Pakistan, Oct. 18 -- Pakistan should accelerate the shift from imported coal to indigenous Thar lignite not as an ideological posture but as pragmatic economic policy. The numbers are compelling: studies show that greater use of local coal can lower electricity generation costs and shave as much as PKR 3 per unit off tariffs, while reducing import bills by roughly $800 million a year, savings that are need of the hour to strengthen the balance of payments and ease domestic price pressures.

The strategic case is equally plain. Sindh's Thar deposits, estimated at about 175.5 billion tonnes, represent a long-duration fuel endowment capable of supporting very large baseload capacity over decades. Reliably tapped, that resource would insulate...