Managing Director Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco), Tahir Basharat Cheema has said Pakistan is in the process of getting power from Iran but it is difficult to negotiate with Iranian bureaucracy. He further stated that 1100MW of electricity has been saved since shops were being shut at 8pm in Lahore and other cities of the province and two holidays being observed.
The burden of loadshedding on the general public has been reduced to some extent. He was addressing a meeting of National Security Special Committee (NSSC) of Pakistan National Forum held at a local club at Lahore on Saturday.
Former Punjab Governors Khalid Maqbool and Muhammad Iqbal, Admiral Yastoor-ul-Haq (Retd), Chief of Naval Staff, Lieutenant General Nishat Ahmad (Retd), Naseer Akhtar, Zia Ullah Khan, Sardar Ali, Muhammad Afzal Najeeb, Air Marshal Khursheed Anwar Mirza (Retd), Air Vice Marshals Amjad Hussain (Retd), Umer Farooq, Abdul Hafeez Rana, Major General Zahoor Malik (Retd), Mahboob Malik, Sarfraz Ahmad, Ashraf Chaudhry, Khawaja Rahat Latif and President, PNF Colonel M Ikram Ullah Khan (Retd) were also present.
Cheema said the load of air conditioners in offices and residences of the rich people of the society comes to 4000MW. He said in 1947, power generation of Pakistan was 31MW but with the passage of time population increased and they remained unable to focus on power production. "We slept after construction of Tarbela and Mangla in 1967 and 1977 respectively," he added.
He said the total capacity of hydel stations is 6443.56 MW, which is 37.10 percent of total installed generation capacity of Wapda. He said the attempt to construct Kala Bagh dam could not be materialised due to political reasons, which caused shortage in production and consumption of power. "Our daily need of electricity is 15000MW while we are producing 10,400MW and the shortage is only 4500 to 5000MW, he said. Cheema said the private sector should be allowed and encouraged to produce power. With the increase of population, the use of washing machines, air conditioners, ovens and other home appliances has also increased. The support of the masses is necessary to overcome the energy shortages, he asserted.
Responding to a question as to why we should pay for the theft and loss of power, Cheema said only companies were paying for these losses. He disclosed that 8800 power thieves had been apprehended so far. Wapda received about 200 complaints daily against power theft through telephone calls, he added. Cheema said nuclear power was the cheapest option but its installation cost is too much.