Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday directed the relevant stakeholders to build a national consensus to steer Pakistan out of the gas crisis.
While addressing a seminar on natural gas supply in Islamabad, the premier pointed out that indigenous gas reserves were depleting and the country is now importing gas.
He said that people would have to bear the burden of the import costs and it would also result in an increase of circular debt in the energy sector.
“Only 27pc of households have access to piped gas whilst the remaining rely on the LPG cylinders, which four times more expensive than piped gas,” the prime minister said.
He further added that a subsidy should be provided for the benefit of poor people and to help in the uplift of underdeveloped areas of the country. The premier further said that the other purpose of providing subsidies is of wealth creation, which will help with the increase of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Per capita income (PCI).
“The presentation that I recently got on subsidies is opposite to what I have envisioned,” he said, “People getting subsidies are already very powerful.”
The premier on the occasion also thanked stakeholders for re-negotiating gas supply contracts.
PM Imran added that the country should not have had come to this stage, adding that if previous leaderships had debated on national issues, there would have been a sense of direction for the country.
“Sometimes provinces do rise up but some do fall behind,” he said. “But never expect a province to rise when the entire country is facing crises.”
The prime minister hoped that after a debate of all the stakeholders, there would be a national consensus on how to take the country out of the gas crisis.
“Punjab feels like it doesn't have enough gas, whereas K-P also feels like it is not producing enough,” he said, “We are wasting the country’s potential in the gas sector as well as the hydel power sector.”
He added that if debates are done in the right manner, then people develop wisdom which would lead to important debates in the media as well.
The prime minister further added that he had always admired China's rapid growth. “No country in history has lifted people from poverty at such a rapid pace,” he said. “This is because there is an elaborate debate on national issues. Then there is merit in that country. If you read China's leaderships’ profiles, then you would come to know that they had come to this position after a very rigorous process.”
He also praised China's "excellent long-term planning".
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