Sins of elites and high energy costs |
When the sixth-largest global nuclear power blames the IMF or Chinese IPPs for high energy prices and austerity measures that hit the poor the hardest, something must be fundamentally wrong. The IMF did not create Pakistan's circular debt, but the suit-donning, greedy, self-serving executioners in Islamabad did.
The real rot began when the PML-N government cleared Rs480 billion in circular debt within the first 47 days of returning to power in 2013. This coincided with the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative - the main framework for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Based on their own experience, Chinese officials explicitly advised Pakistan to invest in solar, wind and hydropower.
But Pakistan's "visionary" planners discarded the advice, practically relegating major hydropower initiatives such as the Diamer Bhasha Dam, Dasu, and Bunji Hydropower Projects - with over 15,000 MW potential cumulatively - in priorities and did not include them in CPEC's energy portfolio.
Instead, the Planning Commission and the then-minister of petroleum made a ruinous decision to commission four LNG-fired power plants and also opted for imported coal-fired power plants - all based on imported coal and LNG, priced in dollars, purchased on international markets, and vulnerable to every geopolitical storm and commodity price shock on earth. This move not only........