Lamentably, the forests and trees along the banks of barrages, canals, water channels, highways and roads have almost vanished in Sindh. Sindh had never experienced this much ‘anti–tree and anti-environment’ attitude as during the last one decade. The timber mafia and local influential people made Sindh province treeless and forestless without impunity. Sindh has been denuded of all greenery as a result; Sindh nowadays experiences harsher weather and alarming temperatures.In this scenario, the agro forestry holds real potential for increasing the number of orchards and tree ...

These days there is lot of talk about solar energy to fill up the gap in production and consumption of energy in Pakistan. The latest information about the biggest solar plant in the world being set up in California’s Mojave Desert in USA would dispel our craze for everything new. This plant as per Time Magazine of June 24, 2013 would cost $2.2 billion in four years, and produce only 392 MW of power using 4000 acres of waste land.Our mega hydroelectric dam Kalabagh, if built would produce 3600 MW of power over 6 years, with a cost of about $6 billion which makes it more than three times ...

Newly elected Pakistani National Assembly is effectively in place. The Prime Minister has taken oath of his office; the most interesting feature of this new assembly is the group of women on reserved seats. The idea was introduced by former dictator, General Musharraf apparently to give adequate representation to women, in this male dominated Pakistani society. It was to encourage 52 percent of Pakistani population to have their input in law making, particularly in matters pertaining to women.The idea was wonderful, and would have genuinely helped women, if we had a better electoral process. ...

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that the institutions which have swallowed billions of rupees would be rectified or privatized, I am sure he was hinting at Pakistan Railway, PIA, Pakistan Steel Mill and many such other institutes. What I would like to ask the esteemed PM is would this be applicable to the institution of the ‘Parliament,’ which has members who are black sheep, and some of them, or their relatives or friends who are responsible for all this corruption? Is the PM going to look into the causes and also pinpoint who the people are who were responsible for this ...

What the nation is suffering today has its roots buried in history. The last four decades saw no attention being given to hydel power, Kalabagh dam became a controversial issue between provinces, with traitors playing a large role in the destruction of the country, but the story started when Benazir Bhutto in 1994 relied on thermal power generation and neglecting hydel power, which has resulted in the present situation in the country. Imported oil, which was $10 per barrel then, is now $100 per barrel and the cost of generation has gone up to 18 rupees per unit. The government is subsidising ...

People were hoping for a new Pakistan when they attended public meetings of Muslim League-N during the recent pre-election campaigns run by the dynamic, energetic, intelligent and active Shahbaz Sharif. He seemed determined to transform Lahore into Paris and Istanbul, he ushered people of Lahore to the Metro bus service and a series of overhead bridges. All these steps may have helped in improving the economic indicators of Punjab to some extent but the overall economy deteriorated speedily during the last regime. The Sharif’s had been a friendly opposition and after the 18 Amendment ...

There is very disturbing news that Maulana Fazlur-Rehman has been allowed by Mian Nawaz Sharif to join the central Government. I hope that this is incorrect. Mian Nawaz Sharif would certainly know that Maulana Fazlur-Rehman has a questionable reputation (for example in the Hajj corruption case still pending in the courts, perhaps it was a Maulana's party stalwart who was the main accused). But like a fish out of water, the Maulana cannot live outside the government run by whichever party comes to power.He tried to entice Nawaz Sharif to form a government in KPK, but Nawaz Sharif was sagacious ...

When the British did not have an answer to ‘The Aussie domination’ in the early 1930s, they took away the phrase ‘Gentleman’s Game’ from cricket by introducing Jardine, Bill Bowes and Body Line bowling. When the British did not have an answer to the West Indian bowlers short pitched balls, they imposed a restriction of only two bouncers per over in test cricket. When, in 1955-56, the players of the visiting MCC team to Pakistan roughed up the standing umpire Idris Beg in Peshawar, it was officially described as ‘horseplay that backfired.’In Pakistan, ...

Central Superior Services (CSS) exams make or break the future of our youngsters; many people in the country sit for these exams with high hopes for a bright future. A couple of weeks ago the result for CSS 2012 were announced but they raised many objections over the authenticity of the result. I am flabbergasted to know that I got 427 position in Pakistan in the merit list. What was more shocking was that two students from Sindh, who I know personally, have been able to achieve good positions. They are said to be related to the chairman FPSC and President Asif Ali Zardari, their teachers ...

Sartaj Aziz has said that one of the most important underlying causes of today’s loadshedding was, in fact, the energy policy launched by the PPP government in 1994. How many oil guzzling IPPs were inducted with indecent haste, upsetting the energy mix, without realising that crude oil price would soar from $10 to $100 per barrel? No long term hydel projects were launched to correct the energy mix in the future. The result is that today most of the electricity is being generated, with very expensive imported oil at Rs18 per unit, forcing the government to subsidise the cost by half, ...