DNA

ISLAMABAD, FEB 22-  In continuance of its mission to fighting the war on drugs in Pakistan, the Karim Khan Afridi Welfare Foundation launched on February 17^ththe European Union best practice drug prevention education initiative “Unplugged – adapted in Pakistan as Hum Saath Hain”, at Mashal community school, Bari Imam, Islamabad. KKAWF is the first civil society outfit to bring this prevention awareness programme to local schools in Islamabad.

Delivered by KKAWF Board member and education advisor Ms. LubnaHayauddin a UN certified life-skills trainer, the programme  willhave participation of 100 students and run for 12 weeks with one session each week. This interactive life skills program is targeted at 12-15 years old,  where the students during the course of the programme are exposed to the knowledge on drugs and their ill-effect on the physical and social health of the individuals and others associated to these people. The youth are equipped in skills such as communication, problem solving, critical thinking to handle peer pressure and make wise decisions, raise drug use awareness and understanding to promote healthy behavior.The student participants will receive their completion certificates at a concluding ceremony with attendance of distinguished guests.

KKAWF plans to continue implementation of Hum Saath Hainprogramme among teachers and students in schools across Islamabad and other areas. Schoolteachers are trained on the Unplugged modules and enabled to deliver to more students, which will allow for benefits of the programme to outreach more students continually.

Speaking at the occasion Cristina von Sperling Afridi, Chairperson KKAWF said that drug use is one of the biggest public health challenge we face as it is further putting at risk the young population under 30 – 0f 130 million in Pakistan to addiction of drugs during the times of the Covid-19 pandemic. She said that only last year, hundreds of teenagers had lost their lives and other hundreds of thousands unfortunately have started to indulge on drugs resulting in this big epidemic menace in our society and the future of the Country.It is imperative that stigma is broken and prevention is used as a powerful tool to fight the menace of the drug problem.

KKAWF is working since 2015 with rich experience on promoting healthy behavior among youth regarding adverse effects of drug abuse. KKAWF implements its mission by equipping youth with better knowledge and awareness, breaking taboos through prevention education using its five pillars of drug abuse, arts, sports, environment, civic sense to build protective factors for youth and engage with them to make healthy life choices and better identify, understand and manage emotions.

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DNA

ISLAMABAD: Prism Energy (Private) Limited (‘Prism’), an end-to-end renewable energy solutions provider, recently commissioned its first commercial and industrial (C&I)solar energy facility in Faisalabad, Pakistan. The development and implementationof the 248kW facility was led by the Prism team, with the support of InfraCo Asia and Albario Engineering Private Limited (AEPL).

Islamabad, Pakistan – 22 February 2021

With its high solar irradiance, there is tremendous potential forPakistanto harness solar power to meet its energy needs. According to the World Bank, utilising just 0.071 percent of the country’s area for solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation would meet Pakistan’s current electricity demand. However, much ofPakistan’s abundant solar resource remains untapped, with renewable sources currently fulfilling only around 4% of the country’s energy needs.In order to achieve its national target to generate30% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, Pakistan will require greater private sector investment in renewable energy infrastructure, including high-quality, distributed solar solutions.

InfraCo Asia, aPrivate Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) company, and AEPL haveentered a joint investment and development agreement establishing Prism Energy –a joint venture company, to developand implement commercial & industrial (C&I) solar projectsacross Pakistan, thus providing new and improved access to clean and renewable energy sources. Prism aims to introduce international best practice to distributed solar development in Pakistan, byleveraging the development expertise of InfraCo Asia, as well as the on-ground experience of its local partner AEPL.

The Prism team brought into operations its first C&I solar energyfacilityin January 2021, providing electricity to the Pearl Towers in Faisalabad, Pakistan. The 248kWfacility is part of Prism’s larger C&I solar platform, through whichits shareholders are aiming to rollout C&I solar projectsat scale. By demonstrating the commercial viability of high-quality, net metered C&I solar solutions, InfraCo Asia and AEPL expect to crowd-in greater private sector investments for Pakistan’s distributed solar sector.

The newly commissioned solar plant,which is built on two rooftops of the Pearl Towers in Faisalabad, supplies affordable, reliableand renewable energy that is able to meet the energy needs of the commercial complex during the day. This includesthe operation of its shopping mall,restaurants andoffices. It is expected that the solar plantwill enable energy bill savings for Pearl Towers, andimprove the overall sustainability of operations by reducing its reliance onelectricity from the national grid, which is primarily derived from the burning of fossil fuels.The solar plant is also expected to improve the reliability of energy access by reducing each client’s reliance on the grid, which suffers from frequent power outages.

“We are delighted to be part of the transition towards solar energy sources with Prism Energy and appreciate the Prism team’s professionalism and support in the process. Pearl City Towers is one of the largest commercial projects in Faisalabad, and we are proud to lead in the city’s sustainability journey. The solar plant will help reduce our energy bills significantly” said Ibtasam Iqbal, CEO of Pearl Group.

Following the implementation of the Pearl Towers project, Prism Energy is looking to replicate its success across Pakistan, with several larger-scale distributed solar projectsof up to 5MW currently in the pipeline.Prismprovides turnkey renewable energy solutions,developingC&I rooftop and ground-mounted solar plants on a commercial basis, with no upfront costs to the site owners. Electricity generated from the solar plants is sold to the site owners under a long-term (15-20 year)offtakeagreement, at tariffs that are discounted in comparison to thoseoffered by state-owned distribution companies in Pakistan. The net metering arrangement will also enable clients like Pearl Towers to sell surplus energy back to the national grid, resulting in further cost reduction.

At present, high development risks continue to be associated with Pakistan’s distributed solar sector due to the lack of regulatory support and high-quality developers. Through thePrism Energy joint venture, InfraCo Asiaand its joint venture partner AEPLaim to de-risk the development of distributed generation solar power projects in Pakistanby introducinginternational best practice at each stage of the development and implementation process. Coupled withproven models of offtake agreements, Prism Energy will demonstrate the commercial viability of developingdistributed solar plants to world-class standards in Pakistan. In so doing, InfraCo Asia and AEPL aim to pave the way for other private sector investors and developers to implement high-quality solar power infrastructure, and thus promote the uptake of equivalent renewable energy solutions.

Allard Nooy, Chief Executive Officer of InfraCo Asia said: “We are very heartened by the safe and healthful progress made by the Prism Energy team during this challenging time. Through the joint venture, InfraCo Asia is working with AEPLwith an aim to develop up to 40MW in aggregate solar power generation capacity– thereby demonstrating the commercial viability of a world-class, distributed solar model for Pakistan. We hope that this will pave the way forgreater private sector investments in renewables, and support Pakistan’s ambitions to transition towards generating 30% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.”

Ahmad Najeeb, Chief Executive of AEPL expressed, “We are excited to commission our first project with Prism Energy and look forward to executing a strong pipeline of projects in 2021 and 2022. At Prism, we are strongly committed to build, own and operate green energy projects across the country.”

Arooj Asghar, CEO of Prism Energy, added, “This is a significant milestone for our team, to successfully manage and commission the project in a safe and timely manner. We expect a strong and positive response from the market considering the needs of businesses in Pakistan, the lack of reliable and economical power, and the strong development practices we bring to the table.”

Islamabad : The Election Commission of Pakistan will soon be provided with electronic voting technology, says Federal Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry.

He was addressing a press conference in Daska.

The technology was recently developed with the support of National Institute of Electronics, National University of Science and Technology and COMSATS.

It will help ensure transparency in the election process, the federal minister said.

He said the government has also presented an election reform bill to adopt an electronic voting system in elections.

Dr Mazhar Hussain

ISLAMABAD: Having lived more than 30 years abroad and in Pakistan since 2002, I repeatedly get the same questions from Non-Resident Pakistanis: We want to move back to Pakistan, but have concerns about security, safety, education, source of income, legal system, health system and many more questions along the same lines.

Taking people out of Pakistan is easy, but taking Pakistan out of people’s mind is not easy. With all its problems and issues, many NRPs start considering moving back after some years. Even if they are otherwise very successful and have done well for themselves, they start playing with the idea of moving back. At which time the questions start popping up. Questions that are often fuelled more the biased coverage by international media than ground realities. Despite all the problems in coutnry, the land has still a lot to offer. Especially, feeling at home from a religious, cultural and linguistic point of view. At the same time, people may also feel that migrant minorities are not treated equally abroad.

So whether it’s a push or a pull factor, Pakistan starts popping up in the minds of NRPs: Can we move to Pakistan and what potential issue will we face If take the step.

This is where Back 2 Pakistan comes in. We want to bridge the gap between NRPs and people that have already taken a leap of faith and moved to Pakistan. There is no need to NRPs to start from scratch each time someone wants to try to settle in Pakistan.

B2P wants to close the gap and provide NRPs access to other people’s experiences going through exactly they themselves are planning for.  With B2P, NRPs can speak to people that can understand the questions much better than many locals would be able to, if they’ve not spent time abroad.

Will my children be able to adjust if they don’t speak English? Where to live?What are the expenses for a good standard of living? How is the service sector? What problems will we face? Is it safe for our children? Any leisure and sports facilities? How is the work place environment? Is it easy to do business? What about falling sick?Health and car insurance? Corruption? Mortgage? House rentals?And many more questions that Pakistanis returning from abroad are bound to face.

For people that are already considering taking the plunge, many questions revolve around practicalities, prices, availability of services and products.

It’s not secret, that Pakistan has a bad press, particularly in the West. Some that bad press is due to Indian undercover operations, uncovered by EU Disinfo Lab. In it’s report, Indian Chronichles, EU Disinfo Lab found a disinformation campaign running since 2005 which was aimed at giving Pakistan a bad name whereever possible.

Regardless of the source of bad press, it’s a fact, that Pakistan has had a bad press for quite a few years. This has led many NRPs to see Pakistan in a much more negative light than realities justify.

With B2P, people can ask about other peoples’ experiences directly from the source without having a filter with biased or vested interest in portraying Pakistan in a certain way.

As the B2P family grows, we hope to be able to have key-contacts addressing more specific questions and needs: Housing, health, legal matters, education, job, business, city-specific questions, social and professional networking and many more.