Editorial
Pakistan’s Waste-to-Energy Task Force: Too Little, Too Late? Pakistan drowns in its own waste. Its cities choke under mountains of uncollected garbage, its rivers carry toxic loads, and its power grids remain perpetually starved. Against this backdrop, the federal government has constituted an 18-member task force to develop a national waste-to-energy policy. The announcement sounds promising. The reality, however, demands harder questions.
Task forces are Pakistan’s favourite instrument of delay. When genuine political will is absent, a committee is born. This one, convened under Power Minister Sardar Awais Leghari, draws together federal ministers, provincial representatives, private sector cement giants, and regulatory bodies. Its mandate is broad: review the existing framework, identify legal and financial barriers, recommend reforms, and submit a report within one month. One month. For a sector that has languished without coherent policy for decades.
The composition itself raises concerns. Including DG Cement, Fauji Cement, and Bestway Cement as private sector representatives signals that industrial interests will shape the policy before municipal authorities and environmental advocates have any meaningful say. Waste-to-energy must serve communities, not cement conglomerates seeking cheaper fuel inputs.
Coordination across provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Kashmir is genuinely welcome. Pakistan’s federalism demands provincial buy-in for any national environmental initiative to succeed. Yet coordination without constitutional clarity, without enforceable legislative backing, and without independent regulatory oversight produces only elegant documents that gather dust.
The deeper problem is structural. Pakistan has no shortage of policy frameworks. It has a shortage of implementation. Every energy initiative since 2013 has produced roadmaps without roads. The waste-to-energy sector needs parliamentary legislation, ring-fenced financing, and independent oversight, not another ministerial task force operating under executive directive.
Sustainable waste management cannot be built on one-month deadlines and committee optimism. Pakistan deserves genuine reform, not another exercise in the appearance of action.
