PML-N has failed to take any concrete measures
There were three inter-related media reports on Monday concerning loads shedding. Farmers in Balochistan blocked the highways against persistent blackouts. Nawaz Sharif said load shedding would end during PML-N’s tenure. NEPRA, however, maintained that power shortages would continue beyond 2020.
The country is facing a mega power crisis since 2004. Neither the PPP nor PML-N leaders cared to make any detailed study of the issue while in the opposition or after coming to power. Shortages became acute during the PPP tenure. While camping in protest against load shedding at Minar-e-Pakistan in June 2012, Shahbaz Sharif claimed that load shedding would end if the PML-N came to power. He offered a simplistic solution to the complex problem: settle the circular debt. Meanwhile, the PML-N used the issue to settle scores with the PPP.
The superficial approach persisted after the PML-N came to power. Every leader in the party, from Nawaz Sharif to Khwaja Asif and Abid Sher Ali, assured the country that the power shortage would soon be resolved without telling how the miracle was going to be performed. When the PML-N paid off the circular debt of Rs480 billion it was called a landmark achievement. In the next five months the debt piled up again followed by increasing load shedding.
Political considerations stand in the way of taking the right decisions. The circular debt would not have accumulated if the government had focused on recovering the unpaid bills and reduced the line losses. The government has hesitated to use the state machinery without discrimination against the defaulters. It is even unwilling to regulate the working hours of the big markets in urban areas to conserve power. It looks for quick fixes. The power crisis would linger on irrespective of the claims that it would be over by 2017. By the time its term ends the PML-N will find out a scapegoat to explain away its failure to end power shortages. One wonders if the parties in the opposition have learnt any lesson.