PML-N and the issue of power shortage
The issue of power shortage is not a simple one, at least not as easy as the politicians would have us believe. For their own vested interests, politicians would do anything to lay the blame on others, especially the previous government, their favourite target. Claiming that they are just cleaning the mess created by the previous government is a mantra that rings true in many a country though this happens to have unfortunately formed into a trait in our land of the pure. The present government, the PML-N’s, hasn’t even chalked out a strategy to deal with the issue of power shortage and yet it has started the age old practice of blaming the predecessors.
It all started when PPP MNA Syed Naveed Qamar, who had had a stint as Minister for Water and Power in the previous government, asked the treasury benches as to why there had been no let-up in load shedding if the PML-N government had really paid a huge sum of Rs326bn to power producers under the head of circular debt which stood at just above Rs500bn. Instead of detailing how the amount had helped in reducing the power shortages, which by witnessing the protests of the public across the country do not seem to have decreased to any relatively reasonable length, the Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif came up with numbers to support his claim of producing more energy and blamed the previous government for failing to produce more than 8000MW on a daily basis. While the production side problems remain where they have been for the past few decades, no effort has been made to properly manage the distribution side. With most of industry facing a four-hour load shedding on daily basis with gas being supplied for five days a week, the textile industry of Faisalabad, mainly, is getting power for 10 hours daily and gas for two days a week only. If the present government is not serious in addressing this disparity, how is it going to manage the electricity problem in the whole country? Even if the government succeeds in paying off the whole amount of circular debt, by purchasing power at Rs 14 per unit and offering it to the consumers at Rs 9 per unit, the issue is bound to rear its ugly head again, as pointed out rightly by Mr Qamar.
Government’s attitude of indifference towards this problem might not sit well with the electorate. Their protests might soon turn violent and a repeat of the high-handedness shown by the Punjab government a few weeks ago in Faisalabad will add fuel to the fire, so to speak. PML-N’s government has often been accused of running on a centralised model, high-handed manners and indifferent to the public attitude. Shahbaz Sharif, CM Punjab, was quick to hold open courts and lead protests against load shedding in the previous PPP government, but it seems he isn’t ready to do the same now that his party in power at the Centre too. The government needs to get its act together and soon. People want tangible results, not hollow promises.