OURS is a society that consumes everything and that too in abundance. In other words, we produce less in most cases and then go on consuming more and more, irrespective of whether we have to import a lot of commodities from different countries to meet our ever-growing requirements.

These somewhat bitter remarks are in the context of reports which are appearing in newspapers that Pakistan is now going to import oil from India also for which talks are to take place in New Delhi during this month.

If at all, we consume a lot, then why don’t we make concerted efforts to produce more to meet our requirements in order to keep our imports of avoidable and unnecessary items/commodities to the barest minimum possible? One may ask the government to adopt austerity measures both in the public and private sectors to ensure meeting our requirements within the limits of what we’re producing locally.

We have been importing oil products for many years to meet our requirements as what we’re producing locally is not adequate even to meet half of our requirement. As a result, oil import bill is going up every year. And now we’re going to import oil from India.

To keep oil products’ consumption to the lowest level, the government should urgently adopt some fuel-saving measures. The private sector should also adopt such measures to cut fuel consumption.

One such fuel-saving measure could be to locate innovative technology-based equipment which, according to some reports, if plugged into vehicles’ lighter sockets gives an appreciable fuel saving up to 25 per cent without compromising on the mileage done, improves engines functioning and reduces smoke emission also.

Such Japanese technology-based fuel-saving gadget is available in the local market with foreign manufacturers and local importers claiming that it gives fuel savings up to the extent of 25 per cent. This one measure would minimise fuel consumption by at least 20 to 25 per cent without any compromise on the mileage. One only has to search for it to cater to national interests and keep petrol consumption on the lower side to reduce dependence on oil imports to the barest minimum.

MOHSIN A.H. SHAIKH Lahore