Power politics

Right after the cricket diplomacy at Mohali, we now have power diplomacy — with the potential to bring the subcontinental neighbours closer together. Pakistan’s commerce secretary, who is due to meet his Indian counterpart in Islamabad at the end of the month, says India has offered to sell surplus power to Pakistan. The spirit behind the offer is generous, given that India suffers an 11 per cent power deficit itself. Loadshedding is a term familiar to the residents of New Delhi, just as it is to those who live in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar or other places in the country. However, India does have a surplus in some grids at certain times of the year and may be willing to pass this on to energy-starved Pakistan if a deal can be formalised. The technical practicalities will need to be worked out and a formal proposal also needs to be put on the table.

But beyond all this, the willingness expressed by New Delhi to help out in difficult times is encouraging. Acquiring power from India may prove to be cheaper and simpler than the other options Pakistan has. The power offer — provided it materialises — also indicates how much there is to gain for both Islamabad and New Delhi if they can work out ways to develop closer cooperation between them. There is, of course, a big gap that separates an offer, especially one that seems to have been informally made, from the actual signing on paper. But it is important to initiate efforts to lay strong planks over this gap, especially if this can help us overcome a problem that has crippled our industry. If this indeed happens, a huge step forward would have been taken and the future opened up for closer cooperation in all kinds of other areas where the two countries could work together to solve some of the problems they share such as cross-border smuggling, terrorism and intrusion into each others international waters by fishermen.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2011.