ISLAMABAD – Seven staff at one of Pakistan’s biggest power plants have been suspended after a technical fault sparked a massive grid breakdown at the weekend, plunging the entire country into darkness.

The blackout hit all of Pakistan’s major cities, including the capital Islamabad, economic hub Karachi and the second-largest city Lahore, lasting around 18 hours in most areas.

The employees at Guddu thermal power plant in Sindh province were suspended “on account of the negligence of duty”, according to the Central Power Generation Company, which operates the facility.

Guddu plant, built in the 1980s, is one of the country’s largest and generates power from furnace oil and natural gas.
The suspended staff included a manager and six junior employees.

The blackout, which started shortly before midnight on Saturday, was caused by an engineering fault which tripped the system and caused power plants across the country to shut down.

Pakistan’s electricity supply system is a complex and delicate web, and a problem in one section of the grid can lead to cascading breakdowns countrywide.

There were no reports of disruption at hospitals, however, which often rely on backup generators. The outage marked Pakistan’s second major power breakdown in less than three years.

In May 2018, power was partially disrupted for more than nine hours, while in 2015 an apparent rebel attack on a key supply line plunged around 80 percent of the country into darkness.

DNA

ISLAMABAD: Budget allocated for the repairing of machinery and vehicles should be spent wisely, said the Chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) here on Monday.

Handy machinery which is being used for cutting grass is being replaced by the latest technology, he added.

According to detail, Chairman CDA  Aamir Ali Ahmed visited the department of sanitation, and department of environment yesterday. During his visit to department of environment he inspected 3 tankers, 12 tractors, 01 dumper, 3 Shezors, 01 excavator and one dozer.

Similarly the chairman inspected 3 buckets, 04 lifters, 07 compactors and other vehicles during his visit to the department of sanitation.

The Chairman devised special committee at the occasion to inspect the expense at the repairing and looking after of the vehicle. He directed to restore the machinery which is not in order, he added.=DNA

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ISLAMABAD, JAN 11 (DNA) – Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday launched Pakistan’s first instant payment system – Raast – to enable end-to-end digital payments among individuals, businesses and government entities instantaneously.

The Prime Minister while addressing the gathering termed the launch a major step forward by the State Bank of Pakistan towards Digital Pakistan and said it would help include the low income groups and make them part of the mainstream economy. He was optimist that it would go a long way in fighting poverty, particularly in the rural areas.

Raast is part of Prime Minister Imran Khan Digital Pakistan vision to include poor segments of the society in formal economy.

The Pakistan’s Faster Payment System, Raast, would be used not only to settle small-value retail payments in real time but also provide cheap and universal access to all players in the financial industry including banks and fintechs.

Imran Khan said the instant payment system would not only document the economy, but also generate more taxes to help build the country. He regretted that only two million people in a country of 220 million paid taxes, which was not enough to build hospitals, schools and provide other basic facilities of life for the common man. He said only 3000 of the tax payers, pay 70% of the tax.

He said Pakistan’s foreign remittances have been constantly on the rise for the past five months, and has helped stabilize the Pakistan Rupee. He said after a gap of 17 years Pakistan’s current account has gone into surplus and, lowered pressure on Pakistan Rupee and played a key role in strengthening the national economy.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said the program would help give a boost to the Ehsaas program; particularly its mobile wallet and extend its reach to the women in the rural areas. He said his government was working for the empowerment of rural women folk and have been included in various economic activities.

Prime Minister Imran Khan extended gratitude to Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and the Pakistan and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their support in the launch of the program.

According to the data available with the State Bank of Pakistan, digital payments only account for 0.2% of Pakistan’s 100 billion transactions today, whereas the share of digital transactions in the peer countries ranges from 1.5% to 7%.

Pakistan has had low electronic transactions due to low banking penetration, lack of trust and awareness of digital payment methods, limited interoperability, difficult accessibility and high cost of transactions. However, Raast, the new Instant Payment System would facilitate retail payment settlements with much great efficiency.

Instantaneous payments: Near real-time digital payments across individuals, merchants, businesses, and government entities

Low-to-no transaction costs for end users: Raast is designed to operate at a cost recovery model  to make digital payments affordable to end users of all socio-economic backgrounds

Full sector-wide interoperability: Raast would allow all financial institutions to seamlessly connect to each other via a single link to the central infrastructure, making digital payments accessible across any channel to customers of any financial institution

Customer-centric innovative products/services: Raast would be built on cutting-edge technological standards, allowing financial institutions to develop innovative and user-friendly digital payment products and services like payment through phone number or email.

Reliability and enhanced security: Raast would introduce more secure payment types, ensure that each transaction was authorized by the payer, and offer enhanced data protection and fraud detection services. =DNA

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ISLAMABAD, JAN 11 (DNA) – The Islamabad High Court (IHC) was informed on Monday that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui declined to meet Pakistan’s consul general in Houston when he visited the prison where she is detained to seek her consent for filing a mercy petition before the US Department of Justice.

Justice Aamir Farooq of the IHC was hearing a petition seeking measures for her repatriation to the country. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs submitted a report, stating that consular visits had been suspended by the prison authorities in Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Carswell due to the pandemic. As a result, it said, prison meetings of the consul general with Dr. Aafia had been put on hold.

However, the report detailed, the consul general remained in touch with the prison authorities in order to get update on the health and well-being of Aafia, which were regularly shared with her family. Due to efforts of the Pakistan embassy in Washington DC, a special consular visit was arranged for the consul general in Houston to meet Dr. Aafia on Sept 4, 2020, it said.

During the meeting, according to the report, Dr. Aafia herself informed the consul general that her Covid-19 test came negative. “Dr. Aafia was alert in her conversation with the Consul General. She also informed the Consul General that she had recently been examined by her psychiatrist who declared her (mentally sound and) well,” it read.

On December 28, 2020, it said the ministry’s additional secretary (Americas) held a telephonic conversation with Dr. Fowzia, sister of Dr. Aafia, during which, the former briefed the latter about the last consular visit and the latest status of her mercy petition.

Following the signing of a mercy petition by Dr. Aafia during the December 2019 consular visit, the embassy had approached the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for further course of action, the report said, adding the Office of Pardon Attorney at the department advised that the signed petition could be filed by the inmate herself by post or through the jail warden or through her appointed attorney. In the absence of a lawyer, the only other option was that the inmate file the petition herself through the prison warden.

“To address this caveat, our Consul General in Houston planned a visit to FMC to meet Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. The meeting was scheduled on March 27, 2020, which was cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic. As an alternative, petition was sent to FMC so that it could be forwarded to DoJ, however, FMC informed that Dr. Aafia refused to sign the additional consent form for dispatching the petition to DoJ,” it said.

“Consul general approached prison authorities for consular access at the earliest possibility. Only after the intervention of our Embassy in Washington, a special consular visit was arranged for Consul General on 24th September 2020, however, consent form couldn’t not be signed during that meeting.” The report said: “Consul General again went to meet Dr. Aafia on 15th December 2020 but prison authorities informed him that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui had refused to meet him.” DNA

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