PRIME Minister Imran Khan has echoed true feelings of the people by issuing directions that an emergency programme be devised to address the challenges facing the energy and petroleum sectors and it must be ensured that the process of reformation of system put minimum burden on the common man. Chairing a meeting to review measures being taken to improve the efficiency of the state-owned institutions, he said the system is rotten requiring out-of-box solutions.
There is no doubt that the system is not delivering and there was dire need for its reformation and overhaul. The Prime Minister was necessarily referring to the pathetic state of affairs in the energy sector and indicated hiring of professionals who could address the problems confronting the energy ministries. Things can definitely change if right man is appointed to the right job and this we witnessed in the past when professionals like Dr Gulfraz Ahmed were appointed head of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC), Chairman NEPRA and then Secretary of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources. It was because of his relevant and rich background that under his corporate leadership, OGDCL expanded its oil and gas exploration and production activities leading to doubling of its discovered underground oil and gas reserves as well as doubling of production of the same. He introduced state-of-the-art technology, took the company off the Government budget and made it a self-financing entity. Pakistan Steel, PIA and Utility Stores Corporation also shined when their affairs were entrusted to professional people who run them on commercial lines. There is, therefore, no reason why conditions of energy sector entities would not improve if genuinely professional and competent people are assigned the task on merit and appointments are not made on considerations of links and connections. It is also relevant to point out that the Prime Minister was just talking about energy sector entities but conditions of other institutions are also similar and many of them are at the verge of virtual collapse. How the situation can change when majority of the institutions have no regular heads for years. The state is spending billions of rupees on them but these organizations are not delivering as per their original mandate and expectations of the people. We have been hearing about processes initiated by the Government to fill the posts through a merit-based procedure but nothing substantial transpires from such exercises and things stand as before. The remarks of the Prime Minister that there should be ‘minimum burden on the common man’ while undertaking the process of reforms in the energy sector could mean that the Government was once again contemplating some increase in tariff, which would not be a viable solution. Rates of both the electricity and gas are already high and in fact, the Government is pocketing the huge difference between international and local prices of oil. Real problems of the sector stand identified in a number of studies carried out both by local and international experts and what we need is their implementation in letter and in spirit.
