Where was this concern during the last four years?
While chairing a meeting of the cabinet’s energy committee the prime minister expressed his displeasure over the current electricity supply crisis that is causing load-shedding in excess of 15 hours a day.
The PM thankfully did not buy any of the excuses his ministers have been throwing around so nonchalantly i.e. the rise in mercury and lack of water in the dams. That however is the extent of what the PM can be given credit for in such circumstances as the buck stops with him and his government that for the fourth consecutive year has failed to add power to the grid.
Quite honestly it is a slap in the face of the people who have to face the true wrath of load-shedding for hours at end when the ministers and bureaucrats responsible simply say ‘it’s God’s will, deal with it’. The PML-N made the PPP’s inability to solve the energy crisis in their five years the bedrock of their campaign in 2013 and the elimination of load-shedding remains the party’s primary re-election promise.
That promise however remains unfulfilled and seemingly empty. The focus has remained on installing new capacity while any significant investment in available idle capacity and more importantly the transmission line system has remained absent. The new projects themselves have been mismanaged which adds to their already extensive completion timeline. Couple this with an incompetent power ministry that resorts to buck passing at any hint of criticism and you have an idea of why we are here today.
With so much dependence on furnace oil and not enough money to buy it or pay IPP’s to run at full capacity it is no wonder that unexpected and unforgiving meteorological conditions is the only excuse that is being given. The current government should really take stock of their energy policy and where it is headed because so far it looks a shambles.
