Spokesman Report

Islamabad: FPCCI’s Presidential candidate Atif Ikram Sheikh on Wednesday said mishandling of the energy sector is hurting the public and the economy.

The troubled economy has suffered billions of dollars in losses because of inefficiencies in the energy sector, he said.

Atif Ikram Sheikh said that the energy sector is facing policies that contradict the ground realities which is shrinking GDP for decades.

He said that the LNG sector could not be streamlined despite spending billions of dollars and the industrial sector is paying the price for it.

When gas was cheap, it was not imported and imports were started when its price in the international market was more than the purchasing power of consumers.

Pakistan has been importing LNG for six years and to become the world’s ninth largest LNG importer but it has failed to streamline the system and experiments are being done.

During all these years, neither gas pipeline could be built nor have new gas terminals been built while the private sector is not allowed to import gas.

He said that 60 percent of the country’s exports were related to the textile sector which is facing serious issues which need to be resolved.

Atif Ikram noted that the mismanagement and weak governance in the power sector increased transmission and distribution losses to Rs473 billion during 2021, while the total receivables of the sector reached Rs1.5 trillion .Energy is a chronic problem that last eight governments have not been able to solve. Due to mismanagement and weak governance in the power sector resulting in huge losses.

Dozens of international oil and gas exploration companies have either closed their businesses in Pakistan while local companies could not find good oil and gas reserves because of mismanagement.