This is with regards to the article, “Copper politics and state of economy”, published on 11/01/12. It does not need any new evidence that we have abundant natural resources in our country, but we have tried little to exploit them properly to get rid of our economic woes. The only exception was our self-sufficiency in natural gas, but thanks to our planners that millions of new connections to gain political mileage by successive governments, especially during Musharraf’s regime, criminally uncalculated distribution of CNG station permits and conversion of industries to gas for power generation due to government imposed exorbitant cost of diesel and furnace oil that today gas has become a rare commodity. The nation starved itself for the country’s nuclear programme, but it has only helped us become equipped with nuclear weapons and there are no chances that the nuclear technology can be used by our scientist for peaceful means, especially for power generation. Our celebrated nuclear scientists are not even capable to overhaul the ailing Chashma and KANUPP plants to solve the energy crisis. Trillions of rupees of the poor nation were spent over years on the nuclear and missile programmes with no audit requirement. However, the country’s nuclear assets instead of making it invincible have made it more vulnerable.
LONE RANGER
LAHORE