Here’s what’s happening across the border: a new ‘women and children protection’ desk opened by Sindh’s police department, and a billion dollar crude oil pipeline between Pakistan and China is underway.
Ramzan begins with heat wave & power outages in Karachi
The first day of Ramzan, the holy month in the Islamic calendar during which Muslims fast for 30 days, was marked by scorching heat, dry weather and power outages in Karachi.
The mercury reached 40 degrees Celsius Thursday, and is expected to reach up to 41 degrees in the coming days. Those fasting also had to bear load-shedding of up to 15 hours due to fault in the company, K-Electric’s (KE) power grids and supply stations. KE, Karachi’s privately-managed electricity supplier has come under scrutiny for its inability to solve the load-shedding problems in the past but the company’s office saw many many citizens flooding in with complaints since Wednesday.
Many raised complaints about having to perform the ritual of ‘sehri’ and ‘iftari’ in darkness and unbearable heat. The residents of Karachi have also demanded the Federal government to take notice of the matter.
Sindh police set up protection desk for women & children
The Sindh police department has set up a protection desk for women and children at the office of deputy inspector general (DIG) West Zone in Gulberg, Thursday. Only women police officers will be deployed here to address the cases of violence against women and children.
The desk was inaugurated by the inspector general of police, A.D Khowaja, who stressed upon the need to address the sexual exploitation of women and children in the state. He also acknowledged that women police officers were more equipped to handle the cases of crimes against women as the male police usually dismissed the matters of women complainants as domestic problem that they should “try to solve it within the family”.
Cadet college principal held after corporal punishment video goes viral
The principal of Mastung Cadet College, Javed Iqbal Bangash, was arrested on the orders of the Balochistan High Court Tuesday, after a video of corporal punishment being administered to the students went viral on social media.
The incident appearing in the video took place on 9 May, and took place on the principal’s orders. The source of the video was a student who recorded the video in the classroom but the police has been maintaining their anonymity. The student told Dawn about the case in question: “One of the students had slapped the principal’s son earlier so it was a revenge on the part of the principal.”
This incident occurred despite the Balochistan government’s strict ban on corporal punishment in all educational institutions in the province since 2010.
New Gwadar-Kashgar crude oil pipeline is a billion dollar investment
Engineering company Frontier Works Organization, along with other private-sector foreign investors, have shown interest in building a crude oil pipeline from Gwadar in Pakistan to Kashgar in China. It has submitted a memorandum of agreement to the Pakistan government in order to ensure that there will be no other planned investment taking place in the area. The estimate funding required to lay the crude oil pipeline is $10 billion, as confirmed in an audit by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, and it will have the transmission capacity of 1 million barrels per day. It is expected to be enhanced in the later stages.
The government has received the proposal for the project already for review, while the law and the justice division has already endorsed a summary of the same.