India eyes Thar Coal?

It is once again highlighted that Government of Sindh must not indulge itself in any such dubious deal to award the strategic contracts to Indian companies under the garb of steady improvement in trade relations and for the want of foreign investment. Such strategic projects must not be handed over to the companies from countries which have a history of enmity and hostility for Pakistan.  
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The poor economy has led Pakistan to verge of collapse, this warning was given by IMF to 180 million Pakistanis. The reserves of foreign exchange are not sufficient for next 3 months. In such a situation neither Pakistani loans would be rescheduled nor written of. Not only this IMF declined to issue further loans to Pakistan and the reasons that were for warded by the Jeffrey are based upon ground realities. So the issue of new loans have been conditioned with consent of provinces and guarantee of UN. Moreover he said that if Pakistan wants to recover from economic crisis than tax evasion should be stopped, tax rebates should be ended and the taxes should be levied upon agriculture and other services. Of course IMF is concerned about return of its money along with profit not about the public of the countries getting loans.

While discussing the basic problem of Pakistan Jeffrey repeated three times, energy, energy and energy and said that theft of electricity is the cause of budget deficit. Than who is stealing electricity, me or you? The common consumer is being looted by the electric supply companies that in spite of no electricity he is paying three times higher bills. Even one day’s delay in payment of electric bills leads to disconnection and the process of reconnection is so corrupt that every consumer prefers to pay bills on time even he has to starve. The real thieves of electricity, tax and national resources are those whose wash rooms remain cool in summer and warm in winter, no one is there to arrest them, law is power less for them and poor public is punished for their luxuries.

The value of rupee is decreasing day by day, in spite of abundance of eatables they are away from the purchasing power of common consumer and this situation has led to adulterated goods. Public is forced to eat these adulterated and unhealthy eatables that are spreading diseases in the society and to cure these public is once again offered adulterated medicine. Because unadulterated medicine are either not available due to the black marketing of the companies or beyond the purchasing power of general public. In this way corruption, bribery, tax evasion, thefts, black marketing, hoardings etc has engulfed the whole society and in near future there are no hopes to get rid from these evils. In such a situation the warning of IMF has no value for elites but is an alarm for public. Because in the history every country who got loans from IMF was doomed to destruction as this international imperialism conditions the loans with high rate of taxes over general public and in spite of being aware of this bitter reality that our corrupt rulers could no adhere from transferring these loans and national reserves to their accounts in foreign banks no l aw has been imposed on the international level to stop this transfer. In this way the loans that are given to the country on profit base are returned back to the banks of the donor country by their sponsored corrupt governments.

Now if IMF forwards the energy crisis and theft of electricity as reason for economic crisis, are we responsible for this? Pakistan has no shortage of natural resources. But on the hands there is corruption and on the other hand our eternal enemy could not tolerate this that Pakistan grows self sufficient. The Indian hand behind lawlessness and growing terrorism in Pakistan is now being pointed out even by western journalists. Due to terrorism external investors are not ready to invest in Pakistan. The big industrial units considered as backbone of economy are closed and other are about to be shutdown, now there is only one business i .e . real estate and housing colonies in which the illegal profits are being invested. India is enjoying this situation because on one hand she had succeeded in haulting the construction of Kala Bagh dam at the cost of 150 millions per year paid as bribe to corrupt factors of society and on the other hand she is busy in completion of projects to stop water of Pakistani rivers. Astonishing factor is that no public protest has been observed against Indian aggressive plans. The reason behind this is our Indian controlled media singing the chorus of Aman Ki Asha to deceive nation about Indian plans of Greater India.

Our corrupt rulers have never taken the crisis of energy seriously, whenever the deals are finalized for production of electricity the kickbacks involved in the deal force public to increased prices and taxes and as a result the energy crisis worsened. In the decade of 90 the Hubco deals or rental power projects of current govt. are the evidence of corruption of our politicians. However during this time nation has been given hopes of Thar coal reserves. It was even said that Thar Coal could generate 50,000 megawatts of electricity annually for 500 years. But nothing has been done practically. Last year Dr Samar Mand Mubarak gave these happy news that the project of under ground gasification going on from last three years had been successful. Now there is the only the funds that are required and than whole country would be glowing with light. Than why govt. is not ready to issue funds? They doubt the project of Dr Samar Mand Mubarak or just like Kala Bagh Dam they are getting paid to delay this project as well?

On the other hand Dr Shahid Munir, Director for Coal Technology of Punjab University has rejected Under Ground Gasification project. He is of the view that this would cost too much and the pollution generated from this project would make it unfeasible. He also claims that from such a costly technology not a single megawatt has been generated in the world. However this is purely a scientific discussion and a scientist could better explain it. However business com from India has broke the news that TATA and BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited) are interested for the purchase of Thar Coal Project and negotiations are going on since 2010. In this regard Arvind Sexena Economic and Commercial Counselor in Indian Embassy Islamabad is playing a vital role along with his ambassador Sharat Sabharwal, he has arranged many meetings between representatives of BHEL, TATA and SEMC (Sindh Engro Coal Mining Co). This should be kept in mind that SECMC is working on feasibility of 1200 megawatt power project of Thar Coal for which it required 30 million dollars.

According to the website with the cooperation of Indian Embassy the higher officials of SECMC had visited India where they held meetings with Tamil Nado and Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation. In this regard the daughter of Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah visited India last year along with 20 members of the delegation, in which Dr Mahe sh Maalani was the front person. The report of business.com is too long but the summary of the report is that officials of BHEL and TATA are satisfied regarding deal of Thar Coal and now they are only waiting for India being declared as Most Favoured Nation.

Some of the readers suffering with the fever of love for India might be angry over this column but this question is valid at its place that our so-called elected representatives who pass every bill of their personal matters within few hours from parliament why they cannot unite to chalk out a national policy for generation of energy from Thar Coal? Why the 18th amendment giving rights of mineral and natural resources to provinces they have not been made bound to respect and consider national stability, so that the sale of national assets like Reko Diq projects or Thar Coal on lower price for kick backs could be avoided. Now when every province of Pakistan is independent to decide about the mineral projects is it necessary to allow enemy like India to invest and hatch conspiracies against motherland within Pakistan? Cannot the provinces of Pakistan in vest mutually to generate 1200 megawatts of energy? When will our corrupt politicians learn that even if India becomes friend she will not adhere to harm Pakistan?
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By Sher Muhammad Khan

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