Half measures won’t work
The intensity of some of the major issues that are hurting Pakistan badly could have been reduced significantly if the government had been fully focused on setting its house in order. Instead the government decided to run after chimeras. Foremost among these are the issues of terrorism and power. Ch Nisar who should have concentrated on removing the hurdles in setting up of National Counter-terrorism Authority (NACTA) as the premier decision-making organ, wasted months in the wild goose chase of talks with the TTP. The issue of power shortages is no different.
The government’s half cooked energy policy described by the prime minister “as panacea of Pakistan’s energy ills” has failed to reduce shortages. Not only are the government’s priorities wrong but also is its governance subpar. The entire official focus is on long gestation plans like attracting investments in generation without paying equal attention to the fulfillment of the country’s immediate needs. The government has failed to focus on removing internal deficiencies that stand in the way of utilising the full capacity of existing power plants. Bad governance which characterises almost every government ministry has also taken toll of the power sector. In the case of Water and Power Ministry so many cooks are spoiling the broth. The ministry is being jointly tended by Shahbaz Sharif and Abid Sher Ali with Kh Asif as a nominal head. This was bound to cause inefficiencies. The bills’ recovery is stuck at only 86 per cent for the last several months, adding almost Rs300 million per day to the outstanding amount. What is more, the government has delayed the payment of subsidy. A newspaper report tells of the government having cleared only Rs10bn out of the Rs32 billion dues about 11 days ago, leaving a deficit of Rs22bn. Under the prevailing conditions those running the power plants are unable to realise their maximum potential.
Like several other organisations under its control, the government continues to run the power sector on ad hoc basis. As things stand permanent heads are yet to be appointed for the 16 important companies of the sector. Similar is the case with the chiefs of departments who were appointed by the PML-N government on ad hoc, additional or acting charges. This has badly affected the efficiency of the power sector.
Over the past 13 months, the entire official focus had been on attracting investments in generation. This in turn has taken official attention and planning away from the efficiency of the system. The combined impact of the deficiencies on the part of the government has led to a situation where the country is facing 12-18 hours of load shedding. Even worse lies ahead.
