Needless to emphasise that the energy crisis gripping the country has not only badly affected the industrial sector but also made the lives of the people extremely miserable, to say the least. Consequently, the government has been the target of an incessant opprobrium by the political opposition as well as by other stakeholders and more so, by the media for its inability to tide over the situation.
The most worrying factor is that a political party ruling the Punjab is hell bent to exploit the situation for its narrow political gains by supporting, encouraging and even sponsoring violent public protests against the federal government resulting in the destruction of public and private property worth billions of rupees.
The Chief Minister, instead of faithfully implementing the decisions of the energy conference recently held in Lahore in regards to load management and conservation of energy, is personally leading this assault against the federal government and spending millions of rupees from the public exchequer on an advertisement campaign in the media expressing solidarity with the people who are staging violent demonstrations and also instigating them to continue with their disruptive acts.
A new culture of violence and mob rule is being introduced in politics that might have very serious repercussions in the years to come. The stance of the Punjab government is a clear violation of the constitution that emphasises harmonious relations between the federal and provincial governments in matters relating to governance and also stipulates how the contentious issues between the federation and the provinces should be resolved. The best forum for deliberating on the power crisis is the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and not the streets.
The prevailing ambience of confrontation between Punjab and the federal government on this issue, merits an objective evaluation of the situation and finding answers to questions such as, how the country drifted to this unenviable situation, who are the real culprits behind this drift and is the flak directed at the present government fully justified or otherwise? To find appropriate answers to these pertinent questions we may have to go back to early nineties when the energy crisis had raised its ugly head. The verifiable records available with the government and other relevant organisations establish it beyond an iota of doubt that the country faced a power shortage of 1500 MW in the early nineties that caused forced shutdown. During Benazir's second stint as Prime Minister, a massive programme of structural reforms was initiated that permitted the IPPs to produce and sell electricity to both Wapda and KESC under power purchasing agreements. The IPP policy succeeded in attracting an investment of US $3 billion in the power sector.
Resultantly, the power generating capacity outran demand. Over 3,000 MW of private IPP capacity came on stream in 1997 alone and Pakistan was even in a position to export electricity. A report prepared in 2006 by the government of Pakistan for Asian Development Bank with a view to seeking its assistance for power generating projects, provides a ranting testimony to the foregoing facts. It is an irrefutable reality that during the next 12 years almost remained barren in regard to new projects of power generation, resulting in severe power shortages by 2007.
When the present PPP government assumed office in February 2008, the country was again faced with a shortfall of 3500 MW. It happened because Nawaz Sharif and General Musharraf did not pay required attention to this vital sector. The former even started a process of witch-hunt against IPPs in the late nineties and scuttled the chances of future foreign investment in these projects. Thus a surplus in 1997 tuned into a deficit of 3500 MW by 2008 when the PPP was mandated to rule the country.