welfare of the people

Underscoring that a peaceful neighbourhood remained a strategic imperative for Pakistan Khar stressed that Afghanistan, with its location as a bridge between central and south Asia, is central to achieving the full potential of socio-economic development and regional connectivity The minister also reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to working with other regional countries to achieve the goals

He urged the international community to extend assistance and support in order to address urgent humanitarian needs and to provide a sustainable pathway for Afghanistan’s prosperity and development

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The market closed at Rs 255 43/ USD as per the State Bank of Pakistan, whereas open market rate was as high as 263 While talking to Profit on Wednesday Secretary ECAP Zafar Paracha said “We believe that the exchange companies rate should be above the 255 Rupee mark and we will get there gradually However, the interbank movement within 3 hours has thrown away the gradual goals of the open market There has been no response from the Secretary ECAP vis a vis earlier statements, as of now

Despite a 24 Rupee depreciation within a single day there are little to no sellers of the USD in the market Exchange companies are still citing unavailability of dollars as an excuse for not selling

Even though the experts claim that the real exchange rate is around 255, the people believe that the dollar rate is upwards of 270 These notions are appreciated by the black market traders and a lack of communication by the State Bank, does not help either Even in the interbank market, the volume traded is around $15 million at the day end or it cannot handle the excess current load

This means that the flow of power is interrupted to prevent overheating or further damage to your circuits

Now apply the same principle on the national grid Power plants are built to run within a specific frequency range the same as a circuit breaker; if there’s a higher frequency in the system, there is a risk of them disconnecting from the grid after a particular amount of time or suddenly depending upon the location of the fault

How did tHey get tHe power back?

If the entire national high voltage electricity network the grid loses power, individual power stations must be restarted before they can power the country

To operate power plants often require an electrical supply similar to how a car needs a battery to power the ignition

However, it is widely believed that the depreciation of rupee is finally a good gesture that Pakistan direly needed CEO topline Securities and PSX Analyst Mohammad Sohail says that, “This valuation of rupee, based on market forces will help Pakistan’s falling exports and remittances through the banking channels and might also help with the 9th review” He said that the bank rate was being kept in a narrow band from September onwards which gave rise to a black market, which is likely to go away after this step Fahad Rauf, the head of equity research at Ismail Iqbal Securities, stated that this is possibly the biggest single day depreciation of rupee since the 2000s He stated that not having a “managed” rupee may not be huge, but the pressure on Pakistané s external account would be eased, encouraging exporters and discouraging the black market

Many believe that the move to make the immediate depreciation was led by the IMF review as Pakistan started virtual negotiations with the IMF on Wednesday A more pertinent question would be what did Pakistan gain by keeping the exchange rate where it was earlier and how did Pakistan manage it?

However with a total power outage there is no centrally-connected electricity available at scale to restart the system As a result, it must be restarted from scratch

This process is known as “Black start” Black Start s operation is actually quite straightforward Smaller power sources start larger ones, and so on until the entire country is powered up again Some power plants simply do not have the ability to be the starting point of this complex reboot

But some modern gas power plants are able to restart rapidly on demand In the case of Pakistan the restoration of the southern region began from the “UCH-I” power plant in district Nasirabad Balochistan

This gas powered plant is owned by the Uch Power Limited company, having a capacity of 586 MW The interesting fact about this plant is that it has a “black start facility up to 220 kv” according to the

Khushdil Khan, Taj Mohammad Afridi, Shahid Khattak, Mohammad Ali

imran challenges atC’s jurisdiction in Pt V, Parliament attack case

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan Thursday challenged the jurisdiction of the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in the PTV and Parliament attack case against him Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s legal team filed an application under Section 23A of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) in the ATC, challenging in jurisdiction of the court to take up the case Advocate Naeem Haider Panjutha, the counsel for the petitioner argued before ATC Judge Raja Jawad Abbas Hasan that the case is not of terrorism court, therefore, it should be transferred to the relevant court Panjutha said that a peaceful protest was held on which provisions of terrorism were imposed He furthered that the protest was held within the constitutional framework, adding that the case does not constitute terrorism provisions After hearing the arguments of the PTI chief ’s lawyer, the court issued a notice seeking arguments on the application from the prosecution and adjourned the hearing of the case till February 9 On August 31, 2014, during a protest against the then PML-N government, the PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers marched toward the Prime Minister s House and the police were ordered to thwart their march Subsequent clashes between the protesters and law enforcers resulted in the deaths of three PAT workers Hundreds of others, including both demonstrators and policemen, were wounded Imran, PAT leader Tahirul Qadri, and others along with hundreds of protesters had briefly seized and shut down the state broadcaster on September 1, 2014

Widow Of Televangelist Aamir Liaquat Indicted In Leaked Videos Case

KARACHI S ta f f R e p o R t

A judicial magistrate in Karachi East zone on Thursday indicted Dania Shah, the widow of late televangelist-turnedpolitician Aamir Liaquat Hussain for allegedly releasing controversial videos of her late husband The case was registered by Dua Aamir, the deceased TV host s daughter, weeks after indecent videos of Hussain went viral Hussain 50, was found unconscious at his home in Karachi by one of his employees in June of last year and was taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead Shah was arrested on December 15 last year and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials informed the court that she is accused of leaking the indecent videos Shah pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against her and the court adjourned the hearing, summoning case witnesses on February 2

NTDC report The importance of this power plant cannot be understated

Simultaneously for the northern region, the restoration process began from Tarbela Warsak and Mangla This is simply due to the fact that hydropower possesses all of the properties that make it excellent for black start Reservoirs hold enough water to power turbines during a black start operation with no special preparation According to an Oak Ridge National Laboratory study, hydro facilities may be restarted fast with minimal station power

Although the report highlights that the generating units at Tarbela and Mangla couldn’t maintain stability and tripped a number of times during the restoration process” Consequently, generating from Warsak was extended to the other dams initiating the reboot This essentially marked the start of the restoration as electricity from these power plants was sent to other plants so that they could reboot and resume operations

According to the report the restoration process began with the Uch power plant in Balochistan at 9:39 am on Monday morning And the grid was completely restored with the final power plant to be restarted at 4:57 am the next morning interesting observations

Although NTDC or the government have not yet established the exact reason causing the power black out and it is impossible to determine it at this point However as per some observers the first domino that initiated the blackout was the 747 MW gas power plant located in Guddu Sindh The initial issues in the transmission network were observed in three 500kv heavy power lines connected to the power plant in question Additionally the same power plant was the last to be restored at 4:57 am the next morning