September 7 is PAF celebration and remembrance day as we recall the bravery and ultimate sacrifices of so many of our pilots in the 1965 war. Back in mid-50s when I witnessed the first shahadat of a young pilot, who refused to bailout when his Supermarine Attacker was on fire and he was over inhabited areas of Sargodha. This was no wartime and yet we lost a young happy man we had all met a day earlier.
Why I mention PAF in this letter? I honestly believe, and I have said so earlier also, that PAF engineering expertise, specially collected at Kamrah, holds the key to our energy solution. PAF is blessed with very competent engineering team who have been looking after our jet engines for a long time and their expertise, especially those retiring from PAF, can be used in a commercial venture to develop gas-turbine based combined cycle power plants (which use the same jet engine technology) and pronto, we have a solution to our ailing energy sector as the other major equipment, specially power alternators and waste heat recovery boilers can be locally fabricated by existing companies. The above combination will provide efficient cogeneration power plant for industries, commercial air-conditioned buildings as well as town-ships and thus build the base for highly efficient distributed generation, based on natural gas, to provide an overall economical and green solution.
Besides an honest team, competent engineering must be ensured which would enable immediate adoption of economical renewable energy options and power plants with high thermal efficiency design to start healing the "ailing" energy sector, specially all those facilities which are using our natural gas supplies inefficiently and against the conditions of gas sanction by SSGC/SNGPL. If we can ensure consumption of our precious gas only in efficient installations, the energy scenario will totally change. Sooner we accept the above technologies, the better it will be for the country's economy as well as welfare of the people.