Centre power-less: power minister shows muscle

• Abid Sher Ali pulls electricity plug off President’s Secretariat, PM House and other defaulters, says strategy being evolved to reduce load shedding
• Nawaz orders IESCO to restore Supreme Court’s electricity

State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali on Tuesday ordered the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) to terminate electricity supply to 18 government institutions, including the President’s House, Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Parliament Lodges, official residence of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) and Sindh and Balochistan House.

Moreover, orders were also issued for disconnection of electric supply to the head offices of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Capital Development Authority (CDA), Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), Environmental Directorate, Motorway Police, Pakistan Public Works Department and the office of Rawalpindi TMO.

Talking to journalists on Tuesday after visiting IESCO Headquarters, the minister said that an across-the-board campaign has been started against power theft. He said the prime minister has given the Ministry of Water and Power one month’s time to recover the receivables and check power pilferage.

The minister said that electricity will only be given to the consumers paying their bills. He said an effective policy was being evolved to reduce duration of load shedding. He said that areas reported for major line losses will face increased power cuts. He also said that chief executives will be removed if they failed to tackle power theft and did not make recoveries at the earliest.

The power minister said that the campaign against electricity defaulters and power thieves had begun on the directives of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and action would be taken against those usurping the rights of the people. He said that it was unfair to say that any one province was being targeted, further stating that the ministry will not let anyone steal electricity whatever the location may be.

WHAT’S DUE IS DUE:

Giving details of the dues owed to the IESCO, Abid Sher said that the Prime Minister’s Secretariat owed Rs 6.2 million in dues whereas the residence of the CJP owed a bill of Rs 1.1 million. He further said that CDA owed Rs 360 million while the Parliament Lodges owed Rs 200 million to IESCO.

Abid Sher said that in the public sector, the Sindh government was a defaulter of Rs 56 billion while Azad Kashmir owed Rs 33 billion. He added that 5,000 connections, which the provincial government had failed to acknowledge, were disconnected in Sindh.

He further said that electricity theft amounting to Rs 70 billion had taken place in Balochistan where 16,000 illegal tube well connections existed.

Various public and private sector departments owed more than Rs 3 billion to the IESCO, and the electricity supply company had been sending notices to these departments for some time now over non-payment of dues.

Owing to the dues, the IESCO on Monday had disconnected the supply of electricity of around 100 buildings and departments for non-payment. Virtually all government departments at both the central and provincial levels have contributed towards bankrupting the power sector.

The minister also said that he has told Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that if markets were closed around 8pm then 1000 megawatts of electricity could be saved.

There was no immediate comment from those affected however, later in the day, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered IESCO to resume electricity supply to the Supreme Court.

Power supply to all blocks of the Pakistan Secretariat was also disconnected, including the offices of the Ministry of Water and Power, according to IESCO spokesperson.

While Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has promised to fix power cuts as one of his priorities, Pakistan’s economy is crippled by persistent blackouts lasting up to 12 hours a day – partly because influential families, politicians and bureaucrats do not pay their dues while the poor often cannot afford rising utility bills.

Targeting government offices as part of the campaign would send a powerful message to ordinary people in Pakistan that Sharif is serious about reform and that no one would be spared in his campaign against non-payment of bills.

SC CLARIFIES:

Moreover, the Supreme Court on Tuesday clarified news item aired by different news channels that electricity connection of Supreme Court building was disconnected by IESCO on account of non-payment of electricity bills by Pak PWD.

In pursuance of the clearance certificate of Pak PWD dated April 29 showing that all the electricity dues of Supreme Court of Pakistan building, Chief Justice House and all Judges Residences are paid to IESCO up to date i.e. up till April, 2014.

It is clarified that all the electricity dues against Supreme Court building, Chief Justice House and all judges residences are already paid as per version of Pak PWD, said a press release.