‘We Accept the Prime Minister’s Challenge’: Hasnat Abdullah Puts Forward Plan to Address Power Crisis
DHAKA —
In a Facebook post on Saturday night, Hasnat said solutions had already been proposed by the opposition and that the government should now consider them and move towards implementation.
According to Hasnat, the NCP has already outlined 15 proposals covering short-, medium- and long-term measures to address the power crisis.
‘Solutions Were Already on the Table’
Hasnat argued that the government should have been aware of the proposals before challenging the opposition to produce a solution.
He said NCP convener, lawmaker and opposition chief whip Nahid Islam had proposed a 15-point plan, including five measures that could be implemented within 30 days, six medium-term measures for the next six to 18 months, and four longer-term initiatives.
Hasnat also said opposition lawmakers had raised specific issues involving electricity subsidies, fuel planning, contingency arrangements and disaster-recovery mechanisms.
He added that recommendations had also come from civil-society groups and research organisations and had been discussed in newspapers and public seminars.
The government has not, in the material provided, issued a response to these claims.
Questions Over Government Capacity
Hasnat questioned whether the government's large advisory and ministerial structure was adequately examining proposals coming from opposition lawmakers and civil society.
He argued that the issue had moved beyond a debate over individual electricity policies and had become a question of institutional effectiveness, expertise and decision-making capacity.
He urged the prime minister to examine the NCP's 15-point proposal.
Call for a Special Parliamentary Session
Hasnat also called for a special parliamentary session to discuss the electricity crisis.
He said a major national problem such as power shortages should be addressed through parliamentary debate involving both the government and opposition.
In his view, failing to engage with opposition proposals would raise further questions about the government's approach to policymaking.
Criticism of Administrative Appointments
Hasnat also linked the electricity crisis to what he described as changes within the administration.
He alleged that extensive political appointments over the past six months had weakened institutional memory and contributed to gaps in fuel planning, contingency planning and disaster-recovery arrangements.
He also raised questions about an incident involving a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) at Maheshkhali, calling for an independent investigation report to be made public.
Hasnat said greater transparency was needed to establish whether any maintenance failure, negligence or other factor had contributed to the incident.
These allegations have not been independently established in the material provided.
Push to Implement Merchant Power Policy
One of Hasnat's central proposals is the implementation of the Merchant Power Policy 2025.
According to his description, the framework would allow private power producers to sell electricity directly to large industrial consumers, with the price determined between the parties and the regulator maintaining oversight.
He argued that such a mechanism could potentially expand electricity supply to industries without requiring direct additional expenditure from the state treasury.
The remaining administrative work, he said, would include finalising service-level arrangements and wheeling charges.
‘The Six-Month Clock Is the Government’s’
Hasnat said the opposition was prepared to accept the six-month timeframe set by the prime minister.
But he stressed that the deadline should be viewed as a test of the government's ability to implement solutions.
If implementing the proposed merchant-power framework takes longer than six months, he argued, the issue would no longer be simply one of policy—it would raise questions about the government's administrative and implementation capacity.
For Hasnat, announcing a plan is not enough. The government must demonstrate that it can put the plan into practice.
‘The Government Should Be Accountable’
Hasnat also challenged what he described as the government's approach to political accountability.
He argued that in a functioning democracy, the government should not simply challenge the opposition to produce solutions; it should also explain to the public why the country has experienced severe power shortages while the government has been in office.
He questioned why the country had been plunged into what he described as an unprecedented level of load-shedding.
‘The Solutions Are in Our Hands; Power Is in Yours’
Hasnat concluded by drawing a distinction between having a solution and having the authority to implement it.
The opposition, he said, can propose solutions, but the government controls the administrative machinery and state power required to implement them.
His central argument was that after six months, the public would judge whether the electricity crisis persisted because workable solutions were unavailable—or because the government lacked the capacity or willingness to implement them.
From Political Challenge to Implementation
Hasnat Abdullah's statement puts two issues at the centre of the debate: the opposition's proposed measures for addressing the electricity crisis and the government's responsibility to deliver results.
The government's response to those proposals will determine whether the dispute remains a political exchange or develops into a substantive debate over energy policy and implementation.
For now, Hasnat says the opposition has accepted the challenge.
The next test is whether proposed solutions can move from political statements to practical implementation—and whether the government can deliver measurable improvements within the six-month deadline.
Comments
Post a Comment