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Jan 11, 2025 | 
thefridaytimes.com | Shahid Rahim
Whenever a new government takes charge in Pakistan, it starts to reinvent the wheel, always with new zeal. High intents are coupled with even higher-sounding slogans like “Turnaround Pakistan”, “Make it the Asian tiger”, and “Make it a job paradise for foreigners”. The latest addition to this colorful potpourri is “Uraan Pakistan”, launched 30th December 2024 with a lot of fanfare and hype.
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Aug 24, 2024 | 
thefridaytimes.com | Shahid Rahim
In a recent article, this writer had pointed out that distributed solar, mostly photovoltaics (PV), were sweeping the world and Pakistan should expect the same. A recent report from BloombergNEF only confirms it. Drawing evidence from satellite imagery and import statistics, it estimates the total installed PV capacity in Pakistan has reached 12.7 GigaWatt (GW) by the end of 2023 and was poised to further grow by 10 to 15 GW this year.
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Aug 17, 2024 | 
thefridaytimes.com | Shahid Rahim
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recently warned that if the gross inefficiency and corruption in the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) and the power sector were not corrected timely, these could sink the country. We can't say whether he picked these two due to the sheer size of their problems or because both use the same governance approach--squeezing only the responsible citizens, as taxpayers or ratepayers. We leave the case of FBR to some other analyst and focus on the power sector only.
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Jul 19, 2024 | 
thefridaytimes.com | Shahid Rahim
The government in Pakistan is all set for another misadventure in the power sector. Not only has it raised the basic tariff substantially for consumers across the board, but it has also extended its fixed charge levy to residential and small commercial (R&SC) consumers. Until now, the fixed charge levy has been restricted to consumers in other categories who have maximum demand indicator (MDI) metering facilities at their connection points with the power grid.
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Jun 8, 2024 | 
thefridaytimes.com | Shahid Rahim |Riaz Missen |Huzaima Bukhari |Nadeem Paracha
A thunderbolt struck electricity consumers in Pakistan a few weeks ago; its tremors are still being felt across the country. It all started with media reports that the government was considering raising the average electricity tariff by almost 25% starting July 2024.
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Jun 6, 2024 | 
thefridaytimes.com | Yousuf Nazar |Shahid Rahim |Shakil Durrani |Tariq Aqil
Massimo Taparelli, Marquess of Azeglio, was a Piedmontese-Italian statesman, novelist, and painter. When a unified Italy was born in 1861 out of a union of principalities and statelets, he famously wrote in his memoirs: "L'Italia è fatta. Restano da fare gli italiani," translated colloquially as "We have made Italy. Now we must make Italians.” It took a long time for Italy to emerge as a nation, distinct from Venetians, Sicilians, Piedmontese, and others.
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May 31, 2024 | 
thefridaytimes.com | Huzaima Bukhari |Shahid Rahim |Shakil Durrani |Umer Farooq
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy (or gal) who’ll decide where to go.”—Dr. Seusse Under the social contract between the state and its citizens who are supposed to submit themselves to the command of laws enacted by elected representatives, if one starts jotting down the obligations of the state towards its citizens, the list would be quite long.
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May 24, 2024 | 
thefridaytimes.com | Huzaima Bukhari |Riaz Missen |Shahid Rahim |Nadeem Paracha
“The future is green energy, sustainability, renewable energy.”—Arnold Schwarzenegger Who can refute the fact that electric power can now be included in the category of fundamental rights of modern human beings. With a heavy reliance on innumerable gadgets on electricity, there is a constant need for an uninterrupted supply of power.
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May 19, 2024 | 
thefridaytimes.com | Niaz Murtaza |Saeed Shafqat |Ikramul Haq |Shahid Rahim
Pakistan is governed badly and doing badly. It is the only large, nuclear-powered state which has, in recent times, faced almost all manner of security and economic factors which have spelt doom for many smaller states, including economic collapse, massive terrorism, ethnic insurgency, nuclear disaster and environmental disasters. Politics is a society's avenue to tackle its problems. All our other problems exist because our political system has not functioned democratically.
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May 15, 2024 | 
thefridaytimes.com | Sabih Ul Hussnain |Abdul Moiz Jaferii |Beelam Ramzan |Shahid Rahim
As many as 66 public sector universities in the country are currently headless, the Supreme Court was informed. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has submitted a document to the top court that there are some 66 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) out of a total of 154 in the public sector, where the post of Vice-Chancellor (VC)/ Rector is either being officiated on acting charge basis while the post in six HEIs is completely vacant.
