RAWALPINDI - The speakers at a seminar urged the Government to use Thar Coal resources to generate electricity in catering the rising demand of power and providing relief to industry, so that the national economy is given uplift. The seminar was arranged by Pakistan Aman Party (PAP) on Sunday here at Aman House Peshawar Road. PAP Chairman Muhammad Gulzar Awan presided over the seminar, while Dr Hafiz Muhammad Matiullah, Malik Pervez Pervaiz Akhter, Begum Musharraf Jehan, Shahid Waheed, Shakeel Saghir and a large number of party workers and notables were present on the occasion. While addressing, PAP Chairman Gulzar Awan said that Pakistan had more than 850 billion cubic feet coal reserves but, unfortunately the country had been facing an acute shortage of electricity, which is badly affecting the national economy. These resources of coal can produce 20,000 Mega Watts electricity for next 40 years but, the Government is not paying any heed towards this cheap source of electricity and depending only upon hydropower to generate the costly electricity he added. Such an approach had demanded construction of new water reservoirs and dams, he said. He said that all the political parties should come forward and work on new strategies for construction of Kala Bagh Dam, and they should also make it possible to use That Coal for the production of cheap electricity. Gulzar said that the Government was not gauging the loss that was affecting the national economy due to less production of industrial units owing to non-availability of electricity. Dr Hafiz Muhammad Mattiullah, on the occasion, said that available resources of Thar Coal amount to 400 billion barrels of oil, and the Government had been spending 4 billion dollars annually to utilising only two percent of available resources of coal in the country. The use of Thar Coal can produce more than required energy and Government should immediately work on this project if it wanted to overcome the energy crises in real sense. The seminar was also addressed by the other speakers who underlined the need for implementation of emergency plans to generate electricity as the country was running short of power; they said adding that the power shortage was creating problems for the country and halting the way of progress.