Pakistan news-On January 23, 2023, at 7.30a.m Most of Pakistan's nearly 230 million population was plunged into darkness. If there’s a nationwide, full blackout for 24 hours or for 12 hours, then imagine the patients who are sitting at home and have to use nebulizers, humidification, Labeling, or BiPap machine, labeling its rarity, government officials blamed a voltage surge in the south of the country that led to a major breakdown in the national grid. About 24 hours until the power is fully restored. Daily activities in hospitals, schools, homes, and business establishments were greatly disrupted. Pakistan’s textile industry, its largest export sector, reportedly suffered estimated losses of $70 million.
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D.R. Shayan Ansari is a surgeon at a private hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital.We were quite lucky that in our Hospital, we had a good backup, system But if you go to our government hospitals, which didn’t have a backup of, facilities or nursing homes.They had to stop all their services basically.Distribution companies are then unable to pay power generators, which, as a result, struggle to compensate their fuel suppliers, who do not have the money to import oil. This then affects the supply of fuel supplies, leading to shortages. Pakistan's power sector's 'circular debt' is on the rise of Cashflow problems across the entire supply chain. Domestic energy production in Pakistan includes coal, oil, and natural gas A lack of investment in exploration and development activities, however, means that the sector is heavily reliant on fossil fuel imports.Fossil fuels make up nearly two-thirds of Pakistan’s energy mix, leaving the country extremely vulnerable to fluctuations in global oil and gas prices, which skyrocketed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The government plans to derive more than 60% of the country’s energy from alternative and renewable sources such as hydropower, wind, and solar energy by 2030.Iqbal Singh Sevea is the regard director at the National University of Singapore’sInstitute of South Asian Studies.The large investments you need towards renewable energy sources, that’s not there yet.There is an attempt to bring in private players to achieve the level of funding that one needs.Pakistan has long been in negotiations for a gas pipeline from Iran, from the Turk minister, which includes Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.The problem is they are stuck in broader Geo-political conflicts.The line from Turkmenistan is stuck because of the Taliban’s return of special regard to regard director of Afghanistan.The Iran gas pipeline is stuck with special regard to the fact that America imposed sanctions on trading with Iran.Volatile commodity prices aren’t the only concern for Pakistan’s government.Dwindling foreign exchange sector reserves, double-digit inflation, dangerously high national debt, and a devaluation of the rupee have heaped pressure on the power sector, leaving, the country on the verge of a default.The floods that affected a third of the land mass of our country, killed our agricultural sector, and 5 million acres of standing crop, took a huge chunk out of our GD, P, and left us in an extremely difficult way as far as our economy is concerned.Ijlal Naqvi is a sociology professor and the author of “Access to Power,”which examines the state of electricity in Pakistan.There’s a fundamental issue with the Pakistani power sector which is that each unit of power that’s sold is unaffordable – it comes with a government subsidy and that government subsidy has to be paid for and it's got to come out of what are essentially tax revenues.Perhaps only 1 percent of Pakistanis are paying direct income taxes.So what happens is that this shortfall in revenue needs to be funded.That tends to be the focus of IMF programs and the World Bank.The cash-strapped nation has turned to the IMF for help more than 10 times since the late 1980s to help weather economic crises, and it's doing so again.But the fund wants Islamabad to strengthen its fiscal position first by reducing subsidies and increasing taxes, a move that would likely place an even greater burden on the consumer.We’ve been arguing that instead of giving across-the-board subsidies, you can restrict it to those who are poor or who are in the lower-middle-income group.The tragedy is that our industry is not competitive because we are cross-subsidizing the domestic sectors for political reasons instead of helping to advance our industry and exports.Pakistan has also sought assistance from long-time ally and neighbor China to shore up its power infrastructure.Since 2015, Beijing has invested more than $60 billion to develop the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a 3,000-kilometre infrastructure network project that is central to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.And energy projects are a critical part of that - with 14 across the country completed by the end of 2022.However, due to the worsening economic situation, Pakistan has struggled to pay off over $1 billion in debts it owes to Chinese power producers, which have reportedly shut down multiple plants in retaliation.When Pakistan first set out to develop nuclear energy, it looked to Canada.But when India did its nuclear test in 1974, there were many countries who were suppliers of nuclear agreed that unless you were a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, then you would not be able to purchase civilian nuclear facilities as well.Which meant that Pakistan could only rely on those who were willing to sell it. Then China stepped up.The energy sector investments were done basically at the commercial rate, And they were done at the request of the Pakistan government. For the Chinese it is incidental.The fact that Pakistan struggles to pay for those investments on an ongoing basis is largely on the government's side.What we should have done according to the agreement with the Chinese, should have created an escrow account in which all the payments due to the Chinese producers, should have been deposited. So we have violated that agreement, which is annoying the Chinese, Chinesenessso I consider that to be a breach of trust.According to the IMF, more than 30 percent of Pakistan’s total foreign debt is owed to China.Despite the unpaid dues, however, China continues to execute power projects under CPEC.In February 2023, Pakistan inaugurated a $2.7 billion Chinese-designed nuclear reactor in the commercial capital of Karachi.We’re leveraging in essence, our Geo-strategic importance to say that you can’t let us fail in the way that you let Sri Lanka fail. We’re too important, it’s too dangerous to the world.And that’s disappointing, but it is a path to getting dollars. I’m not sure that overseas allies, or friends, can really solve this set of issues. It’s down to how the Pakistan state deals with its citizens, and that’s the actual relationship that needs to be transformed. We have a proud history of being at the confluence of geopolitical risk. We played a key facilitating role in the establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. And China Going forward, we want to be a bridge between countries, not a dividing force.