PESHAWAR: Gunmen fatally shot a police officer assigned to protect polio workers in Pakistan’s northwest, an official said Tuesday.
At least 10 police have died this year while on security duty for vaccination campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The gunmen fired at a team working in Bajaur district, killing the officer on the spot, police officer Dilawar Khan said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assault.
Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
A five-day anti-polio campaign started Monday in 13 high-risk districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. More than 21,000 teams are tasked with administering vaccines to 4,423,000 children under age 5. More than 32,000 police are protecting the teams.
Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only countries where the spread of polio has never been stopped.
The potentially fatal, paralyzing disease mostly strikes children under age 5 and typically spreads through contaminated water.
Gunmen kill a police officer assigned to protect polio workers in northwest Pakistan
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Gunmen kill a police officer assigned to protect polio workers in northwest Pakistan
- At least 10 police have died this year while on security duty for vaccination campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
- Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence, with militants claiming campaigns sterilize children
Power minister defends solar net-metering overhaul after Pakistan PM orders review
- Leghari says 466,000 net-meter users earn up to 50% returns while 35.5 million consumers bear higher costs
- NEPRA’s new rules require full grid tariffs for usage and lower, market-linked rates for excess solar exports
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s power minister on Thursday defended controversial changes to rooftop solar net-metering rules, arguing that generous returns for a small number of users were unfairly burdening millions of other electricity consumers, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered a review a day earlier.
The dispute centers on changes to the net-metering regime, under which households and businesses with rooftop solar panels can sell excess electricity to the national grid. The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority's (NEPRA) new compensation rules require consumers to pay full tariffs for electricity drawn from the grid while receiving a lower, market-linked rate for excess power they export.
Critics have called the revisions “anti-solar” and warned they would undermine renewable energy adoption and hurt household finances.
Power Minister Sardar Owais Ahmed Khan Leghari told the National Assembly that only 6,000-7,000 megawatts of Pakistan’s estimated 22,000 megawatts of installed solar capacity fall under net-metering, covering around 466,000 consumers out of 35.5 million nationwide electricity users.
“If a net-metering consumer earns a 50% return on his investment because of the savings he gets as a meter user, while IPPs [independent power producers] get 17% and bank deposits earn 8%, isn’t a 50% return a good rate,” he asked.
“I generate electricity at Rs. 5 and send it to the grid at Rs. 27,” he continued. “The average price at which we buy electricity from the rest of the grid is Rs. 8.31. Is buying at Rs. 27 justified?”
Leghari said under the revised framework, returns for net-meter users would fall to around 37%, adding that even at that level, rooftop solar power generation remains financially attractive.
He said the changes were aimed at ensuring “fair pricing” and reducing cross-subsidies borne by the broader consumer base.
“Besides them, there are 35.5 million other consumers who do not even use net-metering,” he said, adding that if electricity costs for the wider public fell by up to Rs. 1.50 per unit, the adjustment would be justified.
Leghari's statement follows the prime minister's instructions to file a review in response to the new NEPRA rules, as he directed his administration to protect existing consumer contracts while ensuring the policy does not shift the financial burden onto non-solar electricity users.
