Pakistan's Future Hinges Upon Solar, Wind Power Generation: PM.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Monday stressed the need to immediately shift the country's power generation capacity to solar and wind power production systems as the costly power generation was continuously depleting the national exchequer.

During a briefing at the Mohmand Dam site, the prime minister said Pakistan had been facing a very acute problem of expensive power generation due to the import of expensive fuels, and then subsidising it for the consumers.

He said it was a three-tier loss to the national exchequer, as the country had been importing costly fuels for power generation and then reducing the cost of the power for consumers.

The prime minister, referring to the timely completion of the hydro power projects, opined that these hydro power projects and the tapping of other natural resources like solar and wind 'are our future and we need to immediately shift to that direction, otherwise the economy will continue bleeding annually'.

The prime minister also expressed his serious concerns over the damage caused to dykes and the construction site of the dam in the recent floods, and said that it would delay its completion time and could hamper the country's progress.

He said the dam's construction was carried out by the Chinese and Pakistani people, and it would generate 800 MWs of inexpensive power, besides helping with water reservation and providing protection against flash flooding.

The prime minister also appreciated China as a best friend of Pakistan and said they had complete confidence in its support.

He reiterated that with collective efforts and support from the people, they would overcome the losses.

It was important to understand that the government had to provide affordable hydel power to the consumers and industries, and if the production was costly due to expensive fuel imports, it would continue to cause colossal losses, he added.

The prime minister cautioned that the national exchequer and resources would not be sufficient to meet such expensive power production of power.

For the production of power with the help of solar and wind power systems, the natural resources should be tapped, like the...