Gilani’s orders came at a special meeting with the chief ministers of all the provinces and federal ministers at Prime Minister’s House, after the conclusion of second-day deliberations at the National Energy Summit.
The prime minister was briefed on the outcome of the proceedings over two days. The water and power minister told him that the proposals agreed on at the summit required further discussions at various levels before finalisation.
Gilani said the proposals to be submitted with the technical subcommittees should be thoroughly deliberated, and “no decision should be made in haste”. He said a well-coordinated “national plan of action” covering short, medium and long-term measures should be prepared to provide relief to the masses.
Gilani said a non-discriminatory and uniform approach for all regions and sectors should be adopted while finalising the proposals. He asked for the final recommendations to be presented to him on Thursday, and said they would be subsequently announced in the afternoon the same day.
The prime minister praised the “devotion and dedication” of the chief ministers, federal ministers and heads of departments in addressing energy-related problems. He said the concern shown by everybody reflected commitment for a national cause. “Such endeavours are a dividend of the spirit of reconciliation and making decisions with consensus,” he said.
Earlier, the two-day summit – presided over by Water and Power Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf – constituted four technical subcommittees, which would hold deliberations today to prepare final recommendations, which would be filed by the water and power minister with the prime minister.
Sources in the Water and Power Ministry said one of the committees would make recommendations on energy conservation; another on capacity additions and a third on medium-term and long-term policy measures, while a special committee would consider miscellaneous energy-specific issues.
The special committee includes representatives from all provincial governments, the federal government’s power and gas organisations and the private sector.
The second day of the summit was exclusively devoted to technical briefings by World Bank, Asian Development Bank, PEPCO, the Thar Coal Energy Board, AEDB and other private sector stakeholders.
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