The rare display of unity among otherwise perennially divided city fathers, in seeking de-privatisation of Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) is a measure of public suffering because of incessant load-shedding and power breakdowns.
Patterns may be different, while some localities may be having long spells of outages and others the come-and-go spasmodic supply, there are also places in Pakistan where power breakdowns seem to be the curse which will not lift, at least for some time.
This country-wide blight has been compounded by the unusual sweltering heatwave that is sweeping across the country. Fifty-plus degree Celsius temperatures have been recorded at a number of places, in southern Punjab, upper Sindh and Balochistan bringing to a halt all human activity for greater part of the day.
With power supply cut off the municipal water systems too do not work, resulting in crippling water shortages. At this point of time in this age of science, only the other day the US shuttle had landed back at Cape Canaveral after its week-long journey through space.
To be without power and water is something like living in a state of nature. Of course, the fully welled-up public resentment has spilled into the streets, as people furiously protest by burning tyres, blocking roads and attacking the electricity offices. Equally disturbing are the invisible losses incurred by way of man-hour losses and decreased industrial and agricultural outputs caused by power outages and breakdowns.
The Army led Government upon coming into power, maintained the stance taken by Nawaz Sharif, blaming Benazir Bhutto for high electricity tariff, on account of contracts entered with the Independent Power Producers, at rates which were detrimental to the economy. The nation was told that installed power capacity was far in excess of demand and utility companies had to be paid even without purchasing electricity from them. Thank God, for the IPPs coming on stream due to foresight of the PPP government. Can one contemplate what the power situation would have been now without them?
This may appear political to assert, but the hard fact is that over the last eight years, that is since President Pervez Musharraf took over, not a single megawatt of electricity generation as a result of his government's planning has been added to the national grid. If there are some additions, like the Ghazi-Brotha and one or two other projects by private power companies and Wapda, then these had been conceived and sanctioned before October 12, 1999.
At that time thinking was that Pakistan was surplus in electricity, so much so that there was even a talk of selling electricity to India. But that was a mistaken belief shorn of foresight. Shortages soon crept in, as the industrial production was boosted consequent to massive inflows of capital so far held captive by saving schemes. Our economic managers tirelessly extolled the manifold increase in production of air-conditioners, refrigerators and deep freezers without paying attention that this increased production would require additional electricity. This is patently a planning failure.
There was a growing demand for more electricity, but the policy planners could not come up with matching solutions. In fact, even some counter-productive steps were taken, like keeping Wapda out of the loop. It was decided that the nation's main energy producer would not do thermal generation and would confine itself to hydel projects. The PPIB was tasked to plan and supervise execution of private power generation by thermal projects, but none of the eight with 1600 mw capacity that it had sanctioned have come on stream. To a discerning mind, it was a disaster in the making. Nothing was done to avert the horrible tragedy that the nation confronts today.
The present government cannot pass the buck and blame its predecessors. They have been at the helm for eight years. The minister's quoting a leading Chinese banker, that power shortages and choked roads, are indicative of a booming emerging economy, is no solace to a frustrated nation. If the situation is not tackled on war footing, it could lead to anti-government votes in the forthcoming elections in the urban areas.
As it stands today power shortage is so huge that there is just no easy way out of it. The government has to find an out of the box solution, and quickly, if need be by replacing the existing plans with new ones. For instance, the work on skid-mounted power plant should be expedited.
At the same time a policy should be put in place to ask all under-construction industrial estates throughout the country to ensure that the new units that are conceived or being set up and those existing industries that are not hit by production losses because of power outages. Simultaneously, the government should rethink the tariff-fixing mechanism by factoring in the element of subsidy given to the utilities companies who should go for combined-cycle power generation so that their plants can function on the reduced gas supply in winter and switch on to furnace oil.
This may appear to be a tall order but it has to be done. There is no alternative to this. Of course, 'enlightened moderation' is welcome but the people would like to see their homes, schools and streets also moderately, if not fully, lightened.
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