Almost the entire country is in the grip of massive power load-shedding. The power regulator, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), has conveniently made lack of adequate foreign exchange the scapegoat for system’s failure.

According to a Business Recorder report, Nepra chairman Tauseef H Farooqi has stated that one of the key reasons for power load-shedding in the country is scarcity of foreign exchange to import fuel as Pakistan’s 63 per cent generation is based on imported fuels.

He was responding to questions raised by Members of Senate Standing Committee on Power regarding prolonged forced load-shedding in the country in months of summer.

It is true that power generation heavily relies on imported fuel. It is, however, interesting to note that it was exactly two months ago that the country’s power minister Khurram Dastgir announced that no imported fuel would be used for new electricity generation projects in the country.

According to him, a strategy has been evolved to ensure environment-friendly power generation in order to save precious foreign exchange and reduce electricity cost for consumers.

Fair enough. But he was talking about the future or future projects. What about the existing projects that rely on imported fuel to generate electricity? He was fully aware of the power production estimates for the months of May, June, July and so on and so forth.

He ought to have taken the nation into confidence that the power generation would be adversely affected in months to come on account of scarcity of foreign exchange. How ironic it is that the country has been facing massive power outages even in the presence of new power plants set up under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and added to the national grid. Our power sector’s woefully bad performance runs contrary to the spirit of ‘Decade of CPEC’, so to speak.

Noman Bashir

Lahore

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023