The Ministry of Water and Power sees no let up in excessive power outages during Ramazan unless heavy rains increased hydel generation, sources told this correspondent on Wednesday. The brunt of public anger, however, is clearly targeted against Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf who, the public maintains, has failed, yet again, to honour his promise of "no load-shedding" during Sehr and Iftaar.
Previously, he failed to meet the deadline for "ending load shedding" as the Minister for Water and Power. Sources told Business Recorder that Minister of State for Defence Sardar Salim Haidar Khan, who hails from Fateh Jang tehsil, entered the premises of National Power Control Centre (NPCC) on Tuesday along with Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and his entourage to be briefed on forced load-shedding during Ramazan.
"As the Prime Minister and his entourage left the centre, I came back to my office and found Sardar Salim Haidar sitting there. He sought reasons for 20-hour-long load-shedding and requested a review of load-shedding schedule for his area. I argued that I am not the authority to decide on duration of load-shedding and requested him to allow me to attend a meeting with Minister Mukhtar. Sardar Haidar did not allow me to leave my office and said you will stay here until I am here," the sources quoted Managing Director, NPCC recounting Tuesday's episode.
Sardar Salim Haidar then reportedly held the entire NPCC staff hostage for two hours with his body guards pointing guns at the staff. According to sources, police received a message on wireless at 4:30pm that the Minister of State for Defence was holding the entire NPCC staff hostage and efforts were being made to get them released. Finally, Minister for Water and Power Ahmad Mukhtar requested Sardar Salim Haider to come to his office and promised that he would sort out the issue with him. Sardar Salim Haider was not available for comments, as his cell phone was continually found to be 'powered off'.
National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) claims they carry out "no load-shedding" during Sehri, Iftar and Taraveeh timings. However, reports from around the country, particularly rural areas, contradict this claim. The current power scenario will continue during Ramazan until weather changes as a result of heavy rains.
An insider told this correspondent that the Minister of State for Water and Power, Tasneem Ahmad Qureshi challenged the credibility of energy shortfall figures of NTDC. "NTDC claims that the shortfall is 4,000-megawatt or 4,500MW but load-shedding duration is 10-18 hours in urban and rural areas. These figures are not credible," the sources quoted him as saying.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf took strong exception to the excessively long duration of load-shedding in many areas of the country over the last two days. The Prime Minister expressed concern over the fact that even though power generation in the country had gone up to around 14,000MW, yet the existing level of load-shedding was higher than when the demand-supply gap was very wide. Raja Pervez Ashraf, as Minister for Water and Power, also did not rely on power generation and demand figures and on several occasions in private meetings he commented: "I think Pepco's figures are not accurate".
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