Matiltan hydropower project on Ushu river in Swat

The govt Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is undertaking a new hydropower project in Swat area through its own resources to generate about 84 megawatts of cheap electricity.
“The Matiltan Hydropower Project is the latest initiative that KP govt intends to undertake through its own resources to generate revenue through exploiting its natural potentials,” Engineer Bahadur Shah, Managing Director Sarhad Hydel Development Organisation (SHYDO), told the media.

The project, being delayed for quite some time, has been cleared by the provincial government now while its approval from the federal government is in process.

Since the project involves a cost of about Rs15 billion, its approval from the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) and Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC), both the federal level fora, has to be got before its initiation.

“It has been a month or so that the project documents have been submitted to the federal government and it is expected that it will take at least three to four months to get it clear,” said Mr Shah.
The project site is located around eight kilometres off Kalam and its units will be installed on the Ushu River which is a tributary of the Swat River.

Fulbright Scholarship 2011 for Pakistanis doubled, US Consul General William Martin

CG William Martin said at youth conference at Karachi on the occasion of International Youth Day that govt of United States has decided to double the scholarship named ‘Fulbright Scholarship,’ for Pakistani people in the US for 2011, 2012 and beyond. A lot of Pakistanis have benefited by this scholarship before and increase in these scholarships have been very welcomed by Pakistani aspirants.


 He further added that bout 8,000 Pakistanis had participated in fully funded academic or professional development programmes in the US and at the time, 5,000 Pakistanis were enrolled in the US funded English languages programmes in Pakistan. 

Saima Anwar , first female lawyer from Swat

  Saima Anwar 26, began practicing law in May 2011 and she was the first lawyer from Swat who started practicing . She said it was her passion from childhood.


She is brave woman who did not give in before the hardships she had to face to complete her education. She is a hope for Pukhtoon women who are almost deprived of any legal rights and she vows to fight for this end. 

Some elements in Pukhtoon society are still old fashioned and do not understand the importance of education but their women are very talented, brave , intelligent and hardworking. They are a great asset which must be utilized for the betterment of the nation and their coming generations. They have all the abilities to support their families through thick and thin and women like Saima Anwar have proved that they are no less than anybody else. 

Super gene , mimicry butterflies mystery solved

Since the time of Charles Darwin's origin of species , scientists  have pondered the mystery of “mimicry butterflies”, which survive by copying the wing patterns of other butterflies that taste horrible to their predators, birds.

The answer, according to a study released on this Friday, lies in an astonishing cluster of about 30 genes in a single chromosome.

“We were blown away by what we found,” said scientist Mathieu Joron of France’s National Museum of Natural History, who was head of the team into what is being called a “supergene”phenomenon.

“These butterflies are the ‘transformers’ of the insect world,” said Joron.

“But instead of being able to turn from a car into a robot with the flick of a switch, a single genetic switch allows these insects to morph into several different mimetic forms.

“It is amazing, and the stuff of science fiction. Now we are starting to understand how this switch can have such a pervasive effect.”

The trick, known as Muellerian mimicry, was  by French and British scientists, who focused on a species of Amazonian rainforest butterfly specie, Heliconius numata.

It is able to copy the colour wing patterns of several species of the Melinaea butterfly which are unpleasant to predator birds.

The “supergene” comprises a tightly packed genes on only one chromosome which control different elements of the wing pattern.

“By changing just one gene, the butterfly  fools birds ,”explained Richard ffrench-Constant of the University of Exeter, southwestern England said .

Political Parties Order 2002 extended to FATA

President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari on Friday signed two orders that set into motion the far-reaching administrative, judicial and political reforms in the tribal areas. The two orders signed by President Asif Ali Zardari were Amendments in the FCR (2011) and Extension of the Political Parties Order 2002 to the FATA. The political parties represented at the ceremony included ANP, PML-N, JI, PPP-S, PML-Q, MQM-S, NP, PkMAP and JUI-F. He said the legal and political reforms would rid the tribal people from a century of bondage and usher them into mainstream of national life while respecting local customs and traditions. Salient features of the reforms package:  Contrary to current practice an accused shall have right to bail and it will be mandatory to produce him before the concerned authority within 24 hours of his arrest.  Women, young children below 16 and old aged above 65 shall not be arrested or detained under Collective Responsibility. Amendments have been made in the FCR after 110 years at it was first enforced in 1901 and under the reformed FCR, the women and children would be exempted from territorial responsibility. Now the whole tribe will not be arrested under the Collective Responsibility clause. Step-wise action will be taken - first immediate male members of family followed by sub-tribe and then by other sections of the tribe. Cases will now be disposed of in a fixed timeframe and checks placed on arbitrary power of arrest under the notorious Section 40A of the FCR. Appeals will lie before Appellate Authority comprising of Commissioner and a dedicated Additional Commissioner (Judicial) to be notified by the Governor. The reforms envisage setting of a Fata Tribunal headed by Chairman and two other members out of whom one shall be a person who has been civil servant of not less than BPS 20 having experience of Tribal Administration and other member shall be a person qualified to be appointed as Judge of High Court well conversant with Rewaj. The Fata Tribunal shall exercise power of revision against orders/judgments of Appellate Authority and shall have powers similar to High Court under Article 199 of the Constitution. A new section has been added providing for action for false prosecution in civil and criminal matters. Under it the defendant will be entitled to adequate compensation in criminal matters and compensatory costs in civil matters. No one shall be deprived of his property without adequate compensation as per prevailing market value in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 procedure in settled areas. For the first time the funds at the disposal of the Political Agent shall be audited by Auditor General. Section 58A has been added to make provision for jail inspections by Fata Tribunal, Appellate Authority and Political Agent. Rules will be framed for regulating the Agency Welfare Fund. Farhatullah Babar said that the reforms hammered out after consultation with all stakeholders was approved in principle on August 12, 2009 in a meeting in the Presidency that was also attended by the prime minister. The meeting had left it to the President to announce it any time he deemed fit. The signing today has made the process of reforms irreversible, he said. Any attempt to undo it will require dismantling of consensus among the stake holders and another Order to be signed by the President, Farhatullah Babar said. Henceforth the political parties, subject to appropriate regulations to be framed, will be freely allowed to operate in the tribal areas and present their socio economic programmes on the one hand and the century old Frontier Crimes Regulation will be molded  to make it responsive to the human rights of the people. The permission to political parties to sell their programmes in tribal areas will counter the pernicious one sided campaign of militants to impose their ideological agenda on the people rejecting the state, the Constitution, democracy and indeed our very way of life.