DAWN Editorials - 21st May 2025

[zarnishhayat]

Failed auction

THE poor response to the government’s bid to sell three redundant thermal power plants indicates the investors’ lack of confidence in its privatisation policies. It also signals their reservations about the heavy taxes they are required to pay on top of the reserve price. That the prospective investors had already raised the issue of sales and income tax on what they see as ‘scrap’ meant that they had little appetite for the offerings without being given significant tax concessions. They also sought the item-wise disclosure of the reserve price — a legitimate demand which the auction team rejected. Hence, it is little wonder the Jamshoro plant attracted only one bidder, while no one made an offer for the other two plants in Muzaffargarh and Faisalabad.

Now the authorities have rescheduled the auction for May 30. Along with these Gencos, they plan to put on offer other scrapped plants in Quetta and Guddu to ensure greater investor participation with ‘improved’ terms of sale. While it is not clear what the latter would be, it can be assumed that the investors would get substantial tax breaks to make the deals attractive. This is what the authorities should have considered before they advertised what proved to be a failed auction. They must realise that every failed privatisation attempt weakens the government’s position and leads to a change in the terms of sale, while strengthening the bargaining position of the investors in future auctions. We have seen this happen in the case of PIA when it was put up for sale last year. The authorities’ expectation that given the age and condition of the redundant plants, their auction would take place in multiple stages does not hold water. It only reveals that they had not planned the sale carefully. It is hoped that, before they make any future attempt to auction outdated power assets, they will consider all factors that have so far kept investors away.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2025


Climate planning

ALTHOUGH the effects of climate change manifest themselves throughout the year, they seem particularly more noticeable with the onset of summer. As half the country bakes in a fresh heatwave, Pakistan’s climate challenges have again been brought into sharp relief by the Ministry of Climate Change’s recent intimation to parliament about the formation of more than 3,000 glacial lakes owing to the rapid recession of the country’s glacial cover. These lakes, according to the climate minister, pose a direct threat to at least 7.1m people living downstream. Their formation is just a symptom of a larger phenomenon: the ice cover over what is known as the Third Pole — as the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush mountain ranges are collectively known — has been destabilising due to global warming, bringing with it an increasing risk of water scarcity and climate havoc not just for Pakistan, but for around 2bn people in southern Asia who rely on it for their freshwater needs. India’s recent, unilateral ‘suspension’ of the Indus Waters Treaty has already provided a glimpse into the future of how regional conflicts may take shape as water shortages intensify due to climate change.

The more localised, immediate effects of climate change are manifesting themselves in other forms. As temperatures soar, the underprivileged are finding themselves more exposed to the hotter weather because power distribution companies have been allowed to prioritise electricity provision to the privileged while imposing collective punishment on areas where bill recoveries are lower. Urban slums and rural towns bear the brunt of this punishment, but the high power tariffs ensure that everyone pays a steep price for holding the weather at bay. Meanwhile, large tracts of arable land all over the country have been left parched by the heat and diminished water supply, while the country’s largest city has been seeing repeated protests because residents do not get piped water. That is not the end of it: it has previously been observed that hot and dry weather has been followed by heavy rainfall and catastrophic flooding. Unless disaster management plans are in place, another round of misery, death and destruction may be unleashed in the coming months. Pakistan’s climate vulnerabilities need to be addressed on a war footing. Without a proper plan, millions of its inhabitants will remain under threat.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2025


Gaza’s horror

EVEN in a world with no shortage of suffering and bloodshed, the violence meted out to the people of Gaza by the Israeli regime has few parallels.

So depraved is Tel Aviv’s extermination war machine in the occupied Palestinian territory that even the UK, Canada and France — members of the Western bloc that have often rushed to Israel’s defence in the global arena — have termed the situation in Gaza “intolerable”.

And it appears that despite the murder of over 53,000 people by Israel, including women and children, since the slaughter began following the Oct 7, 2023, attacks, things may actually get worse. After all, Tel Aviv’s chief warmonger Benjamin Netanyahu has just said that Israel “will take control of all the territory” of Gaza.

It is clear that under the cover of rescuing hostages and avenging the Oct 7 events, Israel is carrying out the ethnic cleansing of Gaza to reoccupy the savaged Strip.

The on again-off again peace talks are going nowhere, and after starving Gaza since March 2, a trickle of aid has just been let in by Palestine’s occupiers. One UN official has described this delivery of aid as a “drop in the ocean”.

There are many within the Israeli political establishment that continue to call for mass starvation of Gaza’s people. Unfortunately, Israel has failed to realise that despite its monstrous crimes against Gaza’s population, the Palestinian people refuse to yield.


This is indeed a classic case of a native population resisting a ruthless occupier — a population that is willing to die rather than leave their land. History has proved that in many such cases, the occupiers have had to retreat in ignominy, while the people of the occupied land have succeeded in raising the banner of freedom. The price the Palestinian people are paying for their resistance is immense, but they have proven that even genocide cannot break their will.

Yet the fact that the Palestinians are resisting a brutal occupation does not absolve the international community of the responsibility of stopping Israel’s mass murder. Specifically, the US — Tel Aviv’s chief foreign patron — has a lot to answer for.

Donald Trump has in his second presidential term taken on the avatar of peacemaker. His intervention is believed to have been crucial in ending the recent Pakistan-India hostilities. He is working the phones to end the Ukraine war. He is even — despite some bluster — interested in a peaceful resolution to the Iran nuclear dispute.

Now these peace-making tendencies must be extended to Gaza. The quickest way to stop the bloodshed would be for the US to immediately halt all military and financial aid to Israel. The world, particularly Gaza’s battered people, will be waiting for Mr Trump to do the right thing.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2025