Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met British Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Secretary William Hague in Islamabad and discussed relations, peace in Afghanistan and terrorism. Sharif said that Islamabad would continue cooperating with the international community for peace in Afghanistan. Hague stressed that Pakistan had a vital role in Afghanistan and praised its endeavours.
Push for Tajik power project
ISLAMABAD: The legal committee of Central Asia-South Asia Regional Energy and Trade is convening in Islamabad in the last week of this month to discuss a project to import power from Tajikistan via a transmission line in Afghanistan. Pakistan has been striving to get power costs reduced, and as per calculations a unit of power from Tajikistan will cost 5 US cents plus 3 cents as transit fee to be charged by Afghanistan.
The final rate of 8 cents seems to be high, an official said. The PML-N government has directed the Ministry of Water and Power to consider all options to overcome power crisis.
Authorities are determined to get the project through and it is less likely that discussion would aim to convince Afghan officials to reduce the transit fee because it would delay the project.
Violence on rise in Karachi
KARACHI: Ethnic, sectarian and politically-linked violence has taken 1,726 lives in Karachi from January to June 2013 compared with 1,215 during the same period in 2012, according to a report by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. The report said that those killed include victims of sectarian violence and targeted killings. Over the same period last year, the panel had counted 1,215 killings.
As many as 291 were killed in January 2013 (153 in January 2012), 271 in February (149 in February 2012) 311 in March 2013 (182 in March 2012) 262 in April (258 in April 2012) 278 in May (244 in May last year) and 313 June 2013 compared with 229 in June 2012.
Agencies
