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Gas vs Electricity: Which is better for Chitral

05/03/2021 By fardadali786 2 Comments

CHITRAL: A debate has been stirred up in Chitral whether we should have LNG gas plants or use electricity to mitigate our energy problems. Following are some points of comparison between the two options.

Feasibility: Feasibility is the first thing to consider before launching any project. A gas storage plant installation may be easy at the outset but keeping the gas store filled with gas maybe not be so, àla “It is easy to open a shop but difficult to keep it open”-Chinese proverb. The LNG gas has to be imported from Qatar or else where and is a recurring heavy expenditure which itself puts a question mark on it’s sustainability. On the other hand electricity is an indigenous produce and e.g with little effort the power house in Chitral town can be upgraded to 7 Mw which can provide far more energy to Chitral town than the LNG plant working at it’s peak (which is doubtful it ever will).

Transmission lines: It will cost billions of rupees to lay the transmission lines from the LNG storage tank to individual houses let alone the plant and the gas. As we can daily see the quality of water pipe lines (leaking after every few feet) will the gas flow be able to stand such faulty lines. The engineers and the contractors are the same whether it is water or gas or electricity. Gas leakage anywhere in the pipeline will reduce the pressure and even deplete the storage within no time. Who will rectify the faults and service individual homes? Is it being done for water pipe leaks?. If the answer is ‘no’, then what can we expect with the gas lines.

Cost effectiveness: Setting up gas storage plants and laying pipelines and topping up the tanks will cost multiple times more than even setting up a new hydel power station, let alone upgrading the existing ones. On the other hand, there will be no cost incurred on laying out electricity transmission lines as they already exist.

Time factor for implementation: The laying of gas pipelines up to individual houses would take years and in all likelihood would be abandoned midway (lack of funds.. Look at Lowari tunnel roads). Electricity model on the other hand already has transmission lines in place, saving millions in price and time.

Practicality and future prospects: The gas plants will for sure be abandoned sooner than later and there will no place to throw them away (Diesel generators of Begum Bhutto are a glaring example). Electric power houses are there to stay and at best would need upgradation from time to time.

Should we act like the ‘wise men of Gotham’ and ‘carry coal to Newcastle’, or should we struggle to use our indigenous and abundant wealth of wealth of free energy which is practical, feasible and economical. Is getting feasible energy our aim or burning gas at all costs, our obsession? .. CN report, 05 Mar 2021

‘Women emancipation’ experiment at high gear in Chitral

27/02/2021 By fardadali786 1 Comment

CHITRAL: Just a few years back it was unthinkable that women would come out in the bazars of Chitral to do their shopping, even when accompanied by their male family members. Now, in the Chitral town bazar at any one time about 30 percent of the population comprises of women mostly of young age going about their shopping and chores boldly.

About three years back when an attempt was made to set up a women exclusive market where both the buyers and sellers would be women, some key clerics cried horse that it was against Islamic teachings and the project had to be abandoned. Now women are seen thronging shops manned by male shopkeepers as the clerics have given up resistance. Chitrali girls have been playing foot ball and skating in Islamabad and Hunza recently.

In two key positions of Lower Chitral District, the District Police Officer and the District and Sessions Judge are both female. Almost all the banks have female staff. A bank manager told CN that they have received a letter from the State Bank of Pakistan that at least 50 percent of their staff strength should comprise of female staff.

The emancipation of women has come about late, but better than never. The country’s population comprises of 55 percent female gender and putting them to productive work would do phenomenal good to the country. Restricting women to houses which in many a case comprise of a few rooms with no space to move, either make the girls mentally sick or addicted to tv dramas and mobile apps etc. In extreme cases girls lose their head and even opt for suicide.

The new liberty given to the female population in a conservative society is a good experiment and if this new found liberty is used diligently and sensibly by them keeping moral values paramount, it can work wonders for our society in the near and far future. .. CN report, 27 Feb 2021

New PIA schedule says two weekly flights to Chitral instead of four

23/02/2021 By fardadali786 1 Comment

CHITRAL: About two weeks back, PIA had announced four weekly flights from Islamabad to Chitral starting 03 March. However, even before commencement of the announced flights, now a new schedule has been announced of two flights a week on Mondays and Fridays each w.e.f 05 March. Timings of the flights as announced are :
Departure from Islamabad 09:30 hrs
Arrival at Chitral 10:45
Departure from chitral 11:15 hrs
Arrival at Islamabad 12:25 hrs .. CN report, 23 Feb 2021

Transparent use of road maintenance funds in Chitral demanded

23/02/2021 By fardadali786 1 Comment

CHITRAL: The government contractors have demanded transparency in the utilisation of the annual maintenance and repair (AM&R) funds for roads in Chitral region by the communication and works department and for irrigation channels by the irrigation department.

A contractor told Dawn on condition of anonymity that a huge amount of money was spent every year on the maintenance of roads, including debris and snow clearance, but it couldn’t be quantified and remained invisible to the people after their execution.

He claimed that the AM&R fund was often misused and fictitious bills for snow and debris clearance were cleared by the department.

The contractor said a tough competition took place among contractors for that reason. He said often, things became impossible for contractors as they had to pay 10 per cent as commission to the department.

He alleged collusion between department engineers and contractors saying they show on paper higher quantity of debris and snow clearance than what is done on ground.

The contractor proposed that the quantity of snow and avalanche debris on roads before and after clearance be recorded in the form of video and photographs for bill clearance.

When contacted, Lower Chitral DC Hassan Abid said the AM&R fund for roads had been substantially reduced after the federalisation of three major roads, including Booni Road, Garam Chashma Road and Bumburate Road.

He agreed to the need for transparency in the quantification and passage of bills by the departments, and proper measures, including recording of videos and photographs, and formation of a special vigilance committee. .. Source

The frivolity of politics in Pakistan

21/02/2021 By fardadali786 Leave a Comment

CHITRAL: Politics in Pakistan is getting more and more frivolous by the day. We were used to votes being cast in favour or against a candidate for his/her attending/not attending funerals and weddings. Now a new phenomenon has come to light. The estranged provincial minister in KP, who did not support his party’s candidate in recently held bye elections, came on TV and said, because PTI workers were not happy with their leadership, so they voted for the PMLN, which is the prime ideological rival of the PTI.

What does this mean? It means obviously that now voters do not vote for party ideology and manifesto, but vote on whims no matter what party/ideology the candidate belongs to, even he may be deadly opposed to the manifesto of their party. The vote is not so much ‘for’ a candidate but is more ‘against’ a candidate.

With such a ludicrous sate at which politics has arrived , it is time to re-visit ‘politics’ and change it with a more practical and fair system- ‘Meritocracy‘ can safely replace politics as the new system for formation of governments. .. CN report, 21 Feb 2021

Vehicles still being forcibly held at Lowari tunnel

19/02/2021 By fardadali786 Leave a Comment

CHITRAL: Despite complaints and protests on being harassed at the Lowari tunnel on all forums, even on the PM’s complaint portal, the practice of lowering the barrier and holding up transport vehicles at the Lowari tunnel continues unabated.

When the NHA official on duty at he Lowari tunnel barrier was asked why is there a barrier at the tunnel, where there are no barriers at the four Malakand tunnels we crossed two hours back, or for that matter, any other tunnel in Pakistan he smilingly said the tunnel has wrongly been designed without an emergency lane and quoting the project director of the tunnel he said “there seems no solution to the practice of stopping vehicles at the tunnel and letting them pass in convoys”. He was also ready to show a copy of the directives of the Chief Justice on this matter to support his point of view.

The ridiculous practice of stopping vehicles at the mouth of the Lowari tunnel on flimsy excuses should cease forthwith. Letting in random approaching vehicles from both sides is much safer and more logical than hounding up dozens of vehicles and then suddenly pushing them in all at the same time. This is simple common sense but no one has been able to drive this through the heads of NHA officials, who seem to be above any law, or fear of God. .. CN report, 19 Feb 2021

A Commendable Gesture of PTI

16/02/2021 By fardadali786 Leave a Comment

.. by Zahoor ul Haq Danish

All differences with PTI aside, there is no denying the fact that PTI has taken certain such steps which have been unprecedented in the political history of Pakistan. One of such things is to acknowledge and bring forward honest party workers, instead of parachuters, in elections; be it general elections, local government elections or senate elections. This has been true especially in the case of peripheral regions like Chitral, where traditional political practices across parties used to be sort of cherry-picking. The credit of breaking away with this (mal)practice goes, surely, to PTI.

Nominating a common worker of party who has risen up from grassroots level for the senate election is a highly commendable decision, especially in view of the decades-long corrupt practices and capital involved around it.
The recent nomination of Ms Falak Naz Chitrali is a highly welcome decision of Pakistan Tehrik Insaf. Falak Naz has been a dedicated party worker over the last decade, serving the party sur le terrain.
She comes from the family of “Charwelus”, local rulers, who are historically known as being brave, wise and just in dispensing justice. Ms

Naz is the daughter of Mr Hussain Ullah, a teacher of teachers and officers, and a renowned educational figure of Chitral. Hussain Ullah Ustaz is known and liked for his disciplined and principled attitude as a teacher.
It is for these and many other reasons that Ms Naz’s nomination is highly being hailed by the people of Chitral, regardless of their political affiliations and views. This is a great gesture, having a promising bearing on the patriorchal social structure through breaking away with taboos and empowering women. The decision is crucial, again, in view of the growing women-related issues in Chitral like rising suicide cases and incidents of deceptive and fraudulent down country (mis)marriages of Chitrali women leading to their victimisation. In the backcloth of these issues, it is high time that women leaders must be acknowledged and brought forward at all fronts, so that they may get a chance to duly and effectively address the issues facing womenfolk of Chitral at present time.
PTI’s decision to nominate Ms Falak Naz is a highly commendable gesture, and will go a long way in earning the trust of its workers in particular and the voting masses in general. .. Zahoor ul Haq danish , Chitral 16 Feb 2021

PIA enhances flights to Chitral

16/02/2021 By fardadali786 Leave a Comment

CHITRAL: PIA flights to Chitral had virtually been halted as the once a week flight would often get cancelled due to one reason or the other and travellers had gotten used to travelling by road. The shortening of road due to Malakand tunnels and introduction of comfortable coach services to Chitral are also one reason why travellers had almost stopped looking towards air travel..

However the PIA has now announced to re-commence four weekly flights between Islamabad and Chitral on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday respectively, with effect from 3rd March 2021. This apparently is a big facility for travelers and tourists, particularly female travellers, VIP visitors and foreign tourists.

However the success of air service from Islamabad to Chitral shall depend greatly upon its reliability as travellers have to travel one hour from Islamabad city to reach the airport, and they don’t want to learn after reaching there that the flight has been delayed and/or cancelled for reasons bla bla bla,. During this much time travellers by road can almost reach Timergara. Therefore, the onus of responsibility of success of the service depends on the airline more than the travelers. .. CN report, 16 Feb 2021

Govt establishing cannabis farms : MIn of Science

15/02/2021 By fardadali786 Leave a Comment

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has said that farms for cannabis production are being established in Jhelum, Peshawar, Chakwal and Islamabad, highlighting that cannabis was an alternative to cotton and its production would immensely benefit Pakistan’s economy.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) app for apple IOS and its upgraded website on Saturday, Chaudhry said that the government was taking several measures to strengthen the national economy.

It may be mentioned here that the federal cabinet had approved the first license for the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) for industrial and medical use of hemp, which the government says could result in a $1 billion market for Pakistan.

Per acre, hemp can produce crops three times the size of cotton, having a faster growing-time averaging at 90 to 100 days as compared to 150 to 180 days for cotton.

Fabrics produced from the hemp fibres tend to be more durable, stronger, and maintain their form in the stretching process whereas, in its textile form, hemp blends with other fibres and is used for various applications in construction, paper, oils, paints, adhesives, plastics, and cooking.

It is pertinent to mention here that the government has also claimed to be working on introducing high-tech farms focusing on non-traditional agriculture including the production of exotic vegetables such as avocadoes, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, etc.

The federal minister also said that the government is making thorough efforts to revive the manufacturing industry of the country, noting that keeping up with technology was of paramount importance. “It is important to keep an eye on technological advancements besides observing which businesses have a good scope in the market and which are getting obsolete”.

The minister stressed that the country’s future was linked with technology and underlined that the merger of technology and biotechnology was vital.

He was of the view that 5G technology would bring about a massive revolution and the country needed stable internet to benefit from technological advancements.

The minister remarked that Pakistan had one of the most lucrative automobile policies for electric vehicles.

“In the next three years, electric vehicles will enjoy a significant market share in the main cities of Pakistan and they will definitely help reduce environmental pollution,” he hoped.

He announced that a leading global company would soon establish a manufacturing plant for dialysis equipment in Pakistan.

He lamented that in the past, power generation plants were set up without prior planning and as a result, the government was paying half the price of electricity even after the hike in power tariff. .. Sourc e

Chitral gets first female Judiciary head

14/02/2021 By fardadali786 Leave a Comment

CHITRAL: Ms Phool Bibi has been posted as the District and Sessions Judge, Lower Chitral, according to a notification of the Peshawar High Court. Earlier a female District Police Officer (DPO) in the person of Sonia Shamrroz Khan is currently posted and functioning in Lower Chitral, giving Chitral the distinction of having two ladies heading two important government organisations in a district at the same time .. CN report, 14 Feb 2021