The shocking revelations by Mr Naveed Qamar, Water and Power Minister that the menace of non-payment of electricity bills by federal and provincial governments have struck the national grid. He stated that Rs 155 billion were outstanding against federal government departments and Rs 70 billion by provinces. It clearly depicts the worsening situation prevailing in state departments. Unjustified allocation of resources and lack of responsibility to pay official bills has turned the situation from bad to worse.
The extraordinary load is being shifted to common people using little amount of power. On the other side, there is not an iota of hope that things would turn better on government’s part. It simply reflects we are least interested in appropriate planning of resources viz a viz how extravagant we are in spending. Only electricity bills (Rs 225 billion) cost 75 percent of total circular debt of Rs 300 billion. Should not government look for cutting down electricity expenditures in government offices to control the ballooned circular debt? We have a sad history of misusing official resources to the last extent. There must be checks on government expenses by parliament but our worthy parliamentarians are also sailing in the same boat. Resultantly, the public is paying out of their already shrunk pockets the most expensive electricity of the world, while those in power are using free power.
IFTIKHAR MIRZA
Islamabad
