ISLAMABAD: With Pakistan in the throes of another energy crisis in the wake of the disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, the federal government has been urged to address “structural flaws” in its energy policy instead of resorting to “knee-jerk” reactions to fix the problem.
In a press conference held at the National Press Club, Khadim Hussain of the Alliance for Climate Justice and Clean Energy (ACJCE) and Dr Khalid Waleed of the Pakistan Renewable Energy Coalition (PREC) issued an “energy security charter”, urging the government to promote renewables, shun fossil fuels, and renegotiate agreements with the IMF among other measures.
Some of these flaws, according to Mr Hussain, were heavy reliance on imported fuels for energy generation; domestic extraction of fossil fuels, such as coal, at the expense of the environment; mega hydropower projects; and the centralised inflexible grid system.
According to the charter read out by Mr Hussain, the US-Iran war has exposed Pakistan’s dependence on imported fossil fuels and this conflict must be “treated as the trigger for a fundamental shift in how Pakistan plans, finances, and builds its energy system”. “Building a flexible and reliable grid capable of integrating renewables at scale must therefore become the top planning priority, guided not only by least-cost principles but equally by environmental sustainability and the use of clean indigenous resources,” it said, calling for a decisive redirection of investments towards renewables.
The charter, read out by Mr Hussain, called for a ‘national battery and energy storage emergency’, urging the government to remove all taxes, duties, and levies on battery and energy storage systems (BESS) and related equipment, and fast-track deployment of storage at both grid and end-user levels.
“Up to 60% of Pakistan’s massive Rs1.8 trillion capacity payments in FY2024–25 are attributable to fossil fuel plants, spanning IPPs, public RLNG units, and imported coal projects,” it said, adding that the government must deliver a binding plan for the early retirement of imported coal and public fossil fuel plants.
The charter also proposed reforms in the industrial and fiscal architecture, such as facilitating domestic EV manufacturing and charging ecosystem through fiscal and industrial incentives and a single clean energy facilitation window. It also demanded that the petroleum levy be reduced to Rs50 per litre and at least 50pc of the revenue be “ringfenced and channeled into the rollout of EV charging infrastructure, public transport, and the electrification of vehicles”.
The charter called for the establishment of a solarisation fund and a national program to solarise agricultural tubewells and the boats of river and coastal fisher folks, ending exposure to imported fuel shocks and safeguarding food security.
During the press conference, Dr Waleed said the government should not rely on short-term policy measures as it had in the past, adding that previous policy actions that promoted fossil fuels for power generation from 2013 onwards had failed.
He proposed a people-centric approach instead to address the current energy crisis.
According to the energy expert, from 2013 onward, Pakistan spent $9 billion of debt financing to install more than 6,000MWs of power plants including coal and RLNG, while rooftop solar adoption generated 7,000MW without government involvement and saved $6 billion since 2022.
He proposed the government should reorient its focus from capacity expansion to grid modernisation and consider rationalisation of power capacity through repurposing fossil fuel plants to battery storage and incentivising off-grid solutions, such as rooftop solar and storage.
Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2026