The first meeting that Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf held on Saturday, his first day in office, was one on the energy crisis, which agreed on a number of steps. However, those would only palliate the current crisis, not end it. A day earlier, it was a PPP member of the Punjab Assembly who pointed out that the most important step the federal government could take to ease the crisis was to build the Kalabagh Dam, and as was pointed out by a Punjab Minister who spoke on the issue, it was also an important water storage project. As the Minister pointed out further, the project needed permission from the federal government and if the PPP member was able to secure it, the Punjab government would not lag behind on execution. Yet the Prime Minister passed up the opportunity presented by a nation wearied of the electricity shortages to the extent that protesting mobs have risked death, with six actually having been shot dead. He did not announce any power project, of which Kalabagh would have been the most readily available to hand, with a feasibility performed over and over again, to the extent that the project is one of the most studied in the world.The measures Raja Pervaiz looked at did not lead to even a temporary solution of the crisis. The only thing they did was show a hope that the crisis would go away with the coming of the monsoon. The loadshedding has caused factories to shut down and export orders to be cancelled. The most agonizing outcome: loss of jobs. The time has gone for mere palliatives. The power crisis will only be overcome by bold steps.Though Raja Pervaiz’s experience as Water and Power Minister should stand him in good stead because of his knowledge of the subject, and though he may well disregard as opposition carping the Punjab Finance Minister’s saying that someone who could not solve Wapda’s problems could probably not solve the country’s, he must take seriously the calls within his own party for the Kalabagh Dam to be built. The efforts of a narrow lobby to suppress the truth are proving futile, and the country as a whole is already united behind as beneficial a project as Kalabagh. The PM must not stand in its way; rather do what is needed to implement it.