Power crisis getting serious

With the summer only warming up to get going with full force, the masses are set to face the heat of ever increasing power outages across the country.

Power load shedding has already increased to up to 18 hours in several parts of the country and PEPCO sources said the electricity generation remained at 8,970MW against a demand of 13,000MW.

The situation in urban centres is much worse and some areas are reported to be without power for as much as 21 hours a day.

The spiralling power shortfall is increasingly becoming a throwback of the massive energy crisis the countrymen faced last summer, when prolonged power outages brought several hundred thousand people on the country’s streets to demand uninterrupted electricity supply.

Last April, protests for against load shedding had become a frequent feature in the country’s routine affairs and demonstrations were recorded almost on a daily basis by people fed up with simmering heat and government inability to ensure power supply.

Angry mobs then ransacked several government installations, especially those of power supplying utilities like WAPDA and various DISCOs, and clashes with law enforcement personnel trying to rein in masses foaming at the mouth were a norm.

The government usually related the crisis to decreased water flow in rivers, falling volumes of water reservoirs and the infamous circular debt.

Like this time around, Punjab was a special subject of power cuts.

Then chief minister Shahbaz Sharif had led several power protests himself and had accused the Cnetre of meting out step-motherly treatment to Punjab in order to make the PML-N provincial government unpopular.

He had said Punjab had played its role of being an elder brother and had sacrificed its interests in every aspect, “still Punjab is facing a conspiracy which is the brainchild of President Zardari and his cronies”.

The Centre responded with labelling Shahbaz a traitor for inciting violence and riots against the federal government.

However, the people were the ultimate losers, as the political war of words brought them little respite from the problem at hand.