Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has announced that all government buildings in the country to solar power, starting from those belonging to federal government entities will be entirely running on Solar Power by April. He claimed that this will save 300 to 500 megawatts per month and slash the import bill hovering at around $27 billion a year if we use Solar Power in all of our government buildings.
Speaking at a solarisation conference in Islamabad, on Tuesday, the Prime Minister also blamed all previous governments in the last 30 years including two terms of his brother and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, for “unbridled circular debts” in the power sector that have escalated to Rs2.5 trillion.
He said that in view of the prevailing economic crisis in the country, the time had come to make long overdue reforms, for which he said bureaucrats had to rejuvenate themselves to serve the nation and clear official files without any fear of NAB. Prime Minister said:
“Due to a lack of responsibility and reforms, the circular debt in the power sector has become a monster and all previous governments of the last 30 years are responsible for it. The circular debt has become four times bigger than our development funds of Rs700 billion.”
Sharif said that under the energy-saving plan, all the federal government ministries, departments, authorities, and their offshoots in the provinces would immediately shift to solar energy in the next four months. He hopes to set a motivation for provincial governments as the federal government would not make additional expenditures over the solarisation process.
He said the entire process would be conducted through transparent bidding via a third party. He urged chief ministers to emulate the center’s pattern and introduce solar systems in their provinces and assured the federal government’s complete assistance in this regard.
The prime minister said that the process for generating 10,000MW solar power in the country had already started and such a conversion by the federal government buildings would be the first phase.
He maintained that the nation was suffering from unprecedented inflation and admired citizens for bearing the hard times, but added the government had no other option but to go to the IMF.
“The PTI government had backed out of the IMF program and brought the country to the verge of economic destruction and that is why the IMF does not trust us,”
The prime minister said that during the Covid pandemic, gas prices crashed to a record low of $2 per unit, but the then government “committed criminal negligence” by not securing its import, and due to this the whole nation was suffering now.
He said that during former PM Nawaz Sharif’s last tenure, a 15-year agreement for buying LNG at 13.2 percent of Brent crude oil was reached with Qatar, but unfortunately, it was politicized by the subsequent government.
Currently due to the global situation, gas was not available while the fuel was being sold at an exorbitant price in the global market, he said, adding that they would have to convert to solar and renewable energy with lightning speed.
The PM said that during the previous PML-N government, efforts were made to generate cheap hydroelectricity, and land worth Rs100 billion was acquired to build the Bhasha dam, but those were long-term measures to generate affordable power in the country. He said that under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, power projects were completed by the PML-N government in 2015 to overcome crippling power outages.
Enumerating the economic challenges faced by the country due to skyrocketing fuel and gas prices after the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he said that developing countries like Pakistan had to bear the brunt.
He said the $27 billion costly fuel import bill was a big challenge for the countries like Pakistan, adding the ongoing conflict had also surged prices of gas and worsened its availability as the supply to Europe was disrupted.
The prime minister said during the Covid pandemic, the prices of gas crashed to the lowest and it was sold at $2 per unit, the then government committed criminal negligence by not securing its import and due to it, now the whole nation had been suffering.
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