LONDON: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday addressed the Pakistan-Britain Energy Dialogue and Investment Conference in London.

“My vision is to develop a competitive energy market in Pakistan, that on one hand provides a fair return on investment and through a robust regime adequately protects the rights of consumers on the other," he said.

The conference focused on assisting Pakistan in seeking investment in addressing its energy needs through sharing expertise and best practices.

About two-thirds of Pakistan's energy is generated by oil and gas and there are widespread gas shortages, with cars run by CNG, compressed natural gas, queuing up for hours overnight to fill their tanks. Power shortages have sparked violent protests and crippled key industries, costing hundreds of thousands of jobs in a country already beset by high unemployment. "Load-shedding" means many families cannot pump water, let alone run air-conditioners, with a disastrous knock-on effect on health and domestic life.

Speaking at the conference, the prime minister said, "At the time of taking office, we inherited a challenging macroeconomic situation. Our priority was to pursue a course correction stipulating an increase in revenue, reduction in expenditures, refusing the fiscal deficit and expanding the development portfolio."

"We have reduced our budget deficit from over 8 per cent in fiscal year and took it to less to 6 per cent in the first year, and our poised to end the current fiscal year in around 5 per cent deficit. Our GDP growth though insufficient, also increased to 4.1 per cent last year , expected to be around 7 per cent before our term ends, he added.

"The primary objective of today’s discussion is to share ideas and international practices between policy makers and investors for formulating an optimal energy policy for Pakistan with particular focus on net energy sufficiency and developing a competitive energy industry," he added.

“I remain committed to transform the role of the government from manager to regulator and would like to explore how to build the public sector's capacity to regulate in a short time," the prime minister said.

Prime Minister Nawaz also mentioned that the designs of protesting parties have failed. He explained that the parties wanted to derail Pakistan and not the government.