ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) of Tuesday said that the government should pay proper attention to the hydel power projects that generate cheap electricity.
Power plants using imported fuel generate costly electricity which fluctuations in the oil prices results in miseries of the masses, it said. The energy sector has become dysfunctional because of the apathy of the successive government since Musharraf times, PEW President Dr Murtaza Mughal said.
He said that energy crisis in Pakistan is result of decades of indifference and it cannot be resolved any time soon and it will continue to damage masses and the economy. He said that dysfunctional power sector continue to deprive 35 percent of population of grid electricity while the 65 percent have been facing load shedding.
He said that Pakistan fulfill 32 percent of energy demand through imported oil which is biggest hurdle in the ample power generation while the circular debt continue to push away the investors. He said that power transmission and distribution system has developed irreparable faults and at many places it as old as the country is, adding that the power sector is a classic example of the bad governance.
Transparency is needed in every area of the power sector including audits of generation to transmission and distribution issues, to billing and recoveries, so that a reliable picture can be built of the state of affairs within the sector, he noted
Two ministries have overlapping functions damaging the weak power sector therefore it should be made subservient to a body which is public centric disregarding profits.
