Power woes: Judicial probe into Bannu firing incident ordered

A 10-member parliamentary committee to take up the loadshedding issue with the president and prime minister.

PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti ordered a judicial probe into a firing incident, in which one person was killed for protesting power cuts in Bannu.

Responding to points raised by the members of the provincial assembly on Thursday, the chief minister agreed with their suggestion of setting up a 10-member parliamentary committee to take up the problem of unscheduled loadshedding with the president and the prime minister.

He assured the house that the power issue would be resolved with the initiation of work on five to six power projects shortly.

He declared the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) as “the mother of all problems,” saying the loadshedding is carried out because of the 1,000-watt gap between the supply and demand of electricity.

He held previous governments responsible for the failure to increase the capacity of supply with the growing electrification. However, he said that the energy crisis should also be resolved; adding that increase in the ratio of hydropower in the energy will not only help provide cheap electricity, but will also fill the existing gap in supply and demand at the national level.

The chief minister said that initiating work on mega power projects like Diamer-Bhasha and Munda dams would help resolve the problem. However, he said that the issue could not be resolved without tackling the problem of circular credit, improvement in the distribution system and bringing the line losses under control.

“If there is a gap between supply and demand at the national level, then we are ready for sacrifice, but we will never accept more load-shedding than our required share,” he warned. He vowed to continue the political and constitutional struggle against it.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th,  2011.