Ex-MNA fighting legal battle for Chitral\’s gas plants

PESHAWAR: The case filed by former MNA Shahzada Iftikharuddin against cancellation of gas plants in Chitral is being pursued at Peshawar High Court (PHC) by Advocate Ali Gohar Durrani.

The ex-MNA through his lawyer had made various stakeholders a party to the case. In last proceedings, the court had summoned Forest Department Officials besides officials of SNGPL.

It may be noted that the previous PTI government had cancelled gas plants at Chitral, Broz and Drosh that could have provided gas to at least 1/3rd of Chitral’s population or approximately 180,000 residents living in the three areas. Land had been procured for the three plants in addition to import of machinery for them which is now lying at Bahawalpur.  

It may be noted that the previous government through in its Economic Coordination Council (ECC) meeting decided to cancel the gas plants projects and auction both the land as well as the machinery. 

Besides these three plants ex-PM Nawaz Sharif had also issued Directives for four additional gas plants at Booni, Mulkhow, Mastuj and Garam Chashama. 

Through this case the -exMNA is seeking stay order against auctioning of the lands as well as the gas plants by pleading that once auctioned there won\’t be any land available in all three areas of Drosh, Singoor as well as Broz the meets the criterion of gas plants set by Oil & Gas Development Corporation Limited (ODGCL). 

Similarly the case seeks to ask the govt to implement the gas plants in these areas as it will help mitigate deforestation and reduce massive use of woods from Chitral\’s forests that are being used as fuel wood. 

In previous four flash floods in the years 2022, 2015, 2013 and 2010 resulting from climate change, Chitral\’s just like the rest of Pakistan had experienced devastating losses of both infrastructure as well as lives a phenomenon that has pushed the areas development behind by at least 30 years. 

Chitral is one of the worst hit areas by flash floods resulting from rains in addition to floods triggered by Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) that have begun to take a heavy toll on the residents of the two Districts of Lower & Upper Chitral. 

Many difficulties lie in the implementation of the gas plants as the country is grappling with financial difficulties but the case of deforestation which further exacerbates the climate change triggered floods across Pakistan as seen in August 2022 has resulted in approximately US$ 30 billion in economic, infrastructural crop & livestock losses. 

The coalition govt of PM Mian Shahbaz Sharif headed by PMLN who pioneered the introduction of gas plants in Pakistan in 2016 by approving the vital projects is requested to show its real commitment against climate change by immediately implementing the gas plants of Chitral. 

For political expediency (winning elections in Gilgit & Kashmir) the previous PTI govt in 2020 went ahead with the PMLNs gas plants approved by its adversary in 2016 for Muzafarabad and Gilgit and those plants are now ready for operations but decided to single out Chitral\’s plants for cancellation. 

It is high time the govt takes climate change seriously and takes a holistic look at the menace and challenges posed by climate change as it is always the catchment areas and valleys where floods originate. 

Valleys i.e. Chitral, GB and Muzaffarabad are home to some of Pakistan\’s largest river systems i.e. Indus, Jhelum and Kabul (as the latter originates in Chitral and accounts for 74% of Kabul Rivers volume) where the flood waters accumulate and ravage the lower riparian areas. 

The finance minister Ishaq Dar and Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman are requested not to emulate their predecessors like Hafeez Sheikh and the then Minister for environmental Malik Aslam who rubbished Chitral’s gas plants during his Chitrals visit back in 2020 by saying the previous rulers wanted to sell gas. 

The policy makers must not see things through a financial lense alone since they have just witnessed the devastation of Pakistan\’s flash floods of August 2022 that resulted in US$ 30 billion (that equals Federal budgets for 5 successive years) in damages that the Govt could not cope with through its internal resource and was forced to seek Donors and UN help. 

It may be noted that in the ECC meeting in 2022 Hafeez Sheikh incorrectly used govt subsidies for gas plants as a pretext to cancel the Gas Plants. It may be noted that the govt has to bear financial burden of around Rs 1.5 billion per year to make gas cheaper than fuel wood from the 3rd years onwards for Chitral’s Gas plants and that also after they reach full 100% operational capacity. 

Compare that small negligible amount of Rs 1.5 billon per annum in costs to save both our environment and infrastructure besides the flaura and fauna to switch over to environment friendly gas plants whose negligible costs far outweigh its benefits. 

The Green Bench of the Peshawar High court in its final decision is requested to force the govt to make integrated planning mandatory especially on highly sensitive issues involving the environment. The honourable judges are requested to take serious note of the casual division making process where finance minister calls all the shots by  relegating the environment to the backburner and turning a blind eye to the negative socioeconomic repercussions of negligent decisions of the ECC and Cabinet of all concerned ministries on such critical issues i.e. gas plants. 

Shortsighted Finance Ministers who loose no opportunity to approach international donors with a begging bowl on such occasions as flash floods must be restrained by the Court to always be reactive and instead be directed to be proactive on all matters concerning the environment as a healthier environment means a healthier nation whose health and socioeconomic environmental costs always come at a price. 

It is therefore important to drive home the message that as a nation we must avoid the risks and implications of bad planning. For instance, under the billion tree tsunami project of the KPK Govt, billions of rupees have been spent in Chitral by planting trees on the river beds which in events of flash floods all the investments into our environment are washed away thereby nullifying the very purpose of the tree plantations and in the process wasting previous financial resources. 

An alternate and more viable option would be to try protecting existing natural oak and pine forests of the area as it takes hundreds of years become oak and pine seedlings grow into a mature tree. Some of Chitral\’ s forests have trees that if not for thousands of years at lesst exist for several hundred years. Sadly, with a chain saw a five hundred year old pine or oak tree is brought down within minutes for consumption as a fuel wood and supplied to the all parts of valleys. In absence of any viable alternative, locals chop down trees as it is seen as an easier means of livelihoods for many. 

The choice before the policy makers is very clear; to allow vast swathes of forest cover disappear in areas of Southern Chitral (Satellite Imagery available with the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund -PPAF in 2013 showed 20% of reduction in Southern Chitral within a 3 decades). Such facts must ring alarm bells but no eye brows are raised as such things are taken as isolated events nothing to concern policy makers in Islamabad. 

A more prudent measure would be to opt for saving or at least mitigating ruthless deforestation with a combination of new reforestation along with SNG Air Premix that alone guarantees a drastic shift of at least 1/3rd fuel wood consumers to SNG gas through such initiatives begun by ex premiers Nawaz Sharif Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (political differences aside). The option of adopting the policy measure with the most cost effective and guranteed impact needs to be chosen since the SNG Air Pre Mix Plants gurantee the fastest measure to mitigate deforestation and climate change than the risky and costlier option of the billion tree tsunami which promises a much longer impact. 

With prudent policy measures available through SNG Air Premix Plants, we must save our existing forests cover and not incentivise cheaper fuel wood as the status quo will continue with the existing environmental policy and the day won\’t be far when we loose our precious forest covers that no policy maker had any role in creating. Lack of integrated planning will allow the status quo to continue where standing forests are seen as future fuel wood. The policy makers must incentivise SNG Air Pre Mix Gas Plants by making gas for these plants cheaper than fuel food or else be prepared to see effects of climate change worsen and allow the country at the mercy of flash floods besides lowering our national pride with begging bowls after we allow natural disasters occur without taking any responsibility to mitigate them. 

The goal for policy makers should be to make gas cheaper and fuel wood much more though leveraged policy interventions such as Synthetic Natural Gas Air Premix Plants (SNGs) where 2/3rd air is mixed with 1/3rd LPG gas to make the synthetic gas. 

The Green Bench of the Peshawar High Court  must direct the ECC and both Federal and Provincial Cabinets to make integrated planning a cornerstone of its decisions when it concerns decisions relating to our environment and climate change. 

The Court is requested to specifically emphasize upon the concerned Govt Departments through its decision to avoid using the financial lense alone where subsidies alone are used to arrive at decisions and ignoring key ministries ie. planning, environment, oil & gas, NDMA, PDMA etc. 

It must be noted that the same formula is used by the Govt for fixing the prices and tariffs of gas, electricity as well as petroleum products. The finance minsters conveniently ignore the huge circular debts in the energy sector amounting to Rs 800 billion as the utility bills owned by influential businessmen and govt departments keep on mounting. 

Bad financial policy is exacerbating and choking  Pakistan\’s environment that in turn results in annual losses of US$ 30 Billion experienced in 2022 flash floods. Compare that to the 2010 estimated US$ 12 billion in flood damages to our infrastructure as per estimates of the IMF and World Bank for the 2010 flash floods in Pakistan.

A key point for policy makers is to also take cognizance of the fact that the Kabul River is the only major river in Pakistan which has no dams for use as water reservoirs as the only dam on it constructed by the British in mid 1990s at Warsak is a hydro electric project and is not a water reservoir which essentially entails that water of the Kabul River is available to farmers of Punjab, Singh and parts of Balochistan uninterrupted throughout the years while the waters of Jhelum and Indus Rivers are stored at Mangla and Tarbela Dams. 

By foolishly turning a blind eye to the climate change instigated Glacial Lake Ouburst Floods (GLOF) in the Hinku Kush Regions in areas like the two Districts of Upper and Lower Chitral where several kilometers of glaciers have eroded due to rise in temperature in valleys i.e. Terich, Arkari, Yarkhoon, Rech, Laspur, the Kalash Valleys, Beoli and Shikukuh policy makers are shooting themselves in the foot. 

These same valleys are also home to centuries old glaciers that feed the Kabul River system whose major beneficiaries have been farmers of Punjab and Sindh provinces whose policy makers are fast asleep choosing to remain oblivious to fast ticking time bomb of climate change which one day has the potential to see drop in water levels of the Kabul River system seen so quintessential to the livelihoods of their constituents as well and many of their brethren living in the remote valleys of Chitral. 

Likewise, the finance Ministers loose no time to use the ax when it comes to decisions affecting such highly sensitive issues i.e. climate change and policy instruments to mitigate the fallout of negligence i.e flash floods and Glacial Lake Outburst floods as Glaciers in the Hindu Kush region are fast melting. 

If proactive measures are not taken right now then God forbid in a few years in the next donors conference in Geneva we won\’t be grappling with melting glaciers of the north alone but fast dwindling water resources of the Indus Basin that can have repercussions like forced migrations of affected people of the mountain valleys and well as Pakistan\’s bread baskets of Punjab and Sindh alike. 

It is high Pakistan\’s finance ministers stop reacting to disasters once they happen and instead have the far-sight and engage proactively through financial instruments by reviving the cancelled gas plants of Chitral that could become a role model for fighting climate change instigated deforestation across Pakistan. That can only happen by making gas cheaper than fuel wood.