Sindh cabinet reshuffled

Sardar Shah loses archeology portfolio, Ikramullah Dharijo no more commerce minister

KARACHI:

After a reshuffle in the Sindh Cabinet, Tariq Hasan, Amir Ghaffar Lon, Bacha Shah and Faraz Abid Lakhani have been appointed as special assistants of different departments.

Chief Secretary Sindh issued the notification after the approval of Chief Minister Sindh. According to the notification, the portfolio of the Department of Archeology was withdrawn from the Minister of Education, Culture and Archeology Sardar Shah and handed over to Special Assistant Tariq Hasan. Sindh Chief Minister removed Fayyaz Ali Butt as the Religious Affairs advisor, and the duty was handed over to Bachal Shah.

Similarly, Aamir Ghaffar Loon was made Special Assistant to the Department of Welfare of Kashmiris. The portfolio of the Commerce Department has been withdrawn from Jam Ikramullah Dharijo and handed over to Special Assistant Faraz Abid Lakhani.

More coal-energy

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that 1320 MW of coal-fired energy has been added to the national grid in December 2022 and another 660MW would be added next year. "I believe that solution to the country's energy crisis lies in Thar coal," he said on Monday while presiding over a board meeting of Thar Coal Energy here at the CM House. Minister Energy Imtiaz Shaikh briefing the chief minister said that Sino-Sindh Resources (SSR) started coal excavation work in Block-I in January 2022 it has completed 99 per cent work to excavate 7.8 million ton per annum (mtpa) coal by December 31, 2022. He added that it was a CPEC project.

The CM was told that the Power Engineering Company has installed two 660MW coal-fired power plants for $2 billion. Both the power plants successfully synchronized with the national grid on December 2 and December 11, 2022.

Imtiaz Shaikh told the chief minister that SECM planned to expand the excavation from 7.6mtpa to 12.2mtpa mine. He said that Lucky Electric Power has started work on a 660MW power plant for which it would be supplied 3.6mtpa coal. This plant would start commercial operation in 2024.

It may be noted that Thar Energy has already synchronized its 330 MW coal-fired power plant with the national Grid in October 2022 and another 330 MW would start commercial operation by 2023.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2022.