Despite her charm and wit, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar clearly does not have a face that could have launched a thousand megawatts! Mistrust between India and Pakistan is alive and well, fleeting moments of bonhomie notwithstanding. Pakistan’s recent decision to decline India’s offer to supply electricity is unfortunate. Even more disturbing is the logic on which this decision was based. Pakistan’s concern about its energy security being hostage to India’s whims is unfounded. If the experience of water sharing between the two countries guided by the Indus Water Treaty is anything to go by, India has always played by the rules. Indeed, in not storing water even where allowed, India has erred on the side of generosity! Water shortage in Pakistan is largely owing to the profligate use of the resource, encouraged by misguided policies that keep the price of water artificially low, as acknowledged by Pakistan’s former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. The other reason of “not wanting to give legitimacy” to India’s dam construction activities in Jammu and Kashmir is equally specious. The Baglihar and Kishanganga projects are on waters exclusively granted to India, as international arbitration has consistently ruled.
India’s offer was driven by a combination of goodwill and techno-economic pragmatism. It is far easier to move the power generated in North India’s hydropower projects to geographically contiguous areas in Pakistan, given the region’s topography. It would enable power plants in India to generate economies of scale, reducing the average cost of power in the process. The power supply situation in Pakistan is dire, and supply of power from India could have mitigated it. An energy grid based on two-way flow of energy between India and Pakistan is entirely feasible, as a recent World Bank study points out. Pakistan is sitting on huge coal and gas deposits in its part of the Thar desert which it has barely begun to exploit. Taken to culmination, these resources can help generate enough power to considerably alleviate the existing shortage in Pakistan and even supply power to India.
These are not utopian ideas. India and Bangladesh have overcome years of mistrust in seeking to forge a comprehensive economic relationship, which includes India gaining access to the Chittagong port and transit facilities to the north-east region. National Thermal Power Corporation is setting up a power plant in Bangladesh, which will supply a fixed proportion of its output domestically, while exporting the surplus to India. In doing so, Bangladesh is pragmatically seeking to leverage India’s rapid economic growth, setting aside political differences in the process. Pakistan’s decision to adopt an “arm’s length” approach to economic engagement with India can hardly be described as “populist”, given the strong constituency for a deeper and more active economic relationship with India in that country. The recent demand by the Pakistani traders’ association for the lowering of trade barriers by both sides reflects this sentiment.
