At it, again
For every complex problem, the saying goes, there is always a very simple solution – that is wrong. It takes fortitude to avoid, when the proverbial is hitting the fan, the impulse of opting for the simple and incorrect solution.
Regarding the power crisis, the incumbent government has so far avoided making that mistake. But on the negative side, it didn’t go for any solution at all, perpetuating the inherently autopilot feel of things.
There is a simple solution here, one that is being repeated endlessly on talk show upon talk show, by pundits who are experts on the Siachen dispute, now on the Lyari gang warfare and now on power economics. That solution is to simply throw money at the problem. The problem is that it actually will go away. Only to come back later.
The grid itself is more than capable to handle all of our needs. Our basic problem stems from our inability to produce electricity at a cheap enough rate. But the government cannot raise the power tariff, at least not enough for it to be sustainable. The populist opposition and media demand for there to be an end to power outages and for the tariff to be kept low all at the same time. The harebrained scheme of printing the total of the circular debt, believed to be some Rs 300 billion, and simply clearing it all up conveniently forgets that, given the difference between what the tariffs are and what they should be, the circular debt is simply going to ratchet up shortly. A print run of Rs 300 billion from the central bank every now and then? The ensuing inflation is a little something no one spares thought to.
But we digress from the more basic issue that we are currently faced with. That of law and order. As mercury rises, so do tempers. A catalyst like no other for riots. That much is understandable. The real problem is the one that occurs when the provincial home minister – the one responsible for the law and order, a portfolio held at present by the Punjab chief minister – eggs on the rioters to do their thing.
To ask the League not to capitalise on the issue politically would be asking for the moon. But to ask them to desist from incitement to rioting is asking them to do their jobs. The chutzpah!
