Speaking at a seminar titled "Enabling Energy Investment in Pakistan" organised by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) here on Wednesday, they said the government should focus on national energy policy and it should be based upon the consultation and contributions of all the stakeholders. The security situation and perception about the country has to be improved and corruption has to be checked. National energy objectives have to be spelled out clearly and short-term, medium-term and long-term strategies have to be chalked out to deal with energy crisis.
The factors serving as impediments for investment in Pakistan's energy sector are numerous, but first thing is the perception about Pakistan that has to be changed to attract investment, they observed. The seminar was attended by foreign investors, government officials, experts, lawyers and professionals in energy sector to assess the situation and to work out solutions for bringing the country out of the crisis with respect to energy supply.
Among the panellists were Abdul Rahim, former member Nepra; Naveed Ismail, CEO of Genco Holding Company; Muhammad Arif, President Petroleum Lawyers Association and Zaigham Rizvi, Consultant, World Bank. Mirza Hamid Hassan, former federal secretary, water and power and chairman IPS Steering Committee on Energy presided over the session. Underlining the significance of the energy supply, it was noted that in its landmark judgement on Rental Power Plants, the apex court had termed the 'reliable energy supply' as one of the fundamental rights of the citizens. On the contrary, the whole country, excluding Karachi, is functioning just over 8500 mega watts of electricity per day, which is less than many cities in the world.
It was observed that widespread corruption, absence of fair practices and bureaucratic obscurities too had played a visible role in not only keeping the new investors out, but also to evict the existing investment companies from the country. Various examples were quoted during the course of discussion where foreign investors felt aggrieved by the decisions that were politically motivated but had no forum to which they could raise their grievances.
It was also highlighted that the laws and the institutional framework too seems lacking and the laws of pre-partition era are still in place with minor adjustments. The recent 18th amendment has rather made the things more ambiguous and the difference of interpretations among the Federal and provincial governments has hampered the oil and gas exploration activity for months and no move has been made to bring clarity to the policy. The risk perception for the investment too is not assessed from the point of view of an investor and the policies are not adapted accordingly.
It was also suggested that the utility management services, including energy, should not involve too much government interference. The government should act only as a fair judge among producers, distributors and consumers of energy. According to a proposal, the loans for housing should include cost of solar instalments, which may not bring a major change as far as national energy situation is concerned, but will offer direct relief to the people. Hydro and nuclear energies were seen as the long-term solutions for domestic energy needs while it was suggested that investors should be incentivized into the coal-based energy production, which offers a viable medium term solution.
Director General IPS Khalid Rahman concluded the session saying that the failure of successive Pakistani governments should not be equated as failure of Pakistani state. People of Pakistan, he added, had a lot of potential and the only thing that Pakistan lacked was that government could not establish a trust among the masses.