He said it is time for South Asian countries to think about future of the people by increasing the regional share. He said Pakistan and India are most poor nations with high poverty and low human development, adding that the two countries need to harness their energy resources for sustainable development of the region.
While chairing the session, Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan and India need to cooperate, particular in meeting the energy demand. Commenting on the energy and climate change, he said that we have wind in the coastal areas and abundance of sun, but we are still not able to produce solar and wind energy.
Emphasising the importance of South Asian Co-operation, he said that South Asian countries will be the drivers of growth whereas energy is imperative to boost the economy growth. Therefore, South Asian countries will be the biggest consumers of energy and clean energy is important to protect the climate. While explaining the importance of conservation, he said that energy conservation brings human revolution. He added that, according to Islam, we should eat and drink but should not waste. Thus, we should follow the teachings of Quran. Every religion, he accentuated, tells its followers to act as custodians of the resources they are blessed with, thus it is our duty to protect the natural resources available to us.
Earlier, taking part in panel discussion Dr Hafiz A Pasha, former finance minister said it seems that all projections made in the study on economy for tomorrow are wrong because according to the government, the GDP growth rate has suddenly gone up from 3 to 5 percent and will go to 7 percent by the end of the current fiscal year. The rupee has appreciated from Rs 110 to Rs 104 and the government has passed the first test of the IMF. Dr Pasha stated that perspective of the study (economy for tomorrow) is not more than 3-5 years and focuses on three to four areas. He added that Pakistan's economic performance has not been determined by economic factors as much as by non-economic factors. In the last decade or so, war on terror, worsening of general law and order situation, insurgency in Balochistan (Baloch economic growth shows -2 percent per growth rate for the last decade), rise in sectarian violence - in all four provinces, for different reasons, is challenging position.
Sakib Sherani said that in case of Pakistan very few people realise that for Pakistan economy of tomorrow will be economy of scarcity of fiscal resources, scarcity of institutional framework and governance, scarcity of human resources, and scarcity of available land. Amongst these scarcities, the biggest scarcity is of governance and institutions and we have to build strong institutional and governance framework to handle it. The headline growth number in Pakistan is not the end objective in itself, the quality of growth is also important. Dr Vaqar Ahmed, Deputy Executive Director, SDPI, said all is not bad in Pakistan and there are recent pieces of good news for Pakistan, such as awarding of Generalised System of Preferences - GSP Plus to Pakistan. He also highlighted that Pakistan is now producing quarterly National Income Accounts. He said that resilience and sustainability matter. He said that circular debt is back.
This tells us that no matter how much we add to our national grid, we are dealing with consumers who do not want to pay, who are engaged in theft and who call for subsidy even by printing new money. There is no escape from structural changes. Dr Ahmed said that deteriorating environment leads to deterioration of human and physical capital. We have failed to take this into account at policy level.
Climate change makes poor more vulnerable and amongst them the women even more vulnerable. Pakistan has more glacial stock than China and India but Pakistan's stock is melting more quickly than China and India. In Pakistan there is no ministry of climate change, not even at the provincial level. Climate change is too important a subject to be devolved, he added.