Proposals being discussed to find Kashmir solution: PM
Says Govt pursuing energy policy to sustain growth
Bureau Report

LAHORE—Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Tuesday said Pakistan supported demilitarisation and self-governance in Kashmir to seek an end to the long standing dispute with India.
Pakistan is a peace loving country and desires a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue according to the aspirations of Kashmiri people. Talking to newsmen after the ground breaking ceremony of Balloki Power Plant in District Kasur, he said Kashmir was a complicated issue and various proposals were being discussed to find a solution that is acceptable to the three stakeholders. He said Pakistan supported the proposals of demilitarisation and self-governance in Kashmir for resolution of the issue.
The Prime Minister termed the opening of Line of Control at five points as “a positive step in the right direction”. He said the initiative of President Pervez Musharraf would help Kashmiries on both sides of the LoC to interact and improve people to people contact. To a question regarding Opposition’s response to the Parliamentary Committee for Relief, he said the agenda of both the government and opposition on national issues should always be in the interest of the country and its people. He hoped that matters pertaining to the terms of referenceof the committee would be sorted out in an atmosphere of understanding and accommodation.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said government was pursuing a comprehensive programme to meet energy requirements of country’s growing economy with special focus on participation of the private entrepreneurs in this sector. He was speaking here at the ground breaking ceremony of first phase of 225 MW Balloki Combined Cycle Power Plant at Balloki (Kasur) launched by Orient Power Company (PVT) Ltd. Prime Minister said energy plays an important role in growth of an economy and said Pakistan has taken steps to ensure that it remains a driving force through its sustained increase. Governor Punjab Lt. General Khalid Maqbool, Chief Minister Ch.Pervaiz Elahi, Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jattoi, Chief Executive Orient Power Company (pvt) Limited Nadeem Babar, provincial ministers, parliamentarians, Chairman Wapda attended the event.
The Prime Minister said some 6 years back, country’s economy was in crisis with power sector facing host of problems including high tariff and IPPs issue. However, he pointed that with the special attention of President Musharraf “We not only rationalised tariff structure and resolved IPPs issue, but also evolved a framework to ensure sustained growth of energy sector”. The Prime Minister said structural reforms in different sectors including energy lent impetus to economy of the country and the country achieved the GDP growth rate of 8.4 achieved last year. “We have fixed GDP’s annual growth target at 6 to 8 percent and would hopefully achieve it this year also”. The Prime Minister said “we are one of the fastest growing economies of the world and would require huge investment of around rupees one trillion over next some years in energy sector of the country to maintain this growth rate”.
The premier said Economic Coordination Committee of Cabinet in its meeting yesterday took decisions to facilitate investment in this sector. The role of concerned departments including Wapda, Nepra, PPIB etc. has been clearly defined with clear policy guidelines for approval of projects. He said a clear policy and simple procedures would ensure transparency and help attract more investment in this sector. Stating that energy security was of vital importance for any country, the Prime Minister said government was fully aware of it and is determined to exploit all resources of energy. Besides constructing dams to produce hydel energy, Shaukat Aziz said, government was also paying attention to exploit coal and gas reserves for energy production besides going for non-conventional resources like wind, sun and nuclear energy. He said a number of projects were in pipeline in this regard. “We are also negotiating with Iran, Qatar and Turkmenistan for importing gas to meet our energy requirements,” he added.
Referring to the devastating earth quake, Prime Minister Aziz said, the country’s economy has managed to absorb its impact. “With structural reforms and prudential policy initiatives, now our economy has resilience, strength and depth,” he added. He said the donors conference has helped Pakistan with pledges of dollars 6.2 billion US dollars which would help carry out rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the affected area. He said it would take the affected areas a long time to reach the place where these were before the catastrophe. Meanwhile he said “We cannot ignore our economic activity to maintain momentum of economic growth which we have achieved with great struggle”. The premier said that Balloki Power Plant was the first major project initiated after the earth quake of last month.
Shaukat Aziz expressed gratitude to the Oman government for investment in Pakistan and Oman Oil Company for joining Orient Power Company (Pvt) Ltd as shareholder in the project. He said during the visit of Sultan Qaboos to Pakistan he had suggested joint ventures between the two countries in different fields. He said the Pakistan-Oman Company was constituted and was earning good profits. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said “some cynics tried to link our economic turn around with 9/11 incident, but by maintaining high economic growth, we proved that it was result of our structural reforms and right economic philosophy based on liberalisation, privatisation and deregulation”. He said as Pakistan with its rich human capital and vast resources has the full potential to be in place of economically advanced country. “We can ensure that Pakistan reaches where it should be by working hard and bridging the technological gap”. He said advance technology can help reduce cost of production and increase competitiveness of products.
Minister for Water and power Liaquat Ali Jattoi said with the prudent and effective policies of the government, the country has surplus power with a comprehensive plan for its increase to meet growing demand of energy. He said the total power production was 13000 MW while work on many projects was in progress. As a result of effective planning power generation in country was increasing by 10 to 12 per cent annually. He said ,”We have also sufficient water presently and there are no differences among the provinces over its apportionment as was the practice in the past”. Chief Executive Orient Power Company (Pvt) Ltd Nadeem Babar said it was the first IPP under the 2002 power policy and its tariff would be lower than any private producer. He said the plant was the most efficient thermal power plant in the country fully meeting World Bank standards for emissions and would be directly connected to the Lahore Grid.