After failing to come up with a plan to fix the load shedding issue for over four years, it is now obvious that the incumbent political dispensation is living in a house fractured with varying opinions. Its own leaders came thundering down upon each other the other day in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on the issue.
Two of the former ministers for water and power, Syed Naveed Qamar and Raja Parvez Ashraf, and a federal secretary of the same ministry, Imtiaz Qazi, came under fire from a PPP MNA, Jamshaid Dasti, who was invited specifically for his input on the issue. Promise after promise has been made by the present government, each one proving to be false and as hollow as a dictator’s slogan of democracy. Each time, a leader in the top tier came forward and made a new promise; the most recent being President Asif Ali Zardari. A source told Pakistan Today that during the special meeting of the federal cabinet Public Accounts Committee Chairman Nadeem Afzal Gondal and Jamshaid Dasti, both fiery speakers, took to task the former ministers and the bureaucrat for their failure in handling affairs of the Ministry of Water and Power which, they said, had led to the power crisis in the country. “Mr Prime Minister, Mr Naveed Qamar, Mr Raja Parvez Ashraf and Mr Imtiaz Qazi are responsible for the electricity crisis we are facing today. Had you hanged any of those against the polls upside down, this crisis would have been over by now,” said a furious Dasti, who has been elected twice from Muzaffargarh, one of the hottest places in the country. Dasti, who enjoys support from his constituency as he was re-elected from there after he lost his seat to a fake degree scandal, did have a point when he said if both the previous ministers of water and power could not handle the affairs of the ministry, why they did not resign and why they made false promises with the government and the ruling party as well as the people of Pakistan. “We are elected by the people of Pakistan and we are to answer the people who voted us to power. These babus don’t understand what it takes to reach the National Assembly,” Dasti told the cabinet members in a furious tone. He blamed that high-ranking officials in the ministry were involved in hoodwinking the government and the people. In what appears to be an apparent effort at placating the protesting public, which has gone violent sometimes, Prime Minister Gilani took strong exception to the failure of Water and Power Ministry and directed to bring an end to the unscheduled load shedding. He formed a committee to monitor load shedding and submit a report to him on a daily basis.
The water and power secretary said that total generation capacity of electricity in the country was 16,000 MW, while only 11,600 MW was being produced. The secretary attributed the decline in generation to cold weather in Northern Areas, causing a shortage of 3,500 MW.The PM declared the issue to be the “government’s top priority” while resolving to settle the power shortage on war-footings and directed the energy committee to present its recommendations next week. Meanwhile, protests across the country have again picked up pace as mercury has started rising again after a brief lull of three days. With sizzling sun bearing down on the citizens, and absence of electricity fuelling their anger, it is becoming increasingly hard for them to keep their cool. Protesters turned violent in Karachi where they attacked and ransacked KESC offices while many other cities faced the same situation.
