PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif has appealed for Chinese expertise to build hydroelectric dams to help Pakistan in urgently overcoming crippling power shortages. In an interview with the Financial Times on Wednesday, Nawaz Sharif said Islamabad should call on Beijing to use its infrastructure capabilities to supply hydropower to Pakistan. Energy is the number one priority. We have to reform the existing system. We should invite the Chinese to build dams, he said. There is no time to waste. Our elections are two years away. Why cant the government do this today? Last year, Pakistan and China signed an agreement for the construction of the Bunji Dam in northern Pakistan. The Chinese counterpart was the China Three Gorges Project Corporation. The Bunji Dam is one of eight hydroelectric projects the government has identified across four provinces. It will have 7,000MW capacity. The hydroelectric plans, alongside other infrastructure projects, are causing alarm in neighbouring India, sensitive to water issues and the expanding influence of China. The enthusiasm for China shows that there is bipartisan support among the opposition Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz and the ruling Pakistan Peoples party to lean on Chinese assistance. Some diplomats say that Chinas relationship with Pakistan is purely commercial rather than developmental. They say that Beijing seeks business with its neighbour rather than offering assistance. When premier in the 1990s, Sharif was responsible for introducing a series of economic reforms that helped Pakistan reach higher levels of investment and economic growth. Pakistan also conducted its nuclear tests during his rule. Referring to recent terrorist attacks, Sharif said: Our economy is going down the drain because of these bomb explosions, because of the internal situation which is getting from bad to worse because of terrorist activities. Sharif identified crippling power shortages as the other most destabilising cause of a broken economy, saying that the business community and population at large were 'really fed up. In terms of economy, [the governments] biggest failure is energy. They have not been able to do anything, he said.