ISLAMABAD: Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry has suggested that power distribution companies (Discos) should be handed over to the provinces and their involvement would be critical to resolving load shedding in the country.
Speaking as a chief guest here on Thursday at the launch of a book titled as "Capturing Demographic Dividends in Pakistan," Dr Shahid said that energy problem was one of the major challenges facing the country which can not be resolved without provinces' involvement and suggested that power distribution system should be handed over to the provinces.
Another official told this correspondent after the function that co-operation of the provincial governments in controlling electricity theft and recovery of dues was critical and proposed the handing over of electricity distribution companies and bill collections to the provinces.
Advisor on Finance further added that the federal government should only take responsibility of electricity generation. "There is de-industrialisation in the country due to absence of industrial policy. Trade and tariff policies in China and India have contributed to a considerable increase in their industrial growth whereas absence of such policies in Pakistan seem to be one of the major reasons for de-industrialisation," he pointed out. He emphasised on the need for formulating an industrial policy.
Dr Shahid said that unlike other regional countries Pakistan had been unable to reap the population dividend largely due to stop-go-stop policies. "We must end stop-go-stop policies because these were causing around two percent annual loss to growth by disallowing the country to take advantage of population dividend," he added. He said that there were examples as to how some regional countries had been able to reap population dividend by putting in place effective policies that enabled them to utilise their populations for economic growth.
The Advisor said that the lady health workers programme, which has now been devolved under 18th Constitutional Amendment to the provinces, was a useful instrument to sensitise masses with respect to impact of rapid growth in population. He said that the funding to the programme may be an issue after 2014-15 when it would be handed over to the provinces.