Black gold: Book strips away rhetoric to place Thar Coal as Pakistan’s ‘salvation’
Journalist puts together book on how coal deposits could be the answer to our energy problems.
KARACHI:
“Pakistan has spent its money mainly on importing oil, burning its precious gas and relying on Mother Nature for adequate power generation. Coal seems to have been neglected deliberately by the strong oil lobby,” claimed journalist Shamim-ur-Rahman of Dawn newspaper at his book launch at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday evening.
In ‘Thar Coal: Salvation Paradigm’, Rahman has collected and edited a set of essays focusing on the power crisis in general. The book discusses the impending use of coal recourses in Thar for power generation in great detail. The contributors to the analysis include both stakeholders and experts in the field.
“With the world’s sixth largest coal reserves, we are not using them to produce even one kilowatt of energy,” said Rahman. He felt the primary reason behind Pakistan’s power crisis was the inefficient management of resources - resources that are enough for Pakistan’s needs as well as those of neighbouring countries.
Rahman spoke of the much-criticised Independent Power Producers (IPPs) policy in 1997 - an initiative taken by Benazir Bhutto’s government after the Tarbela Dam. “These private investors have now proven to be the mainstay of the country’s power sector.”
Speaking mainly from the contents of the first chapter of his compilation, Rahman linked the exploitation of Thar coal for power generation to the construction of the Keti Bandar Port 95 kilometres east of Karachi as another major initiative of the same government.
After the development of the harbour, a 1,320 megawatt power plant commenced as part of a $1.8 billion project. However “the whole project was subsequently bulldozed by the Nawaz Sharif government”.
Moving on to Pervez Musharraf’s era, and the entry of the Chinese in 2002, Rahman told the media how they spent $8 million on initial studies on exploiting Thar coal deposits. By 2006, however, they too were driven away by stingy decision makers, he lamented.
“Had the matter been settled with them,” claimed Rahman, “the country would not have suffered long hours of load-shedding, driving the authorities to import rental power.”
In the end, his conclusion was the same as the basis of his book. “Be that as it may, Thar coal deposits provide the salvation paradigm for Pakistan. If the coal could be extracted, this is going to be the basis of a new economic hub in the region.”
Journalist Sarfaraz Ahmed observed that while Musharraf’s regime left the country with a 3,500 megawatt of shortfall in power, it has doubled in 2011. Pakistan Peoples Party’s Taj Haider, however, rejected this observation. He gave a detailed speech that outlined the current government’s efforts in exploiting Thar coal. “At least three sub projects are in the advanced stages and are ready for pilot testing,” said Haider.
Haider added that the widening gap between supply and demand of energy is because consumption has been increasing by 10 to 12 per cent every year.
Sindh Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah echoed Haider’s stance during his address while Sindh minister for power, Shazia Marri, also spoke at the event. She lauded Rahman for his efforts on what Benazir Bhutto called ‘black gold’. “There is hardly any country which is not interested in coal as an energy resource for the future,”
she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2011.
“Pakistan has spent its money mainly on importing oil, burning its precious gas and relying on Mother Nature for adequate power generation. Coal seems to have been neglected deliberately by the strong oil lobby,” claimed journalist Shamim-ur-Rahman of Dawn newspaper at his book launch at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday evening.
In ‘Thar Coal: Salvation Paradigm’, Rahman has collected and edited a set of essays focusing on the power crisis in general. The book discusses the impending use of coal recourses in Thar for power generation in great detail. The contributors to the analysis include both stakeholders and experts in the field.
“With the world’s sixth largest coal reserves, we are not using them to produce even one kilowatt of energy,” said Rahman. He felt the primary reason behind Pakistan’s power crisis was the inefficient management of resources - resources that are enough for Pakistan’s needs as well as those of neighbouring countries.
Rahman spoke of the much-criticised Independent Power Producers (IPPs) policy in 1997 - an initiative taken by Benazir Bhutto’s government after the Tarbela Dam. “These private investors have now proven to be the mainstay of the country’s power sector.”
Speaking mainly from the contents of the first chapter of his compilation, Rahman linked the exploitation of Thar coal for power generation to the construction of the Keti Bandar Port 95 kilometres east of Karachi as another major initiative of the same government.
After the development of the harbour, a 1,320 megawatt power plant commenced as part of a $1.8 billion project. However “the whole project was subsequently bulldozed by the Nawaz Sharif government”.
Moving on to Pervez Musharraf’s era, and the entry of the Chinese in 2002, Rahman told the media how they spent $8 million on initial studies on exploiting Thar coal deposits. By 2006, however, they too were driven away by stingy decision makers, he lamented.
“Had the matter been settled with them,” claimed Rahman, “the country would not have suffered long hours of load-shedding, driving the authorities to import rental power.”
In the end, his conclusion was the same as the basis of his book. “Be that as it may, Thar coal deposits provide the salvation paradigm for Pakistan. If the coal could be extracted, this is going to be the basis of a new economic hub in the region.”
Journalist Sarfaraz Ahmed observed that while Musharraf’s regime left the country with a 3,500 megawatt of shortfall in power, it has doubled in 2011. Pakistan Peoples Party’s Taj Haider, however, rejected this observation. He gave a detailed speech that outlined the current government’s efforts in exploiting Thar coal. “At least three sub projects are in the advanced stages and are ready for pilot testing,” said Haider.
Haider added that the widening gap between supply and demand of energy is because consumption has been increasing by 10 to 12 per cent every year.
Sindh Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah echoed Haider’s stance during his address while Sindh minister for power, Shazia Marri, also spoke at the event. She lauded Rahman for his efforts on what Benazir Bhutto called ‘black gold’. “There is hardly any country which is not interested in coal as an energy resource for the future,”
she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2011.