The issue of power shortages and the PML-N
When the PPP government initially failed to deal with power shortages it shifted the blame onto Pervez Musharraf for failing to add any significant megawatts of energy despite holding power for nearly nine years. Subsequently the party decided to follow the path trodden by its predecessors and signed contracts for more Rental Power Plants (RPPs) which had earlier failed to make any worthwhile addition to power. The way the contracts were clinched being non transparent, this led to accusations of corruption against Raja Pervez Ashraf and a number of federal bureaucrats. In March 2012, the Supreme Court declared all RPP contracts illegal and ordered their dissolution. What frustrated many was the tendency in Pervez Ashraf to repeatedly offer false assurances to people regarding an early end to load shedding.
There was a tendency on the part of the PML-N, when it was in opposition, to politicise the issue of power. While protesting against load shedding a perception was created by certain party leaders that the shortages were the result of corruption and once the ‘incorruptible’ PML-N was in power load shedding would not take long to disappear. The stance changed after the party won the elections and was apprised of the depth and complications of the issue. However, the hype created before the elections continues to dog the party. Taking a leaf out of Shahbaz Sharif’s book Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak gave federal government till Monday to end power shortages or face a campaign of protests. On Monday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met a delegation of businessmen from Faisalabad who have been protesting against load shedding. Here he was given an earful by members of his own community. Contradicting Khawaja Asif’s claims that load shedding was confined to areas where consumers failed to pay their bills or that there was a need to reduce the use of power, the entrepreneurs challenged the official power generation figures of 15,000MW against a demand of 18,000MW. They maintained that they had been facing outages of more than 10 hours and five-and-a-half day of suspension of gas. They maintained that instead of the improvement claimed by the minister for power the situation had grown worse as under the previous government the industrial feeders had been facing only four hours of scheduled load shedding and availed five days of gas supply.
The PML-N has been in power for a little more than a month only. It is unrealistic to expect it to turn over the situation in such a short time. The ruling party should be given at least three months as suggested by the PM for its policies to begin producing results. What is more the issue of power is too serious a matter to be politicised. One expects from the government, however, that it would avoid indulging in vacuous explanations or try to justify its shortcomings by claims that fly in the face of facts.