Capt (Retd) Syed Khalid Sajjad It might not be true for any other country, but for Pakistan survival lies in its economy. If the wheel of Industry keeps on moving, Labour of all disciplines would remain employed and people will not feel any hardship. But to stopping the wheel of Industry is a simple phenomena. Just start load Shedding on alternate hour basis, so that no Manufacturers and Industrialists will have to lay off the labour. Certainly for initiating load shedding, the best arrangement shall be, to project before the public, the difference between the supply and demand through official figures which cannot be verified by general public and shall be considered them correct, as coming out of horses month, without bothering every to verify the details of hundreds of megawatts being lost. Pakistan is lucky for being fed through rivers, full of water, which can easily produce electricity just by making it fall on the blades of Turbines, thus producing electricity by spending not a single penny on fuel unlike thermal Power Houses. Should not we be considered foolish to allow India constructing series of Power houses on Indus, Jehlum and Chenab, while the only water & Power project on river Indus near Kalabagh conceived planned and Designed for launching, forty years back, has now been scrapped for all times to come by a so-called Democratic Govt. Our agriculture, industry and transportation Industry play an important role in national economy. Since all of these sectors rely on diesel, it is imperative that the price of diesel be brought at par with petrol. It bears repeating that the tube wells, harvesters, tractors and electric trains, trucks, buses etc, all run on Diesel. Even if WAPDA now installs, new thermal power plants and add between 2000 to 3000 MW to its existing system within two years as per its claim while not utilizing the existing power of IPP's, WAPDA, shall become an extreme case of an inefficient and corrupt department as the cost of electricity shall rise going up to Rs 25 per unit approximately. The general public will not be able to pay this much. Unfortunately the government is raising the price of diesel, gas and furnace oil as compared to petrol, which is mostly consumed by rich people for their cars only. That is like turning the poor people poorer without realizing that thermal power, agriculture and long distance transportation depends only on diesel. Keeping the economy of Pakistan and the prices of utilities and eatables meant for a common person in mind, the maximum price of diesel should not in any case be more than Rs. 25 per litter while that of petrol more than Rs.50 per litter. It was just a decade back when WAPDA stopped adding generation of power both from water or thermal resources and since then had failed to add even a single mega watt to its capacity except a few Megawatts from the Canal Ghazi Barotha. At present, the government must start building Kalabagh dam. The water that flows into the Arabian Sea could be stored in the dam and used for a variety of purposes including irrigation purposes. The best way to economic turmoil lies in the destruction of WAPDA. Unfortunately, incompetent chairpersons in WAPDA during the past 10 years, explains the pitiful state of affairs. They were assigned the duties of privatizing WAPDA, and to stop all the development projects. Can any one believe that Wapda is now installing rental Power-houses, which shall supply electricity at double the cost of IPPs Power. It looks as if there will never be funds available for the construction of Kalabagh Dam because the US simply doesn't want it. Bhasha Dam shall be more suitable for the US, though costing twice or thrice more in terms of times and money as Karakoram Highway need to be submerged in a lake created through Bhasha Dam, so that in case of a war between India and China the only road link between the two countries is submerged in water and destroyed, thus preventing China for using it against India. Remember if there is no electricity for our Agriculture and Industry the very survival of Pakistan will be at stake. Power-houses, Industry and Agriculture can easily be destroyed by increasing the prices of diesel, gas and oil, while lowering the prices of petrol. What a nice idea Do we also want to be a part of this conspiracy? Most probably the answer is "YES", as it appears apparently. Kalabagh Dam is the only cheapest and immediate source of energy and storage of water, which can be made available to us within five years, while other hydel projects would take at least 12 to 20 years. Remember If we don't go for Kalabagh now, the solidarity of Pakistan might be at stake and every province would be cursing the others for not making decisions at the right time. Decision made today shall be a part of history tomorrow.