Nearly half of the world's poor live in South Asia, a region that accounts roughly for the 30 per cent of the world's population. In Pakistan, most of the poor live in the backward areas like Tharparkar (Sindh). Fortunately the discovery of huge coal reserve in Tharparkar has opened new vistas of hope for the poor.

The government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a Chinese Company for a coal-fired power plant of 600 MW of electricity near Thar coal field. Thar has witnessed since the last three to four years, a sever drought-like situation due to scarcity of rains. Because of the extreme poverty in the region, people of Thar have been migrating from their ancestral villages to affluent areas of the neighbouring districts like Badin and Mirpurkhas to save their live stocks being their sole source of income.

Due to lack of irrigation water, agriculture production is in a moribund condition in both the districts. The large migration from Thar has put an unbearable burden on the economy of Badin and Mirpurkhas districts.

Recently, the prime minister has announced a development package for Thar. He has directed different agencies to complete their development projects within the shortest possible time. Ufone may be functional by December 2004. But only installation of mobile phones and construction of a few roads cannot bring solace to Tharies. The extreme poverty in the area demands that the improvement in economic conditions be assigned top priority, through exploitation of coal-mines in the region.

Improvement of infrastructure, provision of vocational training, protection of live stock, supply of drinking water, and technical as well as professional education should be the priorities of the government.

The Thar field covers an area of over 9,100 sq km with 175 billion tons of coal. It is the most important discovery of natural wealth. If adequate income and employment opportunities are created for Tharies, their income and consumption level will rise.

At present, coal plays a relatively minor role in Pakistan's energy mix, but the discovery of large volumes of low-ash, low-sulphur lignite could increase its use. Pakistan has a 187 billion tones coal reserves out of which Thar field accounts for about 175 billion tones. The share of the Thar coal is estimated at 94 per cent of the overall reserves in the country.

In Pakistan, energy prices are on increase due to the world oil crisis. The price of furnace oil is also continuously going up. At the same time, lack of adequate rainfall also affects the generation of hydel electricity. Ultimately, the country's option should be more use of to coal.

The share of coal in overall energy mix during the last five decades has declined from 68 per cent in 1948 to 35 per cent in 1958 and four per cent in 2004. The share of coal in electricity generation as on December 2002 in various coal-producing countries was as under:

Under the global energy scenario, there is an urgent need to maximize reliance on coal for cheap energy and for the purpose, production and utilization of coal must be enhanced. The production directly depends on its utilization. However, during the last few years, some encouraging developments for the coal sector have taken place. The following table shows the consumption and supply of coal in Pakistan.