Running the stove.

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan faces a serious food and stove crisis. Due to a shortage of fuel the stove is cold and there is no flour to make bread. In the decade of the seventies, Bhutto launched his party on the promise of food, clothing and shelter, which still remains a pipe dream. Even bread is out of reach of the common man. Natural gas is short and expensive. It is back to the basics from where the journey had started. The 12 trillion cubic feet of natural gas deposit at Sui is now depleted together with an acute shortage of wheat. Both items are now being imported. While the fuel import bill is the highest followed by food items which pose serious sustainability challenges. There is a huge trade deficit as the republic does not earn enough dollars to pay for its basic needs. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is being imported from Qatar, also recently a shipment of wheat arrived from Russia resulting in the depletion of the much-needed foreign exchange reserves.

Every day I receive SMS messages saying 'we buy ACs' indicating that there is a huge market for this product. While the nation struggles for food, air conditioners (AC) remain in demand for the few. As a nation, we cannot sustain this luxury on borrowed money. The import bill has to be drastically slashed. Food and fuel are the basic needs of the nation. Unfortunately, there has been a consistent decline in these two vital areas in the land of the pure. I remember the days when wood and coal were used to cook food. Kitchens were dirty and usually isolated from living quarters in posh dwellings. Every locality had a 'tal' (a place where wood was stored and sold). There were several coal merchants in the city who sold both local and imported fuel. In the sixties came the kerosene stoves which were a big relief for homemakers. Cooking meals was made a bit easier. Then there was a big breakthrough with the discovery of natural gas at Sui in the Dera Bugti area of Balochistan. There was no looking back. Gas transmission and distribution networks were developed by the two public sectors Gas Companies (SSGC, SNGPL). Pakistan now had the privilege of using the cleanest fossil fuel. Natural Gas is the final product of the carbon cycle. The organic matter first decays into coal followed by oil and then gas. Nature had been kind to the republic. Unfortunately, the resource was mismanaged, instead of lasting a century it fell short after fifty years of misuse (1952 to 2002).

In the year...

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