Ikramullah Mr Prime Minister, now that the 18th Amendment has been passed unanimously, I take this as an opportunity to highlight the areas that have been neglected by your government. One such area is the energy sector. Though the current power crisis has not erupted overnight, but Mr Prime Minister your government has been in power for the past two years. And despite several achievements to your credit, including the 18th Amendment and NFC Awards, many parallel initiatives could have been undertaken at the federal, as well provincial levels, to bring immediate relief to the masses from this constant agony. Sir, time is running out and who should know it better than the prime minister of the country. Something has to be done, urgently, before the present situation worsens. Unfortunately, the 'elected ' and 'selected ministers have delivered nothing substantial as far as the water and power crisis is concerned. Please sir, screen them out before you are blamed for their failures or misdeeds and worst involvement in corruption charges. In my quest, at personal level, to understand and resolve the water and power crisis, presently threatening Pakistans national security, my study revealed two major shortcomings. One, I failed to understand why all the successive governments have focussed more on building major dams - doing nothing after constructing Mangla and Tarbela - while ignoring other sources at the local level as many opportunities existed on the ground to complete small hydel projects. Indeed, a fact-finding mission needs to discover whether it was sheer incompetence of the previous governments or their vested interest that motivated them to pursue other high cost projects like thermal and rental. Two, the natural alternative to hydel source of power is coal and biomass. It is good that both are abundantly available in Pakistan to meet the countrys total shortfall of 4000 MW. My quests, by way of production through coal, lead me to Khushab where I was told that a project is functioning for the last 10 years. Therefore, I visited that plant which is unbelievably producing 8MW for their operational use through coal. The daily requirement of coal for this plant for steam and power generation is 500 tonnes and the supply of which is obtained from Azad Kashmir, Baluchistan, Punjab and Thar. But it is strange that with enough coal available in the country this source has not being utilised extensively to meet the energy shortage at an approximate cost of Rs 3.5 per unit, instead of a rental at Rs 15 per unit. Various plants in the range of 100 MW or more can be made operational in less than two years on a war-footing. If this initiative had been taken by the present government in 2008, most of these plants would have been operational or nearing completion. Thus, overcoming the present acute shortage and resultant loadshedding. Mr Prime Minister, you definitely have to do something soon for the progress and solidarity of the nation. The writer is the president of the Pakistan National Forum.