Two former finance ministers of Pakistan, PTI’s Hammad Azhar and PML-N’s Miftah Ismail, went head-to-head discussing Pakistan’s energy shortage, and the reasons for such shortage.
The avoidable twin energy crisis is set to wreak havoc on economy as gas and power blackouts will bring business, commercial, and manufacturing activities to a standstill. The messed-up energy crisis means no gas for productive sectors of the economy like, industry and transport.
Ismail and Azhar both appeared on a private news channel to speak on Pakistan’s economic situation and energy shortages. While Ismail claimed Pakistan was on a trajectory of economic growth during the PML-N’s regime, Azhar disagreed as both traded barbs and threw facts at one another.
Hammad Azhar
The debate started with Hammad Azhar saying that the recent gas crisis had not taken place due to dry docking of Engro LNG terminal, adding that the crisis would have multiplied had the shortage had occurred in winters.
Hammad Azhar said that the current SSGC supply cuts have nothing to do with the drydocking, and the supply cut had to be done in summers, otherwise the loss would have increased due to domestic load in the winter season.
The minister added that the Kunar Pasakhi Deep (KPD) gas field would be brought online on 29th June and drydocking would not impact the SSGC supply as the total SSGC system is based on 1150 MMCFT and only 75 MMCFT is impacted by the drydocking.
He further said that the previous government’s gas plant kept running on 50 percent capacity due to not ordering the RLNG, and many government plants were not shifted to RLNG. He added that the incumbent government’s capacity utilization is 83 percent compared to 66 percent in the PMLN’s regime.
Miftah Ismail
The former finance minister replied to the energy minister’s claims by saying that the PTI government over the past three years has been unable to increase pipeline capacity, terminal capacity, or terminal ships.
He added that only a few months ago, PTI was saying PMLN brought too much gas and there are too many power plants in Pakistan. “PTI is buying gas for $12 at the spot today compared to $6-$7 in contracts signed by PMLN,” he added.
The former minister also claimed that the export industry is working at 50 percent capacity and the local is shut down in Sindh. Taking a jibe at Ismail, Azhar said if he was to go into the details of the PML-N’s LNG transactions, “another NAB case will be filed against Shahid Khaqan Abbasi”.
Final Words
Government and opposition leaders blaming each other on national television cannot solve people’s problems. Pakistan is currently suffering from a severe energy crisis but those in charge are wasting their time by mere rhetoric. There is a need for the government and the opposition to work together to get the country out of the crisis.
