There is so much information and misinformation, ignorance and prejudice on the subject of the country's energy crisis that it is beyond one's comprehension of what is the real picture. The picture is bleak today, let there be no doubt on this. That I am one of those who lives with daily loadshedding and finds it dislocating, if not destroying my daily work and leisure routines, and paralysing.
If not altogether, at least eroding even essential relationships is something that I seek to underline here. That this is happening to Pakistani society on a scale that is possibly unfathomable also needs to be kept in mind. I say this keeping in mind the way the country continues to be governed, the new democratic dispensation notwithstanding.
It is also in one's full view the sustained official assurances that come with a systematic regularity, that loadshedding will end by the end of this year. Not just the minister concerned, but there is a chorus to this effect and I can't understand it, so I can't believe it. But let us believe that loadshedding will end as is being promised. A 19th century English poet and critic (pardon me if it was not Samuel Taylor Coleridge) advocated the concept of "the willing suspension of disbelief".
If this is done right away, are we to imagine a scenario where from the first day of 2010 there will be no loadshedding? I spoke to a cynical citizen - they are growing in numbers it seems. As if in the same breath he referred to a tradition of broken promises, and delayed projects in the country, and then wondered what would happen to all the investment that individuals and organisations have made in generators, UPS equipment, rechargeable lights etc. if the loadshedding is eliminated for ever.
Which is what the ministers are saying. What will happen to all this investment in generators plus. I know people who have invested in standby lanterns as well and use them whenever convenient and economical! Let's contemplate this further. Does it really mean that Pakistanis will have enough affordable electricity in their lives, as soon as next year? Stretch the disbelief further - into other sectors.
With enough uninterrupted electricity will the power tariff be affordable by the common man, thereby, also lowering costs of production. Will there be a fall or stabilisation of prices of life's essentials, and utilities - a sector that has begun to make families restive, and depressed. Or will there be electricity available, without loadshedding, only for those affluent citizens who never feel the price rise matters.
Even in these days when the energy crisis is disturbing before the onset of summer there are people whose residences are aglow, during loadshedding as they are oblivious of the generator cost. What the neighbours think of them, matters not really. That is another side of the callousness and insensitivity that is evident in this society.
It is relevant to mention here what has been stated by a former managing director of the Sui Southern Gas Company and PEPCO Munawar Baseer Ahmed in a letter to the editor that he has written to a national English daily. It is called "misinformed ministers" and he says that " the continuing misinformation on the energy sector can only add to the woes of the public and the industry".
He goes on to state that "it appears that various departments and ministries are bent upon misinforming the ministers. One wonders if such misinformation is deliberate or is the result of inability to understand simple statistics and available data". He further contends that "no wonder all efforts of energy planning or for, for that matter, planning in all sectors has been and continues to be erroneous".
The entire letter is lengthy, detailed and cannot be reproduced here. He underlines the need for "timely implementation of crucial projects in the energy sector" and warns that if Pakistan fails here, it is "heading for an energy suicide scenario, which the people and industry will not be able to cope with." We can only hope that better judgement prevails, intelligent decision making is done, and those misinforming the government are held accountable.
This bit about misinforming the government amounts to misinforming the people? Of course, and not because of the above, I stand by my healthy cynicism and presently anticipate summer 2009 that will soon be here, as well as the rest of 2009 which will be yet another test of one's patience, when the loadshedding gets complicated by power breakdowns. And the thought that power tariffs will rise, and the new owners of KESC will reflect their crassly commercial goals, a mismanagement beyond control.
It is irrelevant to note here the special emphasis that the new owners of KESC have created an "umeed" zone for defence and Clifton consumers. So the rest of Karachi is without Umeed (read hope)? What this Umeed zone is going to mean in effect? Is this another marketing ploy? Should this "suspension of belief" be, therefore, applied to other sectors in the country?
To other promises made, and reiterated by political leaders, parties, government and opposition party chiefs and leaders, bureaucrats, civil and military? I hesitate to do so. Does suspending disbelief lessen the burden of betrayal and disappointment? Does it make it in any way, bearable, to believe that what is being promised will be delivered? I don't think so.
The fact that we are very distant from the decent quality of life that we had been promised and assured time and again, in all these sixty years, and that poverty has grown, as has been indicated last week, is staring at us in the face is a harsh reality. I cannot help but remember that it is a year today (18th February 2009) when the country's general elections were held, and a process of change began.
The mood of the country is far from being buoyant, and optimistic, which is what was being anticipated last year. If the farmer is unhappy, so is the industrial worker. Long story, really. To remember last year's elections makes it compelling to recollect the assassination of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and the exit of yet another military dictator in Pakistan's history, Pervez Musharraf, and the refusal of deposed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry to succumb to the pressures of the former President.
And of course both the confused chorus and the threatening chaos that are being heard ---in the streets, bazaars, homes, and offices, in urban and rural Pakistan are reminding us of unfulfilled promises not just in the energy sector. The list is long, in any given sector, it appears. (nusratnasarullah0@gmail.com)