ONE day it was the cool comfort of spring. The next morning summer arrived with the force of an unwelcome intruder. Until October, life will be hell on earth, especially in hell’s scorching suburb called Pakistan.

Yet again, our nation is caught between mismatched policies and their endless impact, between our energy requirements and erratic availability. Over the past 30 years, every government has laid a Humpty Dumpty egg of an energy policy. In March 1994, a new energy policy, issued with the benediction of the World Bank, addressed three aspects: our inadequate capacity (then 10,800 MW), the growth pattern of demand over the previous 25 years (eight per cent per year), and an anticipated requirement of 54,000 MW by 2018.

In September 1994, the US secretary of energy, Hazel O’Leary (a political version of Tina Turner and later president of an insolvent Fisk University), led a delegation of 90 American business persons to Pakistan. During her visit, 16 agreements were signed envisaging an investment of $4 billion in Pakistan’s energy sector. Within two months, the Power and Infrastructure Board boasted that it had received “an overwhelming response … with applications for over 25,000 MW against the target of about 5,000 MW till........

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