Daily Times

The caption above obviously may ruffle many readers enthused with the bombastic brouhaha about abundant power and fuel supplies. They will certainly think any such ministry as utterly irrelevant as the dreaded days of power cuts are soon going to be left behind like a bad dream. So it would be better to begin with a pressing need, relevance and rationale for the creation of this ministry and the mission that inescapably would have to be assigned to it. The masses are largely restive, disenchanted and disillusioned with the Mians as their mantra to bring a new paradise through their ultra honest, efficient and massive welfare system, has miserably foundered. The power shortages have become more pernicious, pervasive, painful and frequent. The misery of managing daily routines has been worsened by the withering supplies of gas even for the domestic consumers and parts of the country lack its minimum pressure to prepare their bare bread and beans. The much touted relief from this twin menace as well as from the exponential inflation and unemployment have eluded despite the whirlwind begging rounds of the Sharif brothers around the world from the UK, US, China to Turkey and even India. The cure evidently lies in enhanced production and more efficient and fairer distribution of these utilities, which evidently entail enough stocks of the vitally important input materials like water, petrochemicals and the infrastructure, which are dismally depleted and inaccessible.

The Sharif clan, of course, seems to be quite concerned about these conditions. They have even abandoned their much publicised pledge to break the begging bowl and have instead embraced a strategy of carrying not merely one but several begging bowls during the same trip. The two brothers repeatedly reschedule their pressing businesses at home and travel together as two bowls can evidently fetch double the aid. They have even braced some media battering for taking some scions of their clan, who in any way are not related to the government business, on these official trips. The media, however, apparently seems averse to appreciate the crux that only these trusted kin could be burdened with some more bowls brimming with the bounty to be carried back.

The bonanza brought through these bowls is soon bound to inundate us with unbound prosperity, plenty and affluence. In 10 years, for instance, we will be producing 40,000 MW of electricity, exceeding four times our present meagre output. The twin Chinese nuclear plants in Karachi will be producing 2,000 MW. Raising energy mountains through mindboggling construction, revival and upgrading of nuclear, hydro, wind, solar and biomass units through the anticipated courtesy of the donors plus some of our selected tycoons, as imagined in the Vision 1950, appears quite captivating. Yet their production certainly is not going to be cheap or even widely affordable. One wonders how the people will be paying their colossus costs especially if the avenues for extensive skill improvement and employment remain bleak. So first there are these intervening decades of wait and suffering, almost the same paralysing power cuts and costs leading to a still more painful aftermath when a larger segment of the population will be forced to forego the fuel and energy utilities simply for their inability to bear their costs. These plans, paths and policies thus seem to be curiously pompous and Quixotic, feared to boomerang and aggravate the power cuts and the cognate crises, making them a perpetual or at least a long drawn ordeal for larger swathes of our population. This evidently necessitates a proper strategy to help them endure this plight with profound patience, courage, conviction and pride, and hence the creation of a ministry for this long neglected sector for realistic public service and guidance.

The ministry evidently will have an immensely intricate, arduous and tremendous task to tackle the widely rampant human instinct and insatiable ambition to avail facilities for comfort and convenience. Yet it would also have some exquisitely unique and powerful armoury of emotions, evocations and accessories to mould the minds to miff the punk ephemeral wherewithal like gas and electricity, and strive instead to excel in their more exalted aim to control, conquer and command the world with the power of their belief, valour, purity, piety and perseverance. The ministry can equally appeal to the message of Allama Iqbal, the illustrious poet acclaimed to have propounded the idea to carve out this country. He explicitly enunciated that the Muslims, by their innate creation, are differently constituted, and to uphold their uniqueness they must exhibit the psyche, style, pursuit and preferences entirely different from the world around us. He also warned us to transcend the temporal means and mode of comfort, convenience and pleasure that precipitate decline and decadence and ensure the primacy of sword and dagger that are the manifestly essential requisites for rise and dominance. He extolled the nomadic desert warriors with avowed aversion to the comfort of settled lives and luxuries. The world actually is known to have created marvelous wonders of arts, architecture, exploration, science, technology and engineering long before gas and electricity were known to it. We can similarly create far more fabulous wonders without them. It can similarly remind the populace of the immense blessings of blackouts and fuel scarcities that can take us back to the beauty, bliss and bounty of nature. Coddled by the cold indoor confines sustained by gas and electric gizmos we have become oblivious to the splendor of the stars twinkling in the vast firmament and being lulled by the gentle breeze on the rooftops, open verandas and courtyards. Rushing around in fuel guzzling vehicles, tooting rather than talking to fellow travellers and sweating in the indoor gyms have torn the time tested trove of fitness and social interaction furnished by long walks and open air exercise. Even our innate gene stocks wired for hunting and marathon running routines are being enervated.

Sharing such a vital salutary salve with our fellow citizens and encouraging them to forego frivolous facilities like gas and electricity will essentially need very competent, imaginative and enthusiastic teams in the proposed ministry. Some wizards from abroad will have to be engaged at least in its initial formative stages. The selection of a really efficient minister able to impart an iconic inspiration to the mission will be even more critical. None outside the closet Nawaz kin evidently can be trusted for the assignment but the effort will evoke popular confidence as the nation will be learning its real fate following the wondrous maze of the Mians’ new mega energy projects.

The writer is an academic and freelance columnist.habibpbu@yahoo.com