KARACHI: Dr I.H. Usmani, Senior Energy Adviser, United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) said … that Pakistan should utilise the abundant sunshine, wind power and agricultural and animal wastes to generate energy to meet the demand, particularly in the rural areas. In an … interview with “DAWN”, the former Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, suggested that a high-powered autonomous organisation should be created for harnessing renewable sources of energy in the country.

“The first task before such an organisation would … be to conduct a survey of the availability of the resources in each Province and then to select sites where energy stations could be established… . In this effort … assistance from the agencies of the [UN] … could be considered to be available to the Government… . …[L]ack of energy causes poverty and poverty causes pollution of the human environment resulting in the degradation of the quality of life”, he said… . …[D]r. Usmani said that the conventional method of providing energy to villages through electrification programmes is at a very high capital cost… . The UNEP has therefore decided to utilise naturally available resources of energy.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2025