Safeeda culture

I have to make a confession. I was one of the very few supporters of the energy policy being announced by Benazir Bhutto in 1995 (and then I looked a fool). Keeping in view the events that have gone by, I really feel good about me for taking that stand. My stand then was based on the following considerations: 1. Load-sheddings are a killer to economic growth and so energy is required from anywhere at any cost. 2. Hydel power is not a viable and sustainable option because of limited number of hydel power locations. 3. At that moment the quickest of hydel power projects would have took 6-7 years before being operational. The opportunity cost of the delay caused by sticking to only hydel would have been too much to bear (95-98 saw 5%+ GDP growth per annum). 4. Kalabagh and other hydel projects are extremely politicized and should be avoided at the cost of federation till the federating units reach a consensus. 5. There exists a strong mega hydel projects lobby in WAPDA and engineering world (we know who runs WAPDA) that is pursuing for mega hydel projects for mega kick backs. Moreover, hydel projects will be funded by government thus enhancing the overall national debt to great proportions.6. Fossil fuel energy is the prevalent trend in the world and there is no better alternative available. The policy in essences was a scalable policy which provided incentives to private sector for investing in the energy sector while ensuring effective monopoly and price control by the government. 7. The policy was all inclusive, on one hand it talked about public-private partnership in energy sector, and on the other it included projects like Ghazi Barutha power project and Nuclear power plant deals with China and France. Thus it had true energy focus. 8. It was daring of a prime minister to go against the public opinion for a vision that was logical and long-term. 9. It had ample provisions for effective price control. For the companies had to reduce their tariffs to 2 cent per unit by 1999 to 2001 (for remaining 20-25 years of the project life).The IPPs were established and the immediate effects were visible soon after. Load-sheddings were gone. Electricity network expanded to villages and far-flung areas (many times more electricity connections in last 10 years than had been in the 40 years preceding them). Despite politicization of the policy by subsequent governments and mounting criticism, with every passing day, the effectiveness and justification of the policy became more and more evident (though many of us will hate to acknowledge it). And then came 2006, we are hit by an energy crisis. Load-sheddings and power failures are back and their impact on industry is measured in billions each day and now a rational analysis of the years gone by will reveal that politicizing and scraping this policy has took us to this day. But this column is not about energy policy. It is about a bigger issue, the general mindset. In my life, this energy policy was the first major deviance in public policy from the "Safeeda culture" that is a hallmark of our nation. Before I go any further with this, let me explain what safeeda culture is? Safeeda is the Urdu name for Eucalyptus tree. The major property of this tree is its ultra-rapid growth. But with it come ailments. Its wood is mostly useless. It does not offer shadow. It consumes a lot of water and thus causes the water table to lower. And it causes breath related allergies and other problems. In Pakistan, starting in 1980s, with expanding road networks came deforestation of green belts. The officials picked up Safeeda because it grew fastest. They completely ignored the environmental impacts, its impact on water table and breathing. Now Safeeda has become the national symbol of Pakistani planes. This approach is in-line with ad hoc policy making we as a nation are accustomed to and is one of the prime causes of our ills. The roots of this are not in corruption or ill-intentions but in sheer incompetence and finding shortcuts. And it is this incompetence that we as a nation need to come out of. The policies like Energy policy of Benazir Bhutto should be envied not because it was meant to address the issue at hand but also because unlike other policies it was a long-term solution and was opted risking the possible public opinion backlash.