Economic analysts have expressed confidence that the government was taking motivating steps to end energy crisis in the country and stressed upon the public to avoid unnecessary use electricity.
The government is considering steps to conserve electricity in order to ensure its availability for all needed sectors, a senior economist Dr Mirza Ikhtiyar Baig said in an interview with Radio Pakistan’s current affair programme.
“Adequate power supply is a serious challenge for the coalition government and the gap between demand and supply has reached to 7000 MW”, he said.
He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed to reopen all the closed power plants to improve power supply in the country, adding that the prime minister has also asked the authorities concerned to take all necessary steps to minimise load shedding in the country.
He said load-shedding badly affecting manufacturing industries, which caused decline in country’s exports.
Another renowned economist Dr Talat Anwar said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has rightly called for increasing the availability of energy in the country, including reopening of power plants that were closed due to various reasons.
“We should use more indigenous and alternative sources of energy for power production”, he said.
“Pakistan is blessed with sunshine throughout the year and it can be harnessed to increase the power supply”, he said adding that the government has already indicated to provide solar energy panels to people on concessionary rates.
In addition, other sources like wind, nuclear and coal could be utilized to increase power generation, he added.—APP
