LAHORE: Governance and writ of the government did not exist even in Ramazan while costly and cheap items were being sold in the special Ramazan bazaars and woes of public being increased in the name of relief and facilitation. These views were expressed by experts in the Jang Economic Session ‘Ramazan -- Inflation and Loadshedding - Solutions’. The panellists were Hussain Ahmed Sherazi, Asadullah Khan, Sajida Mir, Mian Yousaf and Abdul Rasheed Sindhu while hosted by Sikandar Lodhi. Hussain Sherazi said that bad governance was directly negatively affecting defence, law and order, outages, inflation and everything which worsened the public problems. He said shortages were created due to mismanagement, not due to an increase in demand. He called for effective policies implementation to provide relief to the public. He stressed the need for the Kalabagh Dam and small power generation projects. He suggested that electricity conservation policy by involving all the stakeholders should be devised through which markets closed early. Asadullah Khan said that demand of electricity during Ramazan was increased unexpectedly while production was not increased accordingly. He said power outages were fewer than the previous year but the public was in trouble due to harsh summer. He called for immediate steps to control the electricity theft with effective punishment, so that power outages could be controlled. He said system load, transmission lines and grid station capacity should be increased. He believed that if cheap electricity sources would not be adopted the problems would increase. Sajida Mir said globally rates were reduced on special occasions while in Pakistan, the prices increased. She said in Pakistan subsidy was provided rather to reduce the price but the subsidy was misused. She believed that special Ramazan bazaars could not provide relief to public if availability of quality products was not ensured there. She called for public welfare
policies and suggested that long-term policies should be made to get rid of power outages while focus should be on energy generation instead of metro buses and orange line train. Mian Yousaf said that ensuring all facilities of life was the mandate of the state but in Pakistan, such approach did not exist. He said government should ensure basic edibles at special discount rates He said Rs3.5 billion Punjab government Ramazan subsidy was not seen anywhere. He called for development of hospitals, universities and schools rather than bridges and roads so that basic civic facilities could be available to public. Abdul Rasheed Sindhu said reality of special Ramazan bazaars was not more than the photo sessions.
