Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso has banned the use of air conditioners in government offices effective from May 15. It is unclear what the caretaker prime minister wanted to achieve by this latest directive that can, at best, be defined as inane and, as an attempt to seek public approval for a measure that maybe regarded by the ill-informed as one which would reduce the demand for electricity as well as the cost of running government offices. One would have hoped that the caretaker prime minister had taken a moment to ponder the impact of such a decision given that his sojourn in the corridors of power is coming to an end.
The President is bound to call a session of the National Assembly within 21 days of polling day to elect a new speaker and deputy speaker of the house who would initiate the process of electing a new leader of the house and the opposition. In addition, the caretaker prime minister appears not to have given due consideration to the economic impact of barring government offices from using air conditioners. The fact of the matter is that government offices are largely centrally air conditioned and therefore would need to procure fans to replace the air conditioners. The procurement process as stipulated by the Public Procurement Rules Authority (PPRA) takes time - from issuing a tender to actually awarding the contract to any party and it is a foregone conclusion that the time left to the caretakers is not sufficient to ensure that the procurement process is completed while adhering to PPRA.
The decision by the caretaker prime minister appears to be one which fails to catch the bull by the horns and can easily be dismissed as one which reflects not only his lack of grasp of the subject but what many believe is his bull-headedness in not debating the issue first with relevant ministers given that his decision appears not to be in conformity with the recent statements by the caretaker Minister for Water and Power Dr Musaddaq Malik on how best to meet the energy demand-supply gap. Dr Malik proposed the following measures to deal with the energy crisis in the short to medium-term: (i) extend 150 billion rupees to the power sector out of which around 80 to 85 billion rupees could be generated from those who are defaulters and the Ministry of Finance can withhold the due bill payments at source. Another 10 billion rupees could be generated from Federal Board of Revenue releasing the rebate due; (ii) furnace oil supplies must be diverted from the poorly performing state-operated gencos to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) which would save around 3 billion a day as well as meet the energy shortfall, (iii) reduce transmission losses to 2.5 percent as allowed instead of the 3.6 percent currently being experienced, and (iv) full cost recovery must be supported which implies subsidies would be replaced by higher tariffs which would also lead to a saving of over 400 billion rupees a year of subsidies extend to the power sector. It is therefore not clear whether the caretaker prime minister bothered to consult with the relevant minister in his cabinet or not and one would hope that Dr Malik does indicate his own views on Khoso's decision to ban the use of air conditioners in government offices. Un-implementable measures like the one announced by the caretaker prime minister make a mockery of the seriousness of the energy crisis and one hopes that he begins to consult with those better informed of the issues than he clearly is.