Power sector: sell-off to be meaningless in absence of regulatory body, says Ahsan

Federal Minister for Planning and Development and Deputy Chairman Planning Commission of Pakistan Ahsan Iqbal on Monday said that privatisation of power sector will be meaningless in the absence of a strong regulatory body. He said while addressing the opening session of 34th Convention of the Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Pakistan (IEEEP) on Monday.
Ahsan said that power sector needs a strong regulatory body like State Bank of Pakistan, otherwise there will be a possibility of cartelisation in power sector, which is not good for the consumers as well as for the entire power sector. Ahsan said that present energy crisis is the result of lack of proper planning and he fears that there will be a water crisis in next ten years, which is more dangerous than energy crisis if we fail to plan our water needs.
He also said that Planning Commission is working on both short and long terms plans in order to address the issues of water and energy. As a long-term measure they had prepared a vision 2025 plan. He said that they had involved experts of relevant sectors during the preparation of the plan. He also said that as a short-term measure we are working on five year plan 2013-2018. Ahsan said that we have established a performance delivery unit, which will monitor the pace of work on projects on monthly basis adding that prime minister will monitor the pace of work on these projects on quarterly basis.
Ahsan said that today's world of knowledge relevant technologies, which are directly associated with electrical engineering. He said that these technologies include micro-electronics, robotics, telecommunication and bio-technology. He said that root cause behind our problems is that non-technical people took technical decisions.
Ahsan suggested that Punjab government should review the decision of teaching English from class one. He said that English should be taught from class five. He said that education should be given in native language because it is easy for the children to understand the concepts in their own language.
While condemning the sad Rawalpindi incident in which innocent people were killed Ahsan said that Pakistani's should shun their differences and work for the progress of the country. He said that we should think above over personal interests. He urged the Ulema should play their role for the establishment of peace in the country. He also said that Ulema should create awareness among the masses that without seeking education Muslims cannot attain the status in the world which they deserve. Ahsan assured that he will move the summary for the PM to provide service structure to the engineers.
Speaking on the occasion Governor Punjab Chaudhry Sarwar expressed the hope that Pakistan will get the GSP plus status from January 1, 2014. He said that Pakistani exports will reach two billion dollars in two to three years after getting the GSP plus status and millions of jobs will be created. Governor Punjab said that present government has taken many steps to mitigate the ongoing crisis with policy making as its first requirement.
He appealed to the people to adopt energy conservation measures. He termed the provision of clean drinking water as the biggest issue of Pakistan. He said that donors had given millions of rupees for the provision of drinking water but unfortunately majority of the filtration plants are not working properly because they were installed without proper guidance of engineers.
Sarwar said that he himself conducted a survey of 30 schools in which the arsenal level of water is 75 per cent, which according to WHO should not be more than 10 per cent. Sarwar also condemned the Rawalpindi incident and appreciated the role of Ulema in maintaining peace in the country. Governor Punjab Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar was chief guest on the occasion. President IEEEP Engineer Tahir Basharat Cheema also expressed his views on the occasion.