Karachi: Honourable Minister Malik Amin Aslam, Federal Minister, Climate Change, visited the Pakistan Cables Urban Forest to observe private sector initiatives supporting Pakistan’s green progress towards net zero emissions. Pakistan Cables Urban Forest is the largest Miyawaki based Urban Forest on an industrial estate, with over 40,000 trees spread across 2.5 acres. In addition to the Urban Forest, the Minister was briefed on several other areas in which Pakistan Cables is investing to support a greener and more sustainable future. The Minister congratulated the company for taking the lead in creating inspirational examples within the corporate sector community.
Founded in 1953, Pakistan Cables is the premier and most reputable cable manufacturer in Pakistan. Being the only wire and cable manufacturer listed on the PSX since 1955, it is also a member company of the Amir S. Chinoy group. The company has the largest geographical footprint in Pakistan with a presence in over 180 cities. It is ISO9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, AND OHSAS 18001:2007 certified and various cables type tested by KEMA, Netherlands.n

The fifth edition of the Global Conference of Wireless & Optical Technologies in Hybrid Mode was held Online and Onsite at the University of Malaga, Spain by paying Tribute to The Late Professor Javier Poncela who was one of the founders of GCWOT.
After the Opening remarks by Chairs of GCWOT’21Prof Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry, Prof Pablo Otero of the University of Malaga, Vice Chancellor SSUET Karachi Prof Dr Valiuddin and Dean SSUET Prof Dr Muhammad Aamir, Technical Sessions started in which various authors presented their outstanding research contributions and innovations.
Various researchers across the globe participated in the Conference physically as well as online.
Four Technical sessions were conducted on the First Day. Technical Session namely“Applications of Image Processing” was chaired by Prof Pablo Otero of the University of Malaga. Technical Session namely “Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks and Vehicular Adhoc Networks” was chaired by Prof Dr Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry, Advisor MUET, and Chair IEEE Karachi Section.
Three sessions were held on the second day i.e on 15th February 2022. The Fifth Session of the Conference and the first session of the second day were chaired by Prof Agata Manolova of Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria. The sixth session Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning was chaired by Prof Enrique Nava of the University of Malaga, Spain. The seventh Technical Session namely “Applications of IoT and other Emerging Technologies” was chaired by Vice Chancellor SSUET Karachi Prof Dr Valiuddin.
Three sessions were held on the third day of the conference i.e Wednesday 16th February 2022. Prof Nicholas Harris from the University of Southampton, UK participated as Keynote Speaker. The Final session (Closing session and closing ceremony) was chaired by Prof Dr Muhammad Aamir, Dean SSUET Karachi. Prof Abbas Barabadi of the Arctic University of Norway also became part of the conference by participating physically.
On Thursday, 17th February 2020, a Special Session of Project CENTRAL at GC-WOT 2022 on Digital Technologies for Business Transformation was conducted which was chaired by Prof Vladimir Poulkov of Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria. This session also included a Workshop on “Valorisation of the Graduate Talent Pool at the Asian HEIs – How to Foster Technological Competencies in Graduates in an Entrepreneurial, Intrapreneurial and Interpreneurial context” and CENTRAL Project Technical Meeting chaired by Prof AlbenaMihovska of Arhus University Denmark. Dr LubnaLuxmiDhiranifrom University of Limerick, Ireland also participated as Keynote Speaker. At the end of the conference, various traditional souvenirs were presented to all the distinguished guests.
The platform of GCWOC was established in partnership with three Universities i.e. Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi; Mehran University of Engineering & Technology and its European Partner i.e. the University of Malaga. The platform was established in the middle of the year 2015 and organizers managed to organize its first edition in September in the year 2016. 30 research papers were presented in GCWOC’16 while GCWOC’17 witnessed presentations of 50 research papers. It was followed by the presentation of 48 research contributions in the third edition of the conference held in October 2018.
This year, around 45 contributions were part of the final technical program and this time, Riphah International University was co-sponsor of the conference for the second time under the leadership of Dr Jameel Ahmed. The proceedings of the conference will become part of IEEE XPLORE.
Málaga is a world apart from the adjoining Costa del Sol: a historic and culturally rich provincial capital that has long lived in the shadow of the iconic Andalucian cities of Granada, Córdoba, and Seville. Yet, it has rapidly emerged as the province’s city of culture with its so-called ‘mile of art’ being compared to Madrid, and its dynamism and fine dining to Barcelona.

The land utilization authorities in Sindh’s Board of Revenue (BoR) have started gathering data on the land allotted to private companies for setting up renewable power plants in the province.
Some half a decade back, the Sindh government had allotted over 7 thousand acres of land to some 15 private companies that intended to set up power plants in the province claiming to have facilitated local investors to put their money in renewable power generation.
Since it’s almost 5 years, the department requires to know if the land is utilized for the purpose it was allotted for, says a report.
The LU department has written letters to the companies asking them to reply in two weeks.
As per agreements reached with the allottees the lease on the land would stand canceled if it was not utilized for the purpose of building of power generation unit. It was obligatory to start work on the project within the first six months after the allotment of the land, it says.
If the land is not utilized for the project and the purpose specified in lease documents then the government is authorized to lease such land to other investors and authorities will not be liable to issue any notice or refund the amount paid for the land.
The companies which have been asked to furnish details include Thatta Solar Part (Pvt.) Ltd which was to set up a 20-megawatt power generation unit on 120 acres of land allotted to the company.
Indus Energy was supposed to set up a 50-megawatt unit for which the company had been allotted 428 acres of land.
Gul Ahmed Energy had got 370 acres of land for setting up a 50-megawatt power project.
Artistic Milliners had been allotted 462 acres for the generation of 60 megawatts.
Metro wind Limited was allotted 410 acres, Zulekha was allotted 322 acres for a 50-megawatt project, Noor Solar Energy was allotted 330 acres, Green Energy Limited was allotted 360 acres, Din Energy Limited was allotted 325 acres for generating 50 Megawatts, and Telecom Wind Power was allotted 347 for 50 megawatts.
Also, MCC Limited was allotted 500 acres for setting up a 100 megawatts power project.
Lakeside Energy was to generate 50 megawatts and was allotted 345 acres of land and ACT2 Wind was to generate 50 megawatts on 320 acres.
Norinco International Cooperation Ltd was to set up 50X2 megawatts power projects and the company was allotted 2500 acres of land. – By Sagheer Chandio

The minutes of the meeting of a subcommittee on the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) has created a kind of rumpus in engineering circles and pushed anxiety levels to a new high.
Because, the document—the minutes—that reached the stakeholders do not reflect what was transpired in the moot in actual terms.
Who did what with the minutes and with what intent is needs to be scrutinized at all but the immediate sighting is that the document is itself a basket of contradictions which talks volumes about the whims of a very restricted group of contractors of them a few seem to have bent upon going ahead no matter what the new entity is doomed to result for PEC and the construction industry itself.
The level of ignorance is so high that the majority of contractors do not subscribe to the opinion that this board should be set up under the federal ministry of PD&SI and they should be allowed to part ways from the regulatory framework of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC).
Numerous colleagues of CAP leaders caught by CIDB syndrome claim it is nothing but a result of a personal grudge of a few obstinate contractors close to the ruling circles and continue to remain stuck up in the past.
A big number of contractors in Sindh, Balochistan, KP, and Punjab are said to be against any move that damages a decades-old institution—PEC. They have begun to post their reactions on social media and expressed their views in meetings across Pakistan.
Now about the minutes of the moot hosted by the ministry of PD&SI held on February 25!. The meeting heard the views of stakeholders such as the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), Contractors Association of Pakistan (CAP), ACEP, PCATP, P3A, and P&D.
Of them, PEC, ACEP, and PCATP supported the incubation of CIDB under the umbrella of PEC. ACEP represented by Engr. Waseem Asghar was shown in the minutes as supporting CAP’s point of view but in fact, it did not.
Engr. Asghar denied supporting CAP’s point of view and told ER that he had written to the ministry.
In all who should be deemed as parties, in this case, the majority of them (stakeholders) do not support CIDB out of the ambit of PEC. Only CAP views it differently and interestingly enough the organization, as its fellow contractors claim do not represent the contractors’ community in genuine terms.
CAP has around 400 members and on the contrary, the total number of registered contractors in the country run in thousands, and, PEC records show them over 25 thousand as active. And also, several organizations represent contractors in all four provinces of Pakistan; CAP is not the only representative of this community.
Yet another aspect of this saga is that the unanimous decision of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) was not given honor either by public sector entities—P&D and P3A—or CAP showing a dangerous trend that our communities do not pay heed to the sanctity of any institution. PEC is represented by the elected members and their unanimous decision holds high spirit in real terms.
The information gathered by ER shows that the engineering community and the contractors who do not support CAP’s point of view are most likely to react and of which approach to the courts seems imminent.n