KARACHI            -           President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President All Karachi Industrial Alliance (AKIA), Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former Provincial Minister, Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday lauded the efforts of the government to rationalise power purchase agreements signed with private power producers.

Balanced agreements will provide some relief to the masses and reduce the cost of doing business which will increase production and exports, he said.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that electricity is costly in Pakistan as compared to the regional countries which has many disadvantages including costly production.

The former Minister noted that a flawed power policy was made a few decades ago in which national interests were compromised for personal welfare. Private power producers were allowed to use any fuel to generate electricity and they were offered unbelievable rates as well as relaxations, he said.

This move increased power production and added to the wealth of people involved at the cost of the economy of Pakistan, he added.

Now the government has initiated serious efforts to improve the tilted agreements with private power producers which is in the national interest, he stated. Mian Zahid Hussain said that a mechanism should be designed to discourage people in power to play with the future of the country for personal welfare.

He said that Pakistan has matchless hydel, solar, wind, garbage and tidal energy potential but imported fuel is used to generate electricity which jacks up oil import bill and creates many problems.

Hydel power potential is said to be in hundreds of thousands of megawatts but only 9389 megawatts is generated, solar power potential is seven hundred thousand megawatt but the production remains insignificant, wind power potential is 50,000 megawatts while we only generate 2,000 megawatt.

He demanded a focus on renewable resources to generate electricity which will provide clean energy and save oil import bill.