Another miserable summer

The shortsightedness of the govt when it comes to addressing energy crisis is so pervasive as to become maddening

The biggest virtue of the Nawaz Administration relative to its predecessors is that at least it is a little more realistic in its assessments of how bad the energy crisis is. But that is where its advantage ends. Ahsan Iqbal and Khawaja Asif have not insulted the intelligence of the public by claiming that load-shedding will end in the next six months or “by the end of this year” as Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was wont to claim. Their claims are more realistic, with a three-year time horizon given to fix the problem and this summer’s load-shedding schedule identified as being between six and eight hours long every day. But what is the point of this relative honesty if the government lacks the courage to implement solutions that by now have become glaringly obvious?

The government’s plan for managing the pain this year, for instance, relies on the same tired old combination of trying to increase power generation and reducing consumption by forcing commercial areas to shut down early so as to use less electricity. These adhoc measures are worse than worthless because not only will they do nothing to solve the long-term core of the problem — which is rampant theft of electricity — but also try to serve a temporary fix by actively slowing down economic activity. These measures are akin to trying to stop a patient from bleeding by stopping the heart. The bleeding will most definitely stop, but the patient will still be dead. The shortsightedness when it comes to addressing this crisis is so pervasive as to become maddening. And the voters are rapidly losing patience. Despite spending Rs125 billion in targeted development projects, the PPP was unceremoniously shoved out of office. It is abundantly clear from the minutes of the Cabinet Committee on Energy meetings that the prime minister is worried about suffering a similar fate. We hope that this worry will soon translate into political courage. We would hate for his concern for his own political survival to go in vain.

Published in The Express Tribune, March  19^th,  2015.

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