Sahiwal coal

This refers to the article, ‘The Sahiwal power plant’ (March 11) by Abbas Hassan. The writer has done an excellent analysis of the economic and environmental losses in setting up a coal-fired power plant to generate 1,200MV near Sahiwal electricity away from the known coal reserves in the country.

The writer has also questioned the logic of constructing such a reservoir of pollution in the heart of fertile land that is the largest producer of high quality cash crops, cattle and milk. He has correctly pointed out that setting up new coal-based power plants in this age when every other country in the world is abandoning coal-fired power plants in favour of more environmental-friendly and economical power generation is not a good policy. Somebody should answer the three questions raised by the writer. If our policy-makers have some genuine reasons then the nation should be informed about them.

Zaheer Ahmed

Islamabad