July 30, 2008	Wednesday	Rajab 26, 1429

KARACHI, July 29: Experts at a seminar have called for making judicious use of the country’s natural resources rather than banking on foreign ideas and imported fuel as such reliance has placed the country in a very difficult situation.

They were speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day seminar on Energy crisis and its solutions, which was organised by the geology department of the Federal Urdu University for Arts, Science and Technology in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission on Tuesday.

They laid emphasis on making maximum use of indigenous alternative sources of energy instead of depending on imported fuel, which was becoming costlier with each passing day.

These views were expressed on a day when almost 80 per cent of the city was without electricity for more than 12 hours due to a breakdown of the KESC system.

Calling for giving top priority to using Thar coal and sea water resources for generating electricity, provincial minister Syed Sardar Ahmad was of the view that the current energy crisis of the country, especially in the city, was the reflection of poor and ill-conceived planning.

He underlined the need for focusing on research on alternative sources and said the country was endowed with talented manpower and natural resources. He regretted that the resources remained under-utilised due to ill planning.

The minister advised the provincial officials concerned to attend and benefit from such workshops.

The chairman of the geology department of Karachi University, Dr Waqar Hassan, held the evolving international situation responsible for the continuing energy crisis.

He said that there should be no further delay in generating electricity through alternative resources. To overcome the energy crisis, he said, Thar coal project be accorded priority.

He described this very workshop as the need of the hour and appreciated the Higher Education Commission for encouraging academic and research activities.Dr Syed Kamaluddin of the Federal Urdu University for Arts, Science and Technology said that lack of planning was responsible for the energy crisis.

FUUAST Geology Department Chairman Prof Tasnim Ashraf, HDIP’s Director-General Hilal A. Raza, Nusrat Kamal Siddiqui, a former Director-General of the Geological Survey of Pakistan, Mirza Talib Hassan, and Ghazanfar Abbas also spoke.

Technical session of the workshop will be held on Wednesday.