FCCI R&D

05/10/2025

FAISALABAD. Beggary has become a roaring business in Pakistan with charity of $42 Billion per annum as a hefty amount of Rs500 under BISP failed to bring any socio-economic improvement in the targeted marginalized segments, said Engineer Ahmed Hassan former vice president FCCI.

He said that beggary was once a source of livelihood for the poorest of the poor. “Private sector heavily donates Zakat and charity considering it as its religious, social and moral obligation”, he said and added that it was also doling out free healthcare and education facilities to the needy segments of the society. He said that the government claims to distribute Rs.500 Billion under BISP which failed to deliver as the number of Poor have swollen with 26.2 million children out of schools.

He said that the Government deducts zakat for the bank accounts while industrialists also pay billions as contribution towards social security and EOBI for their secured employees.

He said that nor Pakistan has become oversaturated with the needy and professional baggers and the organized gangs have started exporting them to the potential and affluent markets of Middle East in their lust for easy money which was bringing bad name for Pakistan in the comity of nations.

“In Pakistan, begging is a significant, organized business, with an estimated 38 million people engaged in it”, he said and added that this translates to a daily income of around Rs 32 billion from charity, or approximately $42 billion annually. He said that the business is so competitive that there are reported turf wars between beggars for prime locations.

“Unemployment, lack of skills, poverty, and high inflation push people into begging but now it has become a thriving business”, he said and added that healthy persons present themselves with fake body deformation or uttering convincing slogans by exploiting religion.

“Begging is not merely a form of asking for charity or zakat but could be a highly organized and skilled business”, he said and added that beggary is seen as a social and economic problem, with concerns about marginalization, exploitation, and potential links to other criminal activities.

He has suggested various policy proposals, including bans, legalization with restrictions, digitalization of beggars and rehabilitation programs to address the issue of begging in Pakistan. He said that charity donors should also be documented to avoid multiple and repeated beneficiaries of the same families. “The data of BISP should also be shared with the private donors with a request to avoid helping these professional beggars”, he concluded.

15/04/2025

FAISALABAD: The chain of livestock sector must be redefined from introduction of high yielding domestic breeds of milk animals up to exportable value-added products in addition to catering to the entire domestic needs, said Engr Ahmad Hassan Convener FCCI Standing Committee on Agriculture, Carbon Foot-Print/Zero Emission, Foundry & Allied Engineering.

Addressing the second meeting of this standing committee, he said that agriculture is the largest sector of our economy with 24% contribution towards GDP. “As a sub-sector of agriculture, the share of livestock is 14% towards national GDP and over 60% of the agriculture GDP,” he said and added that Pakistan is recognized as the fifth largest milk producing country despite lack of data, technology and innovative genetic applications. He said that the average milk yield of buffalo in Pakistan per annum is around 2,031 as against the 12,000kg per cow per annum in Israel. He proposed the Digital Livestock Management System (DLMS) to connect all key stakeholders in animal husbandry, including government agencies, farmers and field officers.

“It will serve as one step solution for farmers, offering essential services such as communication channels, access to government schemes, an online marketing place for buying and selling, discussion forums and educational resources like knowledge videos,” he said and added that DLMS would also enhance the monitoring and implementation of government initiatives, enabling authorities to efficiently collect, manage and analyze livestock sector data for evidence-based policy making and improved service delivery.

He said that DLMS would modernize animal husbandry practices, improve access to veterinary services and facilitate a seamless livestock market place, fostering efficiency and growth in this sector. Enumerating its benefits, he said that it would increase milk and meat production through better breeding, feeding and health management. “It would also encourage climate resilient and eco-friendly practices,” he said and added that these measures would also encourage FDI in this potential sector.

Other members of the committee also took part in the discussion and gave tangible input to make it result oriented. Dr Arif gave a comprehensive presentation and said that zoning is prerequisite to get maximum yield from the imported breeds while ancillary industry could also be developed around this zone with the help of foreign investment and technology.

He said that the temperature of Naran and Kaghan is like the Netherlands and we could provide a suitable climate without extra expenses to the imported cows to get maximum milk. Muzammil Sultan, Engr Asim Munir, Waheed Khaliq Ramay, Muhammad Amjad Khawaja, Dr M Sharif and Dr HM Asif Javed also participated in this meeting. It was decided that Director Livestock would be invited to attend the next meeting to give his input and explain government strategy to give a boost to the livestock sector.—PR

08/12/2024

30/11/2024

IDEAS Karachi_2024

16/10/2024

Engr. Ahmad Hassan and Dr. Arif participate at International symposium on Green energy nano materials, data science and artificial intelligence

14/10/2024

Mr. Rehan Naseem Bharara, President of FCCI, and Engr. Ahmad Hassan participated in the 2nd National Conference on Recycling in Textiles at the National Textile University in Faisalabad.

24/09/2024

FAISALABAD. Pakistan should seek financial and technical assistance from world organizations including UN, IMF and WEF to switch over from fossil fuel to clean renewable energy in order to contribute its productive role in minimizing ill impacts of GreenHouse Gaseous (GHG) emission, said Hassan Abulenein Associate Director World Economic Forum (WEF). He was addressing an online meeting with the R & D department of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI). He said that WEF has already chalked out a comprehensive strategy to phase out hazardous fuel which has posed serious threat to the earth and environment. He mentioned climate changes and increase in global warming which has become a key threat to life and may cause the extinction of a large number of endangered species of animals and plants. He appreciated the research work conducted by the R & D department of the FCCI on environment preservation and said that we could collaborate to carve out a workable strategy to promote renewable energy in Pakistan. Engineer Ahmad Hassan Convener FCCI Standing Committee on R&D and former Vice President FCCI said that WEF, UN, IMF and other global organizations have already given a plan to cut use of fossil fuel by 50% by the year 2030. He said that Pakistan is trapped by IPPs which are producing costly electricity by using fossil fuel. “We should exploit the global agreements including UN sustainable development goals and Paris agreement to get rid of the harsh conditionalities of the IPPs which have become an unbearable burden on the national kitty”, he said and added that Pakistan has potential to produce 2.9 million MW electricity through solar but we are dwindling at only 1000MW. He mentioned a white paper published by the R&D department of the FCCI which has given a comprehensive solution to get rid of fossil fuel by promoting clean and renewable energy resources in the country. He said that during the last one century global warming has recorded an alarming increase of 1.2 centigrade which is perpetrating unpredicted rains, floods, storms and earthquakes badly affecting the cropping patron in addition to inflicting colossal loss to the infrastructure. He urged upon the WEF and other global organizations to divert maximum funding towards the production of clean energy so that the carbon emission could be reduced to the minimum level. He said that Pakistan was bearing a huge loss of $3.8bn while the floods of 2022 also caused staggering losses to the tune of $15bn. He said that the business community must pressurize the government to renegotiate with the IPPs so that the UN objective of reducing fossil fuel to 50% by 2030 could be achieved without any hassle. Amjad Khawaja of PHMA, Engineer Asim Munir, Abdullah Qadri, Dr Muhammad Arif and Muhammad Faizan also participated in the meeting.FAISALABAD. Pakistan should seek financial and technical assistance from world organizations including UN, IMF and WEF to switch over from fossil fuel to clean renewable energy in order to contribute its productive role in minimizing ill impacts of GreenHouse Gaseous (GHG) emission, said Hassan Abulenein Associate Director World Economic Forum (WEF). He was addressing an online meeting with the R & D department of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI). He said that WEF has already chalked out a comprehensive strategy to phase out hazardous fuel which has posed serious threat to the earth and environment. He mentioned climate changes and increase in global warming which has become a key threat to life and may cause the extinction of a large number of endangered species of animals and plants. He appreciated the research work conducted by the R & D department of the FCCI on environment preservation and said that we could collaborate to carve out a workable strategy to promote renewable energy in Pakistan. Engineer Ahmad Hassan Convener FCCI Standing Committee on R&D and former Vice President FCCI said that WEF, UN, IMF and other global organizations have already given a plan to cut use of fossil fuel by 50% by the year 2030. He said that Pakistan is trapped by IPPs which are producing costly electricity by using fossil fuel. “We should exploit the global agreements including UN sustainable development goals and Paris agreement to get rid of the harsh conditionalities of the IPPs which have become an unbearable burden on the national kitty”, he said and added that Pakistan has potential to produce 2.9 million MW electricity through solar but we are dwindling at only 1000MW. He mentioned a white paper published by the R&D department of the FCCI which has given a comprehensive solution to get rid of fossil fuel by promoting clean and renewable energy resources in the country. He said that during the last one century global warming has recorded an alarming increase of 1.2 centigrade which is perpetrating unpredicted rains, floods, storms and earthquakes badly affecting the cropping patron in addition to inflicting colossal loss to the infrastructure. He urged upon the WEF and other global organizations to divert maximum funding towards the production of clean energy so that the carbon emission could be reduced to the minimum level. He said that Pakistan was bearing a huge loss of $3.8bn while the floods of 2022 also caused staggering losses to the tune of $15bn. He said that the business community must pressurize the government to renegotiate with the IPPs so that the UN objective of reducing fossil fuel to 50% by 2030 could be achieved without any hassle. Amjad Khawaja of PHMA, Engineer Asim Munir, Abdullah Qadri, Dr Muhammad Arif and Muhammad Faizan also participated in the meeting.

10/09/2024

FAISALABAD. The R & D department of the FCCI is working proactively to identify the core economic issues including electricity to help the office bearers and executive committee to take up these issues with the concerned departments and ministries for their speedy resolution through prudent policy making, said Engineer Ahmad Hassan former Vice President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI). Addressing a special lecture on potential of solar energy in Pakistan, he said that total installed capacity of electricity is 42,000MW while its maximum demand is 31,000MW. He said that it is ironic that we have only 22,000MW capacity of transmission and distribution. “It indicates that there was no shortage of electricity but the problem was relating to its transmission and distribution”, he remarked and added that IPPs was yet another sore point as $4.7bn were paid to IPPs in 2023 and $9bn in 2024. He said that Pakistan has solar potential to produce 209 million MW of electricity whereas we are getting only 1,000MW solar energy. He said that Pakistan will face three major challenges during the next 50 years including population, environment changes and energy which would further precipitate issues of food security. He stressed that stringent measures should be taken to contain population growth within the available resources and said that some socialist scholars are of the view that the earth could sustain a population of only 2bn individuals. “They have come up with solution to eliminate excess population through measures which could be easily attributed to the natural calamities or disasters”, he quoted and said that global warming is the root cause of glacier melting and if this process gained momentum, the coastal cities like Singapore and Dubai may vanish from the face of earth. Engineer Ahmad Hassan said that the government raised slogans to encourage solar energy but failed to give a long term policy in this regard. He also pointed out the illogical selection of site for Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park in Bahawalpur and said that it is a desert and the abrasive action of sand could spoil the surface of solar panels. “There was also an acute shortage of water for the regular washing of solar panels”, he said and added that the government should encourage people to set up small solar units on their rooftops by providing them subsidized loans. He said that installation of solar panels may give tangible financial relief to the individuals but it may further increase capacity charges. He said that it is a million dollar question which has entrapped Pakistan between devil and deep sea. Dr Muhammad Arif gave a detailed presentation about development in the solar energy sector and said that some developed countries are contemplating to set up solar systems in outer orbit where sunlight is available around the clock. He said that the major problem is the safe transfer of the energy produced to the earth through a beam. He said that the Netherlands is aggressively working on it and if it succeeded, the current electricity distribution and transmission infrastructure would become totally irrelevant.

Former President Muzammil Sultan and Engineer Asim Munir were also present during this meeting and gave their valuable input.

30/08/2024

https://epaper.brecorder.com/2024/08/29/4-LHR-page.html

30/06/2024

Eurosatory Paris June 2024