By S.M. Inam
In the relentless Pakistani heat, where the hum of a fan or the chill of an air conditioner is not a luxury but a salve, the cost of energy is more than an economic indicator; it is a measure of respite. It is against this backdrop of simmering public anxiety that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has stepped forward with a proposed remedy for the nation’s beleaguered economy. The ‘Roshān Ma’ashrat’ or ‘Bright Economy’ package, with its promise of subsidized electricity for industry and agriculture, is being presented as nothing short of a lifeline.
By locking in power at a reduced rate for three years, the government is not just adjusting a tariff; it is making a calculated wager on the nation’s very future, attempting to lower the formidable cost of creation and coax life back into the country’s stuttering economic engine. The announcement itself emerged from a closed-door meeting, a conclave where the urgent pleas of business leaders seemingly found a receptive audience in the prime minister. There is a palpable sense of collective intent, a recognition that the state of the nation’s factories and fields is inextricably linked to the state of the nation itself.
In a move of political necessity, the government was quick to offer a crucial reassurance to a weary public: the bill for this subsidy will not land on the doorsteps of domestic consumers. This is vital in a country where kitchen-table economics, the relentless calculation of rising flour and sugar prices, dictates the public mood and can make or break governments. The theory behind the package is one of elegant, almost textbook, simplicity. Cheaper energy for a factory means lower costs to weave cotton and stitch garments. Cheaper energy for a farmer means less financial strain to power tube-wells that irrigate wheat and cotton.
This, the logic follows, will make the “Made in Pakistan” tag more competitive on the global shelf, stimulate local investment that has been held back by uncertainty, and ultimately create a tide of prosperity that lifts all boats. One can almost sense the hope emanating from the corridors of power, a quiet belief that this could be the catalyst for a minor revolution. The vision is compelling—a revival where the success of an industrialist in Faisalabad’s bustling textile mills and the fortune of a farmer in rural Punjab are not isolated incidents but the twin pistons of a national renewal.
The government speaks of examining broader impediments, from the high cost of machinery to the labyrinthine process of reaching foreign markets, suggesting an understanding that this energy subsidy is but one thread in a deeply tangled web. The promise is of a more holistic push, a concerted effort to clear the path for those who produce, grow, and, most importantly, employ. It is a vision that speaks to the deepest aspirations of a nation: the chance to ease a crippling debt burden, to absorb the vast ranks of the unemployed, and finally, to grant its citizens a reprieve from the relentless grind of inflation.
Yet, for all the ambition and hopeful rhetoric, the plan arrives swaddled in the nation’s collective memory of promises made and promises broken. In Pakistan, well-intentioned initiatives have often foundered on the rocky shores of implementation, and this announcement is, inevitably, just the opening scene of a much longer and more complex drama. A three-year subsidy, while a welcome respite and a short-term cushion for which many business owners will be genuinely grateful, does not in itself constitute the deep, structural reform the energy sector so desperately cries out for.
The perennial crises—the monstrous circular debt that strangles the power sector, the staggering transmission losses, and the fundamental issues of governance and efficiency—remain the proverbial elephant in the room, unmoved and largely unaddressed by this temporary fix. Sceptics, with considerable justification, would argue that what the economy truly requires is not another dose of fiscal adrenaline, but the patient, often painful, construction of a firm and unshakeable foundation. This means building an energy sector, including oil and gas, that is affordable and consistent not for three years, but in perpetuity, built on a solid and permanent footing beyond the whims of political cycles.
The true test of the Roshān Ma’ashrat package will therefore not be met in the headlines it generates today, but in the quiet, unglamorous work of the coming months and years. Can this intervention be insulated from the inevitable political maneuvering and the suffocating embrace of bureaucratic inertia? Will it be executed with a swiftness and transparency that serves the diffuse national interest, rather than the concentrated interests of a privileged few? The Sharif administration has, with some flourish, presented its case to the court of public opinion. It has argued that this subsidy is the master key that can unlock a brighter economic dawn.
(The writer is a former government officer and a senior analyst on national and international affairs, can be reached at inam@metro-morning.com)
