After saving over 500 MW of electricity through advancement of clocks for one-hour from June this year, the Federal government is considering a proposal for extending the clocks for another month from September 1.
Sources told Business Recorder that the Ministry of Water and Power had made this proposal, which would be placed before the Federal cabinet to take a final decision. It may be mentioned that the government following approval of the Federal cabinet had advanced its clocks by one hour from June this year for three months (June-August) in a bid to conserve energy in an increasingly energy starved economy.
Sources said that the energy conservation package, approved by the Federal cabinet on May 14, also envisaged that during the next three months (June-August), all shopping centres would close their business after 9 pm and switch over their weekly holidays from Sunday to Friday. However, traders did not accept this decision of the government and they kept their businesses open till late night.
However, under the Federal cabinet's directive, the use of air conditioners were stopped from 8 am to 11 am in the Prime Minister's House, Secretariat and other government offices. Experts said daylight saving time (DST) was the convention of advancing clocks so that afternoons had more daylight and mornings had less.
Typically, clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn. However, this arrangement was necessary for countries where there was less day light time, the experts said, adding that such arrangement did not suit the country like Pakistan.
On the other hand, businessmen are of the view that Pakistani nation is confused about this change. "We think that this system is just a fruitless exercise, having no benefit for us. Our people are still stuck to old time," they added. They were of the view that real intention of the government behind advancing the clocks was to reduce the load shedding, however, the problem has aggravated because the load shedding duration has increased in the country.
Former President of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Mian Anjum Nisar told this scribe that advancing of clocks made no difference. "The government needs to focus on real economic issues, which are going from bad to worse, mainly due to high cost of doing business, load shedding, high charges of utilities, high mark up rate, inflation, uncertain political situation etc," Anjum said.
He was of the view that people have no faith on "intention" of the government, which should ensure good governance and focus on public welfare measures. He also reacted strongly over proposed hike in power tariff, and termed it fatal for the industry, which would badly hit the country's economy. He said the production of local industry had already reduced 30-35 percent, while escalating price hike had caused blow to the economy.
He was of the view that if increase in power tariff is necessary, the government should make it gradually. He said raise in power tariff would render the country's exports non-competitive. Anjum also asked the government to focus on controlling line losses and power generation through hydel means.
Before implementing this system, the government should have launched a debate on media and there were also issues of publicity and dissemination of information about the DST programme among the under-privileged, semi-literate, and illiterate sections of the society, which constituted a large portion of the country's population, a trader of Hall Road Mohammad Javed told Business Recorder.
He said the energy situation in Pakistan was precarious indeed. "The economic loss that is being caused by load shedding has to be immense. In all major cities, one seems to spend the entire day waiting for or recovering from the last load shedding. "Indeed, the economic working day in Pakistan is better described as the few hours of electricity in an otherwise electricity-less day, rather than by the hours of load shedding within a "normal" flow of electricity," he opined.