P M F O r I M P r O v E d P O w E r t r A N s M I s s I O N , lOAd MANAgEMENt AhEAd OF suMMEr

PR I M E Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday directed to take timely and effective measures to improve the power transmission and load management systems, ahead of the summer season The prime minister, chairing a review meeting to discuss power transmission and load management, asked the relevant departments to formulate a concrete and comprehensive plan before the onset of summer

He instructed to ensure early finalization of the strategy for better power transmission and load management ahead of summer

Qureshi, Asad umar offer to ‘surrender’ as PtI kicks off ‘Jail Bharo’ movement today

STAff REpoRT

In the first phase of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ’s (PTI) “Jail Bharo Tehreek (court arrest movement)”, the party s senior leaders Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Asad Umar have voluntarily decided to surrender themselves to the authorities, Fawad Chaudhry said Tuesday Addressing a press conference in Lahore the PTI’s senior vice president said that PTI Vice Chairman Qureshi and PTI Secretary General Umar have announced voluntary surrendering before the law enforcers In the wake of sedition cases filed against his party leaders including Fawad Chaudhry Azam Swati and Shahbaz Gill, PTI Chairman Imran Khan on February 4 announced Jail Bharo Tehreek Fawad welcomed a statement reportedly issued by the ECP that the body was “ready to hold elections in 90 days” He termed the announcement “a right step in the right direction ” In the same breath, the PTI leader said that President Alvi set April 9 as the date for the general election in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the move rejected by the ruling alliance adding that the date could not be changed as per the Election Act and the Constitution A day after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) excused itself from holding consultations with President Alvi on polls in the provinces, the head of state on Monday (yesterday) announced holding elections in the two provinces on April 9 Moving towards the upcoming elections in the country the PTI leader said that the party would start allocating tickets to the candidates from next week The PTI s election campaign will reach its peak when Khan will join it within one-and-a-half week Chaudhry said that Khan has directed the party to kickstart preparations for the upcoming elections He urged the PTI’s candidates to launch election campaigns in their respective constituencies The PTI would launch a countrywide public awareness campaign, he added Referring to the NAB’s notices to the PTI leadership in the Toshakhana scam Fawad said that the anti-graft watchdog’s chairman has exposed the government by tendering his resignation

Fawad demands new Opp leader in NA ahead of NAB chief’s ‘selection’

ISLAMABAD S ta f f R e p o R t

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday demanded appointment of new opposition leader in the National Assembly before selection of new chairman of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry announced the party s demand A new Opposition leader should be appointed and he should be from the PTI,” said Fawad Chaudhary while addressing a press conference The demand came after Aftab Sultan stepped down as the head of the anti-graft watchdog, the National Accountability Bureau, as he reportedly refused to toe the line The PTI welcomed the development terming it a major step towards the collapse of the current “fascist system” Fawad said that the new opposition leader should be appointed first and then the NAB chairman with his consultation He stated that no one would accept Leader of the Opposition Raja Riaz’s consultation, making it clear that if the NAB s chairman was appointed with consultation of the PTI dissident, it would be unacceptable as the Lahore High Court (LHC) already suspended the PTI lawmakers resignations Fawad said they wanted to empower the judicial system of the country The PTI leader stated that Jail Bharo Tehreek will start from Wednesday (today) and it will be based on peaceful protests

According to the reports, around 200 PTI leaders will surrender on the first day of the movement while youths and supporters of the party will also join the protest to be part of Jail Bharo Tehreek Earlier, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry lashed out at the federal government for imposing massive tax on air tickets

Calling for minimum load shedding during the upcoming Holy Ramzan, the prime minister said it was pleasing that the proportion of alternative energy and local fuels was increasing for power generation reducing dependence on imported fuels and ultimately the import bill Prime Minister Shehbaz, who was given a briefing on power generation and load management called for urgent measures to fully operationalise the Haveli Bahadur Shah Power Plant He instructed the power and petroleum divisions and other relevant departments to improve cohesion and coordination for better power transmission and load management

During the briefing the prime minister was told that effective measures were being taken to put a minimum burden of the load shedding on the masses

Federal ministers Ishaq Dar Engineer Khurram

Dastgir and Marriyum Aurangzeb, Special Assistant to PM Jahanzeb Khan and senior relevant officers attended the meeting ‘ O v e r a l l p O l i t i c a l s i t u at i O n d i s c u s s e d’: Members of National Assembly Sheikh Rohale Asghar and Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh separately called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif here in Islamabad on Tuesday They discussed overall political situation as well as matters pertaining to their constituencies Former MNA Hanif Abbasi also called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif here in Islamabad on Tuesday ‘ at ta c k O n l e v i e s i n M a s t u n g d e n O u n c e d’: Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz

Sharif has strongly denounced the terrorist attack on levies check post in Mastung on Tuesday

Commiserating with the bereaved families the Prime Minister prayed for the martyred security personnel The Prime Minister also prayed for the early recovery of those who injured in the terror attack Shehbaz Sharif was appreciative of the resolve and determination of the security forces to root out the terrorists He said the entire nation salutes its martyrs In Balochistan, two levies personnel were martyred when unknown gunmen opened fire at Babri Check post in District Mastung on Tuesday

CM Balochistan forms JIT to probe Barkhan killings

QUETTA S ta f f R e p o R t

Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Quddus

Bizenjo on Tuesday formed a joint interrogation team (JIT) to probe the recovery of three bullet-riddled bodies from the Haji Kot area of Barkhan district in Balochistan

The CM’s notice came a day after the levies force recovered the dead bodies from a well in the district

The victims have been identified as family members of Khan Muhammad Marri a local tribesman who has accused Balochistan Minister for Communication and Works, Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran of murdering his family members

Balochistan s Minister for Construction and Communications Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran on Tuesday denied keeping a private jail after bullet-riddled bodies of a woman and her two sons were found from a well near his residence in the Barkhan district area last night The victims, a woman and two men, were identified by the police as Giran Naz age 40-45 wife of Khan Muhammad Marri and her two sons Mohammad Nawaz, aged 20-25, and Abdul Qadir aged 15-20

A press release issued by the police said the bodies, which were in sacks, were found yesterday (Feb 20) at around 8pm The station house officer (SHO) of Barkhan Police Station was informed about the corpses in the well As soon as the SHO was informed about the incident, he immediately reached the site with his police party,” the statement said

The bodies were then recovered from the well and transported to Civil Hospital Barkhan They were identified by Abdul Qayoom Bijrani Marri whom the police described as an heir The bodies were handed over to him after the completion of legal requirements the press release stated Khan Muhammad the husband of the slain woman and the father of the brothers alleged that in 2019, his wife and seven children were imprisoned in Khetran’s private jail due to not testifying in a case conflict between Khetran and his son, Sardar Inam Khetran He said that a video of his wife had surfaced on a website after which his family s bodies were found in a well in a far-flung area Khan Muhammad alleged that his family was killed after being tortured Sources was able to verify that the woman in the video was indeed Khan Muhammad’s wife one of the three victims A first information report (FIR) has so far not been registered

It added that on November 16 a police party comprising Barkhan superintendent of police (SP), sub-divisional police officer, deputy superintendent of police SHO and an Anti-Terrorist Force team raided the Haji Kot house of Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) spokesperson and Provincial Minister for Construction and Communications Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran but no one was found there

Implementation of CPEC projects to be expedited

pR ofIT a l J a z e e R a

India has invoked an emergency law to force power plants that run on imported coal to maximise output ahead of an expected record surge in power usage from mid-March through to mid-June, according to an internal power ministry notice seen by the Reuters news agency Many of India’s power plants that use imported coal, including those owned by Adani Power and Tata Power in the western state of Gujarat have not operated at full capacity recently because they have found it difficult to compete with power generated from cheap domestic coal Reuters reported last month on India’s plans to use the law to maximise coal power output

In the notice sent to all imported coal-based power plants, the ministry said it expects them to operate at full capacity and sell power to buyers on exchanges

India’s imported coal plants have a total capacity of 17 gigawatts The directive comes into effect on March 16, giving plants the time to import coal ahead of the expected surge in consumption It would remain valid till June 15

The variable tariff for these plants will be fixed by a government-appointed panel the notice said adding that the panel will use the index with the lowest cost of imported coal for calculating the variable tariff for every plant

The ministry expects a peak demand of 229 gigawatts in April and to address that, India would need to operate a thermal capacity of 193 gigawatts that month, the notice said India expects its power plants to burn about 8 percent more coal in the financial year ending March 2024, with increased economic activity and erratic weather to continue to boost growth in demand for power The emergency law has been invoked for the second time in as many years pR ofIT R e u t e R S

India and Singapore launched on Tuesday a real-time link to facilitate easier cross-border money transfers between the two countries, the first such for the South Asian nation that is the world’s biggest recipient of remittances

Transfers of funds between the two countries will now be possible using just mobile phones due to the tie-up between India s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore’s PayNow facility Such arrangements, which are a growing trend in Asia typically lower the costs of payments Singapore has already established a cross-border payments link with Thailand and is working on one with Malaysia, according to the website of the city-state s central bank

“This will enable people from both the countries to immediately and at low-cost transfer funds (by) j u s t u s i n g t h e i r m o b i l e p h o n e s I n d i a n P r i m e

Minister Narendra Modi said at a virtual event for t h e l a u n c h o f t h e s e r v i c e T h e l i n k a g e w i l l h e l p migrant workers professionals students and their families, said Modi

UPI is an instant real-time payments system, allowing users to transfer money across multiple banks without disclosing bank account details Similarly, PayNow is a service offered by participating banks that allows sending and receiving Singapore dollar funds from one bank to another using a mobile number Singapore s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told the launch event cross-border retail payments and remittances between the two countries currently amount to over $1 billion annually

“The UPI-PayNow linkage will grow in utility and will contribute more in facilitating trade,” Lee said India received $89 billion in foreign remittances in 2021/22, the highest ever in a year by any nation

The World Bank has projected that number to rise to $100 billion in the current year

“This interlinkage aligns with the G20’s financial inclusion priorities of driving faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a statement

In the India-Singapore link, to begin with, State Bank of India (SBI NS) Indian Overseas Bank (IOBK NS), Indian Bank (INBA NS) and ICICI Bank (ICBK NS) will facilitate both inward and outward remittances while Axis Bank (AXBK NS) and DBS India will facilitate inward remittances, RBI added

For Singapore users, the service will be made available through DBS-Singapore (DBSM SI) and Liquid Group – a non-bank financial institution More number of banks will be included in the linkage over time, it added Initially, an Indian user can remit up to 60,000 Indian rupees ($725 16) a day

Pakistan and China on Tuesday reiterated to further expedite the successful implementation of ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects for the mutual benefit of the two countries The reiteration was made during the meeting of Charge’d Affairs, Embassy of the People s Republic of China Ms Pang Chunxue who called on Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, according to press statement issued by finance ministry The two sides also discussed the progress on CPEC projects and resolved to accelerate and enhance mutual cooperation They also discussed further deepening these ties in economic as well as financial sectors, the statement added On the occasion, the finance minister highlighted the long-standing and deep-rooted brotherly ties between both countries and shared that China and Pakistan had strong bilateral relations in a number of economic avenues He commended the support of Chinese leadership to Pakistan in its challenging times and shared various economic measures taken by the government to bring the economy on progressive path Ms Pang Chunxue appreciated the policy steps taken by the government for sustaining and boosting fiscal and monetary stability

Pakistan’s seafood expor ts to China register 42pc increase last year

BEIJING

Pakistan’s seafood exports to China have increased by 42% in 2022 as compared to the previous year This is due to the rising demand for seafood products in China, said Ghulam Qadir, Commercial Counsellor of Pakistan s Embassy in Beijing He said that Pakistan s seafood exports to China topped US$ 198 36 million in 2022, while in 2021 it was US$ 139 29 million, recorded in the data of the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC) “The increase in Pakistan’s seafood exports to China is largely attributed to the increasing demand for fish of the Chinese people and the growing popularity of Pakistani fish in Chinese restaurants This has led to a successive increase in Pakistani seafood exports every year since 2020 ” he said Qadir mentioned that as per GACC Pakistan’s export of frozen fish, (commodity code 03038990) to China crossed US$ 63 31 million in 2022, up from US$ 33 43 million in 2021 while in terms of volume, it is more than 30,637 8 tons in 2022 and 18,987 2 tons in 2021