A major problem is that most people who steal electricity, consider doing so their birth right.
EAST LAKE, OHIO, USA: This is with reference to the story “Why power outages are mostly our own fault” (June 3). The bottom line presented in the article is absolutely correct that theft is the main cause of the power crisis that Pakistan is currently facing. A major problem is that most people who steal electricity, consider doing so their birth right. About 10 years ago, I was visiting Fata, which was relatively peaceful at the time. What I observed was that every big house had a separate transformer. When I asked about the cost and bills of having transformers, my host just laughed and told me that “we don’t have metres”. When I told him this amounts to stealing of electricity, he refused to accept it as theft. “It’s not theft, it’s our right”, he insisted. “Most of the power generation is done in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and distributed to other parts of the country. Why should we pay for something that is produced in our part of the country?”
This mindset was prevalent many years ago and was not limited to just one part of the country. I believe the situation on the ground has deteriorated even further today.
Chaudhry Allah Daad
Published in The Express Tribune, June 5th, 2013.
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