Power protests

Public anger over power outages that have gotten worse during the last three weeks boiled over onto the streets of various cities of Punjab on Thursday. Protesters in Faisalabad vented their fury by erecting barricades, burning tyres, and damaging dozens of vehicles.
In a replay of public attack on the Multan Electric Supply Company (Mesco) a few months ago, they also stormed the Faisalabad Electric Supply Company office shouting slogans against certain targets. With slight variations, the same happened in several other cities, including Sialkot, Gujranwala, Kasur, Mailsi, and Dera Ghazi Khan, where some of the smaller factories have closed down and the bigger ones announced ending of second shifts due to forced closure of electricity for upto 20 hours a day.
Those who took out protest demonstrations in a co-ordinated manner were workers worried about job losses and members of the business community about remaining in business. Domestic consumers, of course, are not any less indignant.
It is true that the previous government is to blame for the present severe shortages since it added not a single new power generation plant to the national grid, thus causing a huge gap between supply and demand. It failed also to recognise the importance of building small dams wherever possible, getting embroiled instead in big dam controversies.
Consequently, we are in a situation where this year's winter season power production is at an all time low of 200MW against an installed capacity of 6,500MW, leading to an overall shortage of some 3500MW. To further aggravate the situation persistent, gas shortages have rendered inoperational gas-fuelled power plants having 550MW capacity. Needless to say, neither of these problems can now be addressed in a hurry.
Yet it is not possible for the present government to get away from the problem by blaming it on its predecessors. The urgency of the situation requires urgent solutions. The least the government can and must do is to make the existing system fully functional. Some of the obvious things to do are to control theft, which is rampant. Going by the admissions of Wapda officials themselves, over a quarter of the total production is stolen, in certain cities by influential political groups.
Even when such cases are well-known the government is reluctant to take action for reason of expediency. This practice must be brought to an end without any further let or hindrance. Equally, if not more, serious is the circular debt problem. According to official figures, early last year it stood at a staggering Rs 400 billion. After much public outcry and the resultant activity on the part of the concerned officials, it is now Rs 226 billion of which the KESC alone owes Rs 76.25 billion to Pepco, which in turn has to pay the Independent Power Producers so that they can get the production activity going.
The Prime Minister's Advisor on Finance and Economic Affairs, Shaukat Tarin recently chaired a meeting to resolve the issue, giving the various distribution companies until March to clear their dues. So far, the intended effect is not in evidence. As the protests and rioting of Thursday have shown, the people are sick and tired of shortages of one essential supply after another. It is in the government's own interest, therefore, to put its act together and make earnest efforts to ensure that our existing electricity generation capacity is realised and wheels of the economy keep moving.