Pakistan’s energy sector is a mess. In just 10 years, electricity unit price has increased by more than 350%. This is mainly due to 25,000MW excess energy production, as 20,000MW is needed and we have an installed capacity of 45,000MW.
Federal Minister for Energy Sardar Awais Ahmed Leghari did a great job in finally identifying these issues and then working to resolve them, but a lot still needs to be done to clear up this mess. Surprisingly, the government still hasn’t identified how this happened, despite having multiple government entities in place to keep a check.
Moreover, a National Electricity Plan has been created a number of times, but not once did anyone in the meeting highlight excess electricity production or high electricity unit rate as an issue. It is also worrying to see that IMF, World Bank and Asian Development Bank, who have been funding energy reform projects through loans, also failed to identify these issues.
Without first understanding the incompetent planning and policies that went behind this chaos, how can Pakistan create safeguards to prevent a similar trajectory in the future? The government should seek to identify the root of the problem and how it escaped due processes at every level to stop it from happening again.
Shahryar Khan Baseer
Islamabad
