The government also is not inclined toward using this line of defence for reasons best known to it
LAHORE: If you take away 3,600 megawatts at two rupees per unit from the energy equation, then you are left with the following: rising cost of energy, shortage of power, domestic and industrial power outages, industry shutdowns, slowdown of investments, reduced exports and export revenues, low productivity, rising cost of industrial goods, decrease in jobs, increase in poverty and a virtual meltdown of the economy.
If you take away 6.1 million acre feet from the water equation, then you are left with a shortage of water for irrigation, town supply, and even for drinking, negative growth in agriculture, rampant food inflation, agriculture no longer contributing 60 per cent to exports, no longer employing 40 per cent of the total labour force, no longer a means of livelihood for 70 per cent of the rural population with a net result of migration from rural to urban areas, and another nail in the coffin of the economy.
The people, of course, know nothing of all this and are busy cursing the government. The government also is not inclined toward using this line of defence for reasons best known to it. It is quite content to shamelessly become the punching bag without displaying any concern for the people.
Engr Khurshid Anwer
Published in The Express Tribune, June 21st, 2016.
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