KARACHI: The Sindh government is of the view that the Council of Common Interests (CCI) is the right constitutional forum where the contentious issues between the provinces and the federation, which hampered the growth of renewable energy sector, should be referred for their amicable resolution for the sake of greater clean power generation in the country.
Sindh Law and Environment Adviser Barrister Murtaza Wahab, who also acts as the spokesman for Sindh government, gave a statement to this effect while speaking as the chief guest at the 4th International Wind Energy Summit-2019 organized by the Energy Update. Barrister Wahab said on the occasion that the Constitution of the country clearly mandated the CCI to take up the issues concerning energy and electricity sectors as the federal government could not unilaterally take a decision on these subjects.
He said that contentious issues concerning the renewable energy projects like transmission, distribution of electricity produced by them, and their tariff determination should be resolved at the forum of CCI with consensus between the provinces and the centre.
He said that due constitutional course should be adopted for resolving the problems between the provinces and the centre as this method would only ensure resolution of all the issues no matter how much thorny they are. He said that public-private partnership mode of development would be utilized by the Sindh government to facilitate the renewable energy projects in the province as earlier it had successfully commissioned the Thar coal and energy project under the same mode.
He said that Sindh government was fully committed to the cause of development and expansion of renewable energy sector as one of the innovations it had adopted in this regard was setting up of Sindh Transmission & Dispatch Company as it was the first such provincial company in the power sector of the country. The provincial adviser said that both private sector and government by combining their resources could overcome all the related issues to ensure maximum generation of clean electricity in the country.
Earlier in his keynote address on the occasion, Balochistan Energy Secretary Passand Khan Buledi said that serious reservations of Balochistan government over the draft of new renewable energy policy of the country were yet to be addressed by the federal government. He said that provincial government’s reservations over the draft policy existed to the extent that if the policy document was implemented in its present shape then it will not be much helpful in harnessing massive potential of the province to generate clean electricity on basis of wind and solar power.
“Balochistan hasn’t produce a single megawatt of clean electricity as the situation will not be much changed if the new renewable energy policy of the country is implemented in the present status without resolving the genuine grievances of the province regarding the policy document,” said Balochistan Energy secretary.
