ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s largest independent power producer is set to enter lithium mining, battery manufacturing and electric vehicle (EV) production under Pakistan’s Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), according to state media on Saturday.
Established in 1991, Hub Power Company (Hubco) has an installed generation capacity exceeding 3,500 megawatts and plans to diversify in other areas.
The planned initiatives, facilitated by the SIFC, a hybrid civil-military body established last year to assist foreign investors, aim to meet the country’s growing demand for batteries and electric vehicles.
A lithium exploration and battery production project is expected to reach completion in 12 to 18 months, meeting the rising demand for rechargeable batteries used in mobile phones, laptops and automobiles.
“Hub Power Company Limited’s exploration of lithium in Pakistan will further increase the manufacturing potential in the country’s auto industry,” Radio Pakistan reported.
“Work on establishing a manufacturing plant to produce electric vehicles in Pakistan is already underway, which will manufacture fifty thousand electric vehicles annually,” it added.
Earlier this year in June, Hubco’s subsidiary Mega Motor Company signed a collaboration agreement with Chinese EV giant BYD Auto Industry to assemble EVs in Pakistan.
Plans for the EV plant, with a projected annual production of 50,000 vehicles, include 30 to 40 percent allocated for export to markets in Australia and Africa.
HUBCO operates a diverse portfolio of power plants, including oil-fired, coal-based and hydropower facilities, and is also involved in coal mining.
Its new initiatives are expected to strengthen its market position, create employment opportunities and boost domestic capacity for battery production for electronic devices.
Pakistan’s largest independent power producer expands into lithium mining, battery manufacturing
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Pakistan’s largest independent power producer expands into lithium mining, battery manufacturing
- Hub Power Company’s subsidiary signed a collaboration agreement with Chinese EV giant BYD this year
- Its lithium exploration is expected to further boost the manufacturing potential of Pakistan’s auto industry
UN rights chief says 56 Afghan civilians killed since Pakistan conflict escalates
- Death toll includes 24 children and six women, with 129 others injured
- UN says about 115,000 Afghans, 3,000 Pakistanis displaced by fighting along border
GENEVA::The United Nations rights chief said Friday that 56 Afghan civilians had been killed — nearly half of them children — since hostilities with neighboring Pakistan intensified last week.
“I plead with all parties to bring an end to the conflict, and to prioritize helping those experiencing extreme hardship,” Volker Turk said in a statement.
The neighbors have clashed along the frontier since February 26, when Afghanistan launched a border offensive in retaliation for Pakistani air strikes.
Islamabad has hit back along the border and with fresh air strikes, bombing multiple sites including the former US air base at Bagram, the capital Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar.
Turk said that since the intensification of hostilities, “56 civilians, including 24 children and six women, have been killed.”
“A further 129 people, including 41 children and 31 women, have been injured,” he said.
And since the start of the year, the numbers are even higher, with 69 civilians killed in Afghanistan and 141 injured, he said.
Pakistan insists it has not killed any civilians in the conflict. Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.
The UN refugee agency said Thursday that around 115,000 Afghans and 3,000 people in Pakistan had been displaced by the fighting in the past week.
“Civilians on both sides of the border are now having to flee from air strikes, heavy artillery fire, mortar shelling and gunfire,” Turk said.
He lamented that a new wave of violence was affecting people “whose lives have been tormented by violence and misery for so long.”
He highlighted that over two million Afghans had returned to Afghanistan since Pakistan started to implement its “Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan” in September 2023.
And nearly as many were believed to remain in Pakistan, “where many face hardship and constant fear of arrest and deportation,” he said.
“As a result of the violence, humanitarian assistance is unable to reach many of those desperately in need. This is piling misery on misery,” the rights chief said.
He called on “the Pakistan military and Afghan de facto security forces to end immediately their fighting, and to prioritize helping the millions who depend on aid.”
