THE Federal Cabinet, which met in Islamabad on Tuesday with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the chair, decided to form a committee for preparing long, medium and short-term strategies for energy conservation in the country.
advised the Power Ministry to give a detailed briefing next week on power theft, line losses and their solution.
Energy security is a prerequisite for economic development and with this in view the focus of the Government on the issue augurs well for the country.
It was because of the concerted efforts of the last PML(N) Government that the country was not only able to meet its electricity requirements but reliable arrangements were also made to ensure uninterrupted supply of gas to all consumers throughout the year.
However, with the change of the Government, the ongoing projects including those relating to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and renewable sources were thrown on the back-burner for petty considerations.
Again, the government-to-government arrangements for import of gas from Qatar were unnecessarily politicized and disturbed and as a consequence the country is facing gas shortages even during lean summer period.
The short-sighted approach has landed the country in a serious situation as the Government is finding it difficult to arrange required gas imports for the coming winter due to complications caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.
In this backdrop, it is appreciable that the Government is working on all possible options – conservation, gas imports from Russia, optimum Thar coal exploitation, focus on solar parks and measures to reduce line losses and improve transmission and distribution system.
We hope the ministerial committee would prepare a workable plan for the purpose, which would serve as a roadmap for all future governments.
