'Like we are at war': Nationwide power outage shuts industry, causing $300 million losses

A stock broker monitors the share prices on computers, powered by the generator, in the hall of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) during country-wide power breakdown in Karachi, Pakistan on January 23, 2023. (REUTER)
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Updated 24 January 2023
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'Like we are at war': Nationwide power outage shuts industry, causing $300 million losses

  • Second countrywide breakdown in three months halted industrial and logistic activities across Pakistan
  • Traders in Pakistan’s commercial capital of Karachi say they had alone suffered losses of over $4 million

KARACHI: A senior official at the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has said a breakdown in the national electrical grid that left Pakistan without power all day on Monday had caused the economy losses of over $300 million.

For millions of Pakistanis, the power cut that lasted up to 24 hours in some parts of the country, was a frustrating continuation of hardships brought by an economy that has been in a tailspin for months, with foreign reserves running out, inflation at decades-high levels and industrial growth slowing down.

This was the second countrywide power breakdown in three months and halted industrial and logistic activities across the country.

“Pakistan generates $1 billion worth of economic activities on a daily basis, in which the share of industrial production is around $200 million,” Memon Abdul Jabbar, vice president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), told Arab News on Tuesday, estimating that including the cost of transportation and other logistics and services, the losses to Pakistan’s economy caused by Monday’s power failure ranged at over $300 million. 

Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan, Commerce Minister Syed Naveed Qamar and Minister for Industries Syed Murtaza Mahmud did not respond to repeated calls and messages seeking comment for this story.

With production activities remaining largely suspended, traders in Pakistan’s largest city and commercial capital of Karachi said they had alone suffered losses of over $4 million.

“Prior to the power failure, trading activities were already down by 60-70 percent [in Karachi],” Atiq Mir, the chairman of the All Karachi Tajir Ittehad business association, said.

“We have estimated that the business activities suspension [due to the power breakdown] has caused over Rs3 billion ($4.3 million) losses as trading remained almost paralyzed.” 

Industrial and trading activities also came to a halt in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, where businesspeople described the situation as resembling war conditions or the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Most of the trading and industrial activities remained suspended and even those having standby power generation facilities succumbed to one of the longest power failures,” Rana Tariq Mehboob, chairman of the Chainstore Association of Pakistan (CAP) and a member of the Central Executive Committee of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), told Arab News. 

“The situation was like we are at war, or one which we had observed during COVID-19 when everything was shut down including industries and retail sector,” Rana said, adding that the breakdown had caused around 30 percent losses to the national economy. 

The power breakdown came as traders, especially importers, were already struggling, with more than 7,500 containers of imports worth $1.8 billion, according to the FPCCI, stuck at ports and industries facing an acute shortage of raw materials due to a worsening foreign exchange crisis.

The low reserves have compelled the government to restrict the import of goods, including industrial raw materials, to stop dollar outflows, whereas commercial banks have stopped issuing letters of credit (LCs), leaving importers struggling to arrange the greenback for already placed orders. 

Inflation in Pakistan is also at a multi-decade high. Meanwhile, Pakistan awaits the completion of a delayed 9th review of an IMF bailout program which will clear the way for the disbursement of $1.1 billion in external financing that the country desperately needs. 

“Pakistani industries are facing shortage of raw material and higher inflationary pressure due to issues pertaining to the opening of LCs for imports and clearance of goods pilling up at ports,” Jabbar said. 


Haider tank, Shahpar fighter drone in spotlight as Pakistan’s top defense expo concludes 

Updated 9 sec ago
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Haider tank, Shahpar fighter drone in spotlight as Pakistan’s top defense expo concludes 

  • Exhibition hosted over 550 exhibitors and 350 civil and military officials from 55 countries
  • IDEAS has been held biennially since 2000 and grown into a key event for defense sector

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top defense exhibition IDEAS 2024 will conclude today, Friday, with the locally manufactured third-generation Haider tank and Shahpar fighter drone among the South Asian nation’s main showpieces. 
IDEAS has been held biennially since 2000 and has since grown into a key event for the Pakistani defense sector. This year’s show, running from Nov.19-Nov. 22 in Karachi, hosted over 550 exhibitors, including 340 international defense companies, and more than 350 civil and military officials from 55 countries.
On the first day of the expo, Pakistan launched the Haider tank, locally produced at the Heavy Industry Taxila in collaboration with local and international technology partners. The tank has auto-tracking, a remote-control weapons system and a 470-kilometer cruising range.
The Shahpar-III drone capable of flying at 35,000 feet and carrying heavy weapons such as bombs, cruise missiles and torpedoes, was also launched at the exhibition. 
“I had no prior knowledge about these products, but upon visiting, I was astonished to discover such a top-class range of items being exported abroad,” Muhammad Mohsin, a visitor, told media.

A member of Pakistan armed forces takes a selfie with Global Industrial & Defense Solutions (GIDS) Shahpar, unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) during the International Defense Exhibition and Seminar “IDEAS 2024” in Karachi on November 21, 2024. (REUTERS)

“These products, manufactured in Sialkot, Gujranwala, and Karachi, truly showcase exceptional craftsmanship. It is imperative that these remarkable offerings gain greater recognition in international markets.”
Mohsin said he was unaware that Pakistan was exporting a “top-class range of items” in the defense sector until he attended this year’s IDEAS.
The Shahpar-III is a successor to the Shahpar-II drone, which could fly up to 20 hours at a maximum altitude of 23,000 feet, according to Global Industrial Defense Solutions (GIDS), a state-owned Pakistani defense conglomerate that has developed the drones. The Shahpar-III can fly up to 35,000 feet for 24 hours and carry a payload of up to 500 kilograms.

Members of the Pakistan Navy special force conduct a counter-terrorism demo during the International Defense Exhibition and Seminar “IDEAS 2024” in Karachi on November 21, 2024. (REUTERS)

GIDS, which exports its products to 14 countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, introduced Shahpar-II in 2021.
“This [Shahpar-III] has a more strategic value to an armed force in comparison to Shahpar-II,” Asad Kamal, Chief Executive Officer of GIDS, told Arab News, adding that the drone would soon be inducted into the Pakistan Air Force.
“Shahpar-III is a natural step up when you’re making UAVs drones.”

Officials and people take pictures with a JF17 Thunder fighter jet during the International Defense Exhibition and Seminar “IDEAS 2024” in Karachi on November 21, 2024. (REUTERS)

Kamal said the drone could see targets at night and “take out on the enemy” with heavy weapons. 
“That means that from your own borders, you can launch a cruise missile from an unpiloted plane,” he added. “That cruise missile has a range of 250 kilometers. So, it can give any force a lot of firepower value by having this sort of a weapon in its arsenal.”
With inputs from AFP

Members of Pakistan armed forces and their families look at a counter-terrorism demo during the International Defense Exhibition and Seminar “IDEAS 2024” in Karachi on November 21, 2024. (REUTERS)
Members of the Pakistan Navy special force conduct a counter-terrorism demo during the International Defense Exhibition and Seminar “IDEAS 2024” in Karachi on November 21, 2024. (REUTERS)

 


Fear, grief grip Pakistan’s Kurram district as 41 killed in sectarian attacks

Updated 12 min 17 sec ago
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Fear, grief grip Pakistan’s Kurram district as 41 killed in sectarian attacks

  • Gunmen opened fire on vehicles carrying members of minority Shiite community in KP province on Thursday
  • Clashes in July and September killed dozens of people and ended only after a jirga called a ceasefire

PESHAWAR: Fear gripped Pakistan’s northwestern Kurram district on Friday as the death toll from two sectarian attacks rose to 41, with authorities imposing a curfew and suspending mobile phone services in the remote mountainous region.
Gunmen opened fire on vehicles carrying members of the minority Shiite community in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Thursday in one of the region’s deadliest such attacks in recent years. The assault took place in Kurram, a district where sectarian clashes have killed dozens of people in recent months.
“Total 41 people have been killed and 19 others are injured in the attack,” Deputy Commissioner Kurram, Javaid Ullah Mehsud, told Arab News on Friday, saying police were yet to file a police report on the incident. 
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack, which came a week after authorities reopened a key highway in the region that had been closed for weeks following deadly clashes.
Mehsud told reporters a local jirga, or tribal council, had been convened to help restore peace and order.
Previous clashes in July and September killed dozens of people and ended only after a jirga called a ceasefire.
A senior administration official told the AFP news agency mobile signals across the district had been shut down, describing the situation as “extremely tense” with locals staging a sit-in in Parachinar, the district’s main town.
“A curfew has been imposed on the main road connecting Upper and Lower Kurram, and the bazaar remains completely closed, with all traffic suspended,“ the official said.
Shop owners in Parachinar had announced a strike on Friday to protest the attack.
Locals described an atmosphere of fear across the district. 
“The night was spent in tension,” Irfan ullah Khan, a local youth representative, told Arab News. “People in different villages were guarding their homes … The region is in grief as the situation is tense. Anything can happen.”
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi called the shootings a “terrorist attack.” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack, and Sharif said those behind the killing of innocent civilians will not go unpunished.
Baqir Haideri, a local Shiite leader, denounced the assault and accused local authorities of not providing adequate security for the convoy of more than 100 vehicles despite fears of possible attacks by militants.
Shiite Muslims make up about 15 percent of the 240 million population of Sunni-majority Pakistan.
With inputs from AFP


Pakistan reports two new polio cases in northwest, raising 2024 tally to 52

Updated 22 November 2024
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Pakistan reports two new polio cases in northwest, raising 2024 tally to 52

  • Cases detected in DI Khan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province 
  • Pakistan and Afghanistan are last polio-endemic countries in the world

PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s polio eradication program said on Friday two new cases of the crippling virus had been detected in the country’s northwest, bringing the nationwide tally for 2024 to 52. 
Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world. The nation’s polio eradication campaign has hit serious problems with a spike in reported cases this year that have prompted officials to review their approach to stopping the crippling disease.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan, bringing the number of total cases in the country this year to 52,” the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication said in a statement. 
“On Thursday, November 21, the lab confirmed the cases from DI Khan where a boy and girl child are affected. Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway.”
DI Khan, one of the seven polio endemic districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has now reported five polio cases this year.
Of the 52 cases reported in 2024, 24 are from the Balochistan province, 13 from Sindh, 13 from KP and one each from Punjab and Islamabad, the federal capital.
Poliovirus, which can cause crippling paralysis particularly in young children, is incurable and remains a threat to human health as long as it has not been eradicated. Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain.
In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021. 
Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners, who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies. Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams. 
In July 2019, a vaccination drive in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was thwarted after mass panic was created by rumors that children were fainting or vomiting after being immunized.
Public health studies in Pakistan have shown that maternal illiteracy and low parental knowledge about vaccines, together with poverty and rural residency, are also factors that commonly influence whether parents vaccinate their children against polio.
Pakistan’s chief health officer this month said an estimated 500,000 children had missed polio vaccinations during a recent countrywide inoculation drive due to vaccine refusals.


Marathon polo tournament draws huge crowds in Pakistan’s picturesque north

Updated 22 November 2024
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Marathon polo tournament draws huge crowds in Pakistan’s picturesque north

  • Ten-day tournament played among 17 teams of Gilgit-Baltistan as part of independence day celebrations 
  • GB Independence Day celebrated on Nov. 1 every year to mark region’s independence in 1947 from Dogra Raj

KHAPLU, Gilgit-Baltistan: Large crowds have been gathering daily in the northern mountain town of Gilgit for a 10-day polo tournament being held to mark Gilgit-Baltistan’s Independence Day, the military’s media wing and government officials said on Thursday, the last day of the event. 
GB is administered by Pakistan as an administrative territory and consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947. The impoverished, remote and rugged mountainous territory borders Afghanistan and China and is the gateway of the $65 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure plan. 
The Gilgit-Baltistan Independence Day is celebrated on Nov. 1 every year to mark the region’s independence in 1947 from Dogra Raj, the erstwhile rulers of the now disputed Jammu and Kashmir region.
“The big event of Jashan Azadi Polo Tournament was held at Wahab Shaheed Polo Ground in Gilgit, a remote area of the northern region under the management of Pak Army,” the military’s media wing said in a statement, saying Force Command Northern Areas, Maj. Gen. Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gillani, was the chief guest at the closing ceremony of the event in which 17 teams participated.

A Pakistani tribal polo team member chases the ball as the crowd watches the match during a polo game in Skardu, in Pakistan's northeastern Gilgit-Baltistan region on November 21, 2024. (Photo courtesy: ISPR)

“The final match was won by Chilas in civil and NLI teams in departmental categories respectively,” the statement added. 
Gilgit-Baltistan is also known for the annual polo festival at Shandur, an area between the northern Pakistani towns of Gilgit and Chitral, and at over 12,000 feet (3,700 meters) the world’s highest polo ground. 
Polo in GB is played without rules and at a blistering pace, suggesting more of a clash of cavalry than a sport. Locals believe polo was born in their land and Gilgit is home to the famous polo inscription: “Let other people play at other things, the King of Games is still the Game of Kings.”

A Pakistani tribalmen perform traditional dance during a polo game in Skardu, in Pakistan's northeastern Gilgit-Baltistan region on November 21, 2024. (Photo courtesy: ISPR)

Faizullah Faraq, the spokesperson for the G-B government, said thousands had come to watch the matches and celebrate the Gilgit-Baltistan Independence Day.
“Polo is the national game of Gilgit-Baltistan. And thousands of people reached Gilgit’s playground to watch the polo matches daily,” he told Arab News on Thursday. 
“Such kinds of activities unite the youth and they play their role to create harmony in the society. The promotion of polo is a need of time to maintain peace in society.”

Crowd watches the match during a polo game in Skardu, in Pakistan's northeastern Gilgit-Baltistan region on November 21, 2024. (Photo courtesy: ISPR)

Afrad Gul, the team captain of the winning Chilas team, appreciated locals who supported the tournament. 
“I have been playing polo for the last 15 years, my son was also part of my team,” Gul said in a phone interview. “We have left no stone unturned to keep this regional game alive.”


Pakistan government slams Imran Khan’s wife for using Saudi Arabia for ‘political point scoring’

Updated 22 November 2024
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Pakistan government slams Imran Khan’s wife for using Saudi Arabia for ‘political point scoring’

  • Deputy foreign minister urges political forces to desist from compromising Pakistan’s foreign policy for political objectives
  • Khan has been in prison since August last year and facing a slew of legal challenges which he says are politically motivated

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government on Friday rejected comments by Bushra Bibi, the wife of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, that Saudi Arabia had been opposed to her husband’s government, calling on political forces to desist from compromising the country’s foreign policy for the sake of “petty” political point scoring. 
In a rare public message on Thursday, Bushra assured state institutions Khan had no plans to seek revenge from opponents if he was freed from jail, as she rallied supporters to join a protest planned by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Islamabad on Nov. 24. In the message, she also made remarks that were widely seen as implying that the Saudi government had been opposed to Khan. 
“Implicating Saudi Arabia for petty political point scoring is regrettable and indicative of a desperate mindset,” Pakistan’s deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said in a statement after Bushra’s video was released. “We urge all political forces to desist from compromising Pakistan’s foreign policy in pursuance of their political objectives.”
“Pakistan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are close friends and brothers. This relationship is based on mutual respect,” Dar added. “We have great admiration for Saudi Arabia’s journey of development and prosperity. The Pakistani nation is proud of its close relationship with Saudi Arabia which has always stood by Pakistan through thick and thin.”
After his ouster from the PM’s office in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in 2022, Khan had also alleged that he was removed by his political rivals and the all-powerful military with the backing of the United States government. All three deny the charge. 
Khan has been in prison since August last year and facing a slew of legal challenges. He denies any wrongdoing, and alleges all the cases registered against him are politically motivated to keep him in jail.