Karachi’s electricity supply

Reducing K-Electric’s purchases of power from NTDC will do not improve the situation in other parts of the country

Given the intensity of the power crisis in most parts of the country, it was perhaps inevitable that attention be turned to Karachi, the only city with large swathes largely unscathed by the ominous spectre of power outages. PML-N politicians have turned their ire on the agreement between K-Electric and the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) to supply 650MW from the state-owned portion of the national grid to Karachi. Some have suggested that the agreement, which expired this week, should not be renewed, though there is pressure on the government from politicians from Karachi and even the UAE government to renew it. We understand the frustrations facing consumers in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. But the government must understand that failing to renew the agreement with K-Electric will do almost nothing to improve the situation in other parts of the country. The power crisis in Punjab is caused not by a lack of supply, but rather it is a failure of consumers to pay and a complete disincentive for consumers to not steal electricity.

In Karachi, even though electricity theft and bill evasion occurs at quite high rates, K-Electric has created a system to exempt those areas from load-shedding where there is low theft and high bill collection. This system of incentives for positive behaviour is what has resulted in improvements in Karachi as far as load-shedding is concerned. It is a model to be replicated throughout Pakistan, not maligned as somehow part of the problem for the rest of Pakistan. We oppose the Nawaz Administration’s proposal to reduce K-Electric’s purchases of power from the NTDC, not just because it is a policy born of shortsightedness, but also because it punishes the one city that has managed to get things right. Karachi has Pakistan’s single largest concentration of industry. Its needs justify the purchase of electricity from the national grid, which is paid for by citizens of the city both, in the form of bills and the taxes that pay for the subsidies. Cutting off Karachi’s supplemental power supply would send them a bad message for good behaviour.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th,  2015.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.