Energy Crisis: Abrar warns of ‘civil disobedience’

Pakistan’s coal reserves could help overcome the shortage of electricity and gas, says Abrar.

FAISALABAD: Pakistan Teheek-e-Insaf leader and singer Abrarul Haq said on Saturday that civil disobedience will be initiated if the government failed to overcome the gas and electricity load-shedding immediately. Speaking at a protest rally at the Clock Tower Chowk, he said that Pakistan’s coal reserves could help overcome the shortage of electricity and gas. He said that Pakistan will be able to export electricity within 10 years if the project was initiated. “If we initiate the thermal project, every Pakistani can get electricity at the rate of Rs4 per unit,” Abrar said. He further said that the energy crisis is ‘not real’, and is, rather, ‘produced’ by the rulers who do not want to let the people enjoy national resources. He said that according to leading national atomic scientist Dr Samar Mubarak Mand, Pakistan’s gas and coal reserves can last about 350 years.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2012.