Shehbaz Sharif stated it was “time to say no” to cartels as they are the reason for not allowing Pakistan to explore it’s native energy resources.
“Despite having resources, Pakistan remains a petroleum importing country while cartels are dictating terms,” he said while attending the inaugural ceremony of Unit 5 & 6 Mangla Refurbishment Project, aimed at enhancing the dam’s electricity generation capacity.
“I think the time has come that we give them a shut-up call, and stand up and say no to them and carve out a way forward and a strategy meant to serve the people of Pakistan,” he said.
PM said that Country’s energy bill annually is $27 billion which couldn’t sustain by developing country.
“Pakistan has the capacity to generate 60,000 megawatts of hydroelectricity. However, to date we have only been able to generate 10,000MW,” he added.
As per him, if dams and lakes same as Mangla had been constructed, Pakistan’s petroleum import bill would be fractional of the present amount and the amount would be saved for other important domains like agriculture and industry.
