Promises and rhetoric not to solve Pakistan’s energy problems: report

In his analysis, Shahid Javed Burki points out that for nearly six decades, no Pakistani government made a serious effort to prepare for the country’s energy requirements. As a consequence, Pakistan has been saddled with “weak institutions, inappropriate pricing policies and insufficient public sector investment.” The net result is that by 2030, energy demand in Pakistan will be almost 64 percent greater than projected supply. Unless Pakistan moves to address this shortfall, he warns, the country will inevitably pay a large cost not only in an economic sense, but also in terms of a rise in Islamic extremism and slower progress toward political democracy. Burki criticises the government for resorting to ad hoc measures to deal with energy needs and for failing to address deep-rooted structural problems.
Sabira Qureshi looks at the links between energy policy and poverty reduction efforts, pointing out that study after study has demonstrated that a lack of access to modern energy supplies inhibits the ability of the poor, particularly the rural poor, to escape from poverty. Yet in Pakistan, energy policy is “disproportionately oriented towards the elite rather than the poor.” Those responsible for formulating policy “continue to concentrate on meeting the country’s rapidly growing energy needs in the formal sector, while failing to respond to poverty reduction needs, particularly as they relate to rural household consumption.” And because the majority of Pakistan ’s poor are female, government energy policies must explicitly recognise the need “to mainstream gender” in all energy initiatives. Contributor Dorothy Lele insists that social and human development should be the ultimate objective of Pakistan’s energy policies, not just a fortunate by-product. The poor, she writes, usually pay a higher percentage of their income on energy, and much more per unit of “useful energy service” than the rich.

Daily Times