Nawaz feels the heat of power outages

Asks officials tasked to curb load shedding to correct their wrong


Sardar Sikander April 19, 2017
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD: In a rare yet embarrassing ‘confession’, the government officials have admitted that they failed to curb power outages ahead of the summer season, which has caused unprecedented load shedding in the country during the last few days.

This was disclosed during a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy on Tuesday with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the chair.

The meeting was held in the backdrop of prolonged power outages amid ever-rising temperature that triggered a lot of hue and cry from most sections of society.

An unusually strong-worded official statement issued after the meeting said, the PM “expressed annoyance over the laxity by the authorities concerned for not taking pre-emptive measures to cope with load shedding perceiving the shortage of water in reservoirs and severity of the weather”.

PPP to take up load shedding issue

The ministry officials responded that unexpected rise in temperature resulted in instant increase in power’s demand while the required amount of water was not available in the dams that hindered power generation.

According to the statement, the PM rejected the officials’ explanation and “expressed anger at the briefing given by the ministry and directed for fixing responsibility on those officials who failed to devise the strategy pre-emptively to avert the recurrence”.

He also directed the Ministry of Water and Power to exploit all out resources to meet the power needs and provide electricity to the consumers and take immediate measures to “reduce load shedding to the possible extent”.

From the statement, it appeared that the water and power officials misinformed the PM that the power shortfall had exceeded 2,500 megawatts (MW). On the other hand, authentic estimates suggest that power shortfall exceeded 7,200MW on Tuesday as power generation’s demand stood at 19,700MW while the supply was 12,500MW.

Requesting anonymity, a government official said the PM’s mood in the meeting was not “as aggressive as depicted in the press release”.

Sharif, the source said, did inquire from the water and power officials over lack of proper arrangements to deal with the load shedding problem but he did not show displeasure and lost his cool over the issue.

Protests continue against power breakdowns, overbillings

The insider believed the press release simply aimed at passing the buck on to the government servants while bailing out the country’s top political leadership.

“The PM has a very clear idea of the power shortfall scenario. No one knows this issue better than him,” the source said. “He knows his close aides heading the related ministries are as much responsible as the government servants. The hard-hitting statements are just for public consumption and personal projection.”

Back in the year 2013, when the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government came into power, the electricity shortfall in peak summer season used to exceed 7,000MW. “After four years, it appears that things are back to square one. The peak summer season has not even arrived and the shortfall is exceeding 7,000MW mark. It’s hard to justify such a glaring failure. So, they need scapegoats to serve the purpose,” the insider said.

Some circles believe the ongoing power shortages are part of the government’s strategy to save electricity to attract public support by temporarily ending load shedding soon after the Supreme Court’s verdict on Panamagate is out on April 20 (tomorrow). Others believe the electricity load shedding would continue for the next few months. It would keep reducing and eventually end ahead of the general elections next year, allowing the PML-N to cash in on the situation.

Sources said the PM House was receiving repeated complaints from the PML-N’s local leaderships from across the country that prolonged and unannounced power outages were fuelling anti-government sentiment which was politically detrimental to the political party in the context of ongoing political developments and the general elections scheduled for next year.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, PM’s Adviser Ameer Muqam claimed the premier is ‘very concerned’ over power shortages and has ordered ‘strong action’ against those officials responsible for negligence. Asked if Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif was reprimanded, he said, “No, I mean, the ministry officials who were responsible - who were tasked with reducing load shedding-were reprimanded. The minister is trying his best to end power outages.”

Apart from Asif, PM’s Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and other senior officials attended the meeting.

COMMENTS (15)

curious2 | 6 years ago | Reply Installing most power plants ain't that complicated - takes about two years in most countries. Maybe the govt should spend less time talking about CPEC and actually managing CPEC?
Sherforlife | 6 years ago | Reply @Bilal: Nothing will stop me voting for NS, it doesn't matter to me that he has stolen billions because he is very honest and I quite happily sit in the dark for my leader.
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