A NESPAK-led Joint Venture (JV) has won Command Area Development Component of ADB-funded Jalalpur Irrigation Project (CAD-JIP) through competitive bidding, this was stated by Dr. Tahir Masood, Managing Director NESPAK here on Wednesday. The duration of the project is about four years. The project is expected to increase crop production and reduce land degradation by minimizing the marginal quality groundwater use. Jalalpur Irrigation Project envisages the construction of a new irrigation system and appurtenant structures to irrigate about 174,000 acres of land in Pind Dadan Khan and Khushab area. The proposed main canal will off-take from the right bank of Rasul Barrage and is about 116 km long with design discharge of 1,350 cusecs. The distribution system of 210 km length comprises 23 distributary canals and 07 minor canals. The project will benefit over 225,000 rural people in 80 villages.
NESPAK scope of services under the current assignment includes construction and lining (up to 50% length) of 485 watercourses, LASER land leveling of 30,000 acres, installation of High-Efficiency Irrigation System on 2,000 acres and construction of 20 water storage ponds with solar-powered pumping stations for irrigating un-commanded areas in addition to awareness creation, capacity development, extension and demonstration activities.

According to a biomedical point of view, biocompatibility is the capacity of a material to perform with a suitable host reaction in a particular application.
It is portrayed to be non-poisonous, no instigated unfavorable responses, for example, constant fiery reaction with unordinary tissue arrangement, and intended to work appropriately for a sensible lifetime. It is a prerequisite of biomaterials in which the surface altered material will make no mischief the host, and the material itself won’t hurt by the host. Modification of surface should be possible through different techniques, which can be ordered through three primary gatherings: (physical adsorption, Langmuir Blodgett film), compound (oxidation by solid acids, ozone treatment, chemisorption, and fire treatment) and radiation (shine release, crown release, photograph enactment (UV), laser, particle pillar, plasma submersion particle implantation, electron shaft lithography, and γ-illumination). It includes the essentials of physicochemical collaborations between the biomaterial and the physiological condition at the atomic, cell, and tissue levels (decrease bacterial grip, advance cell bond). Right now, there are different techniques for portrayal and surface alteration of biomaterials and valuable uses of central ideas in a few biomedical arrangements. Proteins are comprised of various groupings of amino acids, proteins can have different capacities as its auxiliary shape driven by various sub-atomic bonds can change. Amino acids display various qualities, for example, being polar, non-polar, decidedly, or adversely charged which is dictated by having distinctive side chains. In this manner, the connection of particles with various proteins, for instance, those containing Arginine-Glycine-Aspartate (RGD) arrangements are relied upon to adjust the outside of tissue platforms and result in progress of cell attachment when set into its physiological condition.
A portion of the modification of surface procedures recorded above is especially utilized for specific capacities or sorts of materials. One of the benefits of plasma drenching particle implantation is its capacity to treat most materials. Particle implantation is a successful surface treatment method that is utilized to upgrade the surface properties of biomaterials. The novel preferred position of plasma change is that the surface properties and biocompatibility can be improved specifically while the ideal mass qualities of the materials, for example, quality stay unaltered. Plasma procedures are particularly valuable since they can store ultra meager (a couple of nm), disciple, conformal coatings. Sparkle release plasma is made by filling a vacuum with a low-pressure gas (ex. argon, smelling salts, or oxygen). The gas is then energized utilizing microwaves or current which ionizes it. The ionized gas is then tossed onto a surface at a high speed where the vitality delivered truly and artificially changes the surface. Biointegration is a definitive objective in for instance orthopedic inserts that bones build up a precisely strong interface with complete combination between the fake embedded material and bone tissues under great biocompatibility conditions. Adjusting the outside of a material can improve its biocompatibility, and should be possible without changing its mass properties. The properties of the highest sub-atomic layers are basic in biomaterials. The immune system will respond contrastingly if an embed is covered in extra-cell lattice proteins. The proteins encompassing the embed serve to “cover-up” the embed from the intrinsic invulnerable framework. Be that as it may, if the embed is covered in allergenic proteins, the patient’s versatile invulnerable reaction might be started. Physical immobilization is essentially covering material with a biomimetic material without changing the structure of either. Different biomimetic materials with cell glue proteins, (for example, collagen or laminin) have been utilized in vitro to coordinate new tissue development and cell development. Moreover, albeit a portion of the biomaterials has great biocompatibility, it might have poor mechanical or physical properties, for example, wear obstruction, hostile to erosion, or wettability or lubricity. In these cases, surface alteration is used to store a layer of covering or blending in with the substrate to shape a composite layer.

The federal government has inflicted a cut at the budget allocated for the Senate—an action taken for the first time in Pakistan’s history.
The Senate which has reacted to the slash says it is against the constitution which protects the original budget of the house.
The house has rejected the decision of the government to cut its annual budget by around Rs 170 million while terming it an unconstitutional move and urged the immediate restoration of “original” allocation.
After three opposition lawmakers raised this issue, the house through a voice vote approved a recommendation as part of the set of recommendations of the Senate’s finance committee, on the Finance Bill 2020, asking the government to restore the “original” budget allocation.
Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance Senator Farooq H Naek separately moved the recommendation.
Senator Barrister Ali Saif was the first one who raised the issue and said that parliament had financial autonomy under the constitution and the government had no powers to slash its budget. He pointed out that the Ministry of Finance has proposed a cut of Rs 170 million in the annual budget of the Senate. PML-N Senator Javed Abbasi termed the move unconstitutional and said that under the constitution, it was the executive that had been placed under the parliament to keep a check on its expenditures.
He said that it was an attempt against the supremacy of the parliament. He referred to the Articles 87 and 88 of the constitution said that the constitution empowered both the houses of the parliament to make their own budgets and for this purpose, the high-powered finance committee existed.
“This is for the first time in the history of Pakistan that the budget of parliament has been cut only to have control over it.” Chairman finance committee Senator Naek referred to Article 88 of the constitution which reads: “The expenditure of the National Assembly and the Senate within authorized appropriations shall be controlled by the National Assembly or, as the case may be, the Senate acting on the advice of its Finance Committee.”
He said the finance committee thus becomes a constitutional committee and the executive can in no way override its decisions. He added the decision to slash the budget of the Senate was in total violation of the constitution.
Senator Naek later presented before the house the report of the standing committee on the proposals for making recommendations on the Finance Bill, 2020, containing the Annual Budget Statement, which was unanimously adopted by the house. The National Assembly now will consider these recommendations.
The recommendations include a 10 percent increase in the salaries and pensions of government employees, a double increase in health and education budgets, allocation of funds for the construction of small dams, and to abolish withholding tax on withdrawal of money from banks besides others

Balochistan Governor Amanullah Khan has directed higher education institutions in Balochistan to submit within two weeks a detailed report as regards online classes in the province.
Governor Yasinzai said that there is an imperative need to take the deadly coronavirus seriously and to strictly implement standard operating produce (SOPs) including all principles of Health for the betterment of health.
In this regard, under the online teaching policy of the Pakistan Higher Education Commission, online classes have been launched for teachers and students in higher education institutions across the province to prevent the coronavirus so that valuable time and energy of students is not wasted.
Governor Yasinzai directed the Vice-Chancellors of all the government universities in the province to review the online classes from various angles and submit a detailed report within two weeks so that all the grievances could be resolved in a timely and prompt manner.
He expressed these views while presiding over a meeting of Vice-Chancellors of all the universities of Balochistan province at Governor House Quetta. Vice-Chancellor of the University of Balochistan, Dr. Shafiqul Rehman, Vice Chancellor of Khuzdar Engineering University, Prof. Dr. Ehsan Kakar, Acting Vice-Chancellor of Women’s University Prof. Dr. Anjum, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lasbela, Prof. Dr. Dost Muhammad Baloch, Vice-Chancellor, Loralai University Chancellor Prof. Dr. Maqsood Ahmed, Vice-Chancellor of Mir Chakar Khan University Sibi Dr. Ali Nawaz Mengal, Principal Secretary to Governor Balochistan Nasrullah Jan and Registrar of Bolan Medical University Shakeel Ahmed were also present.
The Vice-Chancellors discussed the situation posed by the global epidemic, provision of internet facility, making it possible for students to access all the lectures and related materials provided, and the difficulties faced by the students.
On the occasion, the Governor of Balochistan said that the education sector, like all walks of life in the world, has been severely affected but the timely launch of online classes has saved the precious time of students to a great extent.
Governor Amanullah Khan Yasinzai clarified that one thing is for sure, to keep pace with the ever-changing world, we have to change our traditional attitudes and thinking in accordance with modern human needs and requirements.
He said that we are not only reviewing the current situation of online classes but also serious efforts are making for a lasting solution to the problems.

The Cabinet Committee on the state-owned enterprises has found out that the overall performance of all 84 state-owned enterprises is unsatisfactory despite huge fiscal injections.
These enterprises are functioning under the administrative control of 19 federal ministries.
The finding came in a committee meeting called to discuss the governance reforms on the state-owned enterprises and the reconstitution of the Board of Directors of Sarmaya-i-Pakistan Limited.
It was unearthed in the meeting that during 2017-18 an amount of Rs 143 billion was provided to various SOEs as subsidies, Rs 204 billion as cash development loan, Rs 27 billion as equity injection and GoP guarantees amounting to Rs 318 billion were issued. Despite such large support, the SOEs sector as a whole registered net losses of Rs 265 billion.
The Ministry of Finance which gave its presentation attributed the poor performance of the SOEs to various factors such as redundancies and duplications, a completely decentralized governance framework with lack of inter-agency coordination, excessive interference and over-regulation by multiple government agencies and lack of technical expertise and specialized skills in the line ministries for the management of commercial CEOs.
The meeting was also attended by Dr. Ishrat Hussain who has been engaged in restructuring and reorganization of the federal government.
Dr Ishrat Hussain’s proposals which also include a plan for state-owned institutions have been approved by the cabinet. He informed the moot that the reforms suggested by his group were being implemented at different levels.
The federal government is to decide which SOEs should be privatized and which to be liquidated, wound up, or closed down and which were to be reorganized and retained by the government or merged with other entities.