KARACHI: Pakistan’s federal government and Sindh on Thursday announced they would take business leaders on board regarding a new energy conservation plan after traders, industrialists, and restaurant owners protested against the idea of shutting their businesses earlier than usual.
Under the national energy-conservation program announced by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif earlier this week, markets and restaurants would be required to close by 8 pm and wedding halls by 10 pm. The measures had been announced as the South Asian nation suffers acute energy shortages amid high costs of imports, soaring inflation, and depleting forex exchange reserves and remittances.
The business community did not respond well to the plan, saying it had not been consulted on the measures which would hit its already struggling businesses. Therefore, business leaders said they had “outrightly rejected the measures.”
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif, along with their respective teams, on Thursday, discussed the roadmap of the energy conservation plan and decided to take all stakeholders on board.
“After thorough discussions and deliberations, it was agreed that all the stakeholders, particularly traders, industrialists, restaurant owners, and others, would be taken into confidence by the prime minister and the chief ministers at their respective levels so that their cooperation could be ensured,” the Sindh Chief Minister’s House said in a statement.
The government says it expects to save Rs62 billion ($274 million) annually through these measures.
During the meeting, Asif told the chief minister that various energy conservation measures, introduced to control petroleum import bills that have reached $80 billion in 2022, were presented to the federal cabinet in October.
“The prime minister had constituted a committee to fine-tune the measures and the committee held five sessions to identify and strategize potential energy efficiency and conversion measures,” the statement quoted Asif as saying.
The recommendations of the committee, as spelled out by the defense minister in the statement, showed that if 20 percent of the staff is allowed to work from home once a week it would save Rs56 billion annually. If commercial markets are closed at 8 pm, it would save Rs62 billion per year.
As per the plan, if alternate switching of streetlights is observed, it would save the country Rs4.5 billion annually.
The Sindh chief minister thanked the federal government’s team for their visit and for sensitizing him about their roadmap.
“Improvement in energy efficiency and conservation was one of the easiest and least cost-effective pathways to improve the country's energy sector sustainability,” Shah said, per the statement.
Pakistan mainly relies on imported fuel to produce electricity. The share of Regasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) in the energy mix of Pakistan was 23.8% in the last fiscal year, according to official data.
Pakistan’s energy imports during the last fiscal year were $23.3 billion, accounting for more than 29% of the country's total imports. During the current fiscal year, the country imported energy products worth $7.7 billion, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
