RAWALPINDI, May 7: Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and PML-N stalwart Ishaq Dar on Monday stressed on the need to utilise alternative sources to overcome the ongoing energy crisis in the country.

“The energy crisis is a big challenge for the country as its economic condition is deteriorating due to federal government’s wrong policies,” he alleged while addressing the business community at a function organised by Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) to unveil his party’s economic agenda at a local hotel.

Mr Dar further alleged the federal government had failed to start the long as well as short-term plans to end the electricity and gas loadshedding which caused the closure of industrial units and created unemployment in the country.

He said the government could only end the crisis if it took concrete steps to reduce the Rs700 billion circular debt which was a major hurdle in the country’s economic development.

He informed the participants that PML-N led Punjab government, would start the short-term plan of generating 5,000 megawatts of additional electricity while reducing circular debt, starting Nandipur Thermal Power Project, and utilising sugarcane waste.

“The government should improve the old power plants while encouraging private investors and these power plants can generate additional electricity,” he said and added that the coal should be utilised for energy generation.

He further said the country had biggest reservoirs of coal in Sindh and added that Italy was generating electricity from coal.

Ishaq Dar feared the food insecurity would hit the country if the government failed to build water reservoirs. He warned there was a dire need to build new dams for electricity generation and water reservoirs. He said that there was a need to build dams in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and on Indus River.

He added that lack of political will had aggravated the energy situation and assured the participants the PML-N was working seriously to develop comprehensive short-term and medium-term strategies to ensure adequate supply of electricity and gas at affordable prices to the masses and to the agricultural and industrial consumers.

He said recovery of electricity bills in Punjab was 90 to 93 per cent and line losses were recorded around 30 per cent as compared to other parts of the country.