Alternative, renewable energy policy: Sindh govt moves reference against CCI’s decision

KARACHI: The Sindh government has sent second reference to the Parliament against the decision of Council of Common Interests (CCI) to finalise the Alternative and Renewable Energy (ARE) Policy of the country.

Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in this connection, has sent a letter to the Speaker of National Assembly in accordance with the Article-154 of the Constitution, it emerged on Saturday.

The copies of the same letter have also been sent to President Dr Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The CM in his letter conveyed to the Speaker, National Assembly, that a joint session the Parliament should be convened in accordance with the law to review the decision of the CCI regarding finalisation of the ARE.

Earlier, this year, the Sindh government sent its first reference to the Parliament against the decision of the CCI to finalise the results of the last population census campaign in the country.

The CM opined in his letter that the new ARE Policy couldn’t imposed by the government on the provinces.

He said that hydroelectricity shouldn’t be counted among the resources of renewable energy available in the country.

He mentioned that the power consumers in the province had been braving worst form of electricity loadshedding as the ARE Policy had wrongly determined the national energy requirements while ignoring the power shortfall.

He said the new ARE Policy of the federal government by including the hydroelectricity would cause damage to other renewable energy projects in the country that were capable of producing cheap electricity.

He said that solar and wind electricity projects were mostly situated in Sindh as the new ARE Policy would cause irreparable damage to them.