Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that inefficiencies in the energy sector have to be addressed on an emergency basis to save the national economy from an ‘utter crash’. Addressing a dialogue on ‘energy crises and way forward’ organised by the Energy Update, he said that inefficient work of the power and gas sectors had been affecting the entire economy.

He said the entire national economy had to suffer when the energy sector couldn’t work in an efficient manner and find solutions to its long-persisting problems. Khaqan Abbasi said the first and foremost problem was that the gas sector of the country couldn’t recover the cost price of the essential energy commodity it supplied to consumers.

He said domestic consumers had to learn that they had to pay the price of the gas they had been using for their household needs. Khaqan Abbasi, who also heads the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Energy, said that inefficient use of natural gas was another major problem of the energy sector.

“It is pitiful that we do have gas in our kitchens to cook food but we don’t have gas to feed our power plants,” said the former PM. He said power plants were shut down due to curtailment of gas supply, and as a result, the energy sector had to massively suffer due to the higher cost of electricity generation and inefficient transmission system.

He urged the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority to play a leadership role in finding out solutions to the problems of the power sector. He suggested that privatisation was key to resolving the issue of inefficient power distribution companies. He said the inefficient Discos accounted for up to 80% of the problem ailing the power sector.

Khaqan Abbasi said that provinces as per the Constitution had to play an important role in improving the performance of Discos. Speaking on the occasion, Iqbal Z Ahmed, Chairman of the Associated Group and renowned energy sector investor, urged the government to immediately open up the LNG business to the private sector.

He acknowledged the role of Khaqan Abbasi in introducing LNG in Pakistan to resolve energy crisis. But now it was high time that the former PM played his role to allow the private sector to run the LNG business without any undue restrictions, he said.

Ahmed said that the monopoly of the two state-run gas companies on the LNG business should end and the private sector should be allowed to sell the imported gas to prospective buyers in the private sector that were not just limited to the power sector.

Earlier, Naeem Qureshi of Energy Update said that he aimed to organise more such interactive events to let the relevant stakeholders thoroughly discuss and find solutions to the problems of energy sector.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk