God helps those who help others. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you should stop struggling and start depending only and only on help from others, just doing nothing at your own end. Applying this theme to Pak-America ties, signs are now visible to prove that this proverbial relationship has gained quite a momentum between the two countries. Had it not been so, the difficult, nay hard-to-please Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif would not have worn the USAID hat while inaugurating the Muzaffargarh Thermal Power Station’s (MTPS) rehabilitation ceremony and likewise, he would not have raised the slogan ‘US-Pak friendship Zindabad’ during the International Business Opportunities Seminar organized by Punjab Board of Investment & Trade (PBIT) the other day in the provincial capital. And then we have before us the CM’s background of ‘external aid bashing’ for which he had been repeatedly rejecting help from ‘Aghiaar’ (foreign masters, in fact). Probably this reinvigorated US-Pak friendship is free from the element of ‘foreign master mindset’ as it appears to be a help from the US to make us stand on our feet and not something like charity that Shahbaz had been denouncing off and on. Even during my recent talk with Mr Zachary V Harkenrider, the US Consul-General, Lahore, the latter told me that the US wanted to promote trade, not aid, with Pakistan. What I’ve inferred out of this statement is that even in cases of grants or aid, the emphasis is on helping others (Pakistan in the instant case) with equal concern for keeping the recipients’ dignity and self-esteem intact. If that is the case, then ‘Long Live US-Pakistan friendship. Additional good news in this friendship context has of late come to the fore the other day that USAID has practically helped Pakistan in finding huge reserves of shale gas and oil (gas reserves touch more than a trillion cubic feet figure). And the American company, GE, is already helping us in meeting the energy deficiency. As regards the rehabilitation of MTPS, it will restore some 500 megawatts of energy to Pakistan’s grid that, according to the US Consul-General, would benefit 4.5 million people. According to the American diplomat, “This project is one example of the ways in which the United States and Pakistan government have worked together closely to meet this country’s energy needs. To that end, we have committed more than $1 billion to energy sector investments and reforms in cooperation with the Government of Pakistan and the Government of Punjab province”. So, given these endeavours in general and combined efforts in particular, can we now conclude that Pakistan, especially Punjab has embarked on E-governance or Energy governance? The other day, a TV anchor asked me during a current affairs programme, whether good governance has come to the country? In all earnest I advised the anchorperson to forget about good governance. “Unless there is governance, how can we rate it as good or bad?” In Punjab, the chief has got rid of this debate and girded up his loins to make the province energy-sufficient without getting embroiled in good-bad debates. It is perhaps in this backdrop that Mr Zach, the US Consul-General, has described the CM as true leader in the energy sector “who is working tirelessly to bring new energy on line, and to attract investment to Punjab’s power sector as I can attest from my experience here in Punjab. And these efforts i.e. our investments, public as well as private, are bearing fruit that include state-of-the-art General Electric turbines and equipment for three new combined-cycle LNG power plants at Bhikki, Haveli Bahadur Shah and at Balloki. Meanwhile, U.S. government investments are helping build and renovate dams and hydropower plants such as Gomal Zam, Satpara, Tarbela, and Mangla, as well as thermal power plants at Muzaffargarh, Guddu, and Jamshoro but we are not going to rest as we are committed to continuing this cooperation. In April, the United States and Pakistan announced the Clean Energy Initiative, in which U.S. investment will help Pakistan add another 3,000 megawatts of clean, renewable energy to the grid over the next three years”. All these sincere American moves might illuminate many parts of our land but shouldn’t we emulate discipline, honesty and efficiency of the successful economic giants to combat the devastation unleashed on our system by some junior and middle-tier staffers of Discos who are working day and night to eclipse the energy-generation efforts by facilitating massive power thefts for a petty price? It is not a matter of remote past when some senior citizens pinpointed deceptive techniques employed by one or two Lesco staffers but no heed was paid by Ministry of Water and Power, Lesco CEO and even the Workers Federation that happens to be the union of electricity department employees. [mianrehman1@gmail.com]
