ISLAMABAD - USMAN CHEEMA - The claims made by Federal Minister for Water and Power Naveed Qamar that there will be no loadshedding in the country, evaporated in air as masses just after a relief, not more than one week, are again suffering from 10-20 hours power outages.
Earlier Prime Minister and Rehman Malik were known for their baseless claims and now Naveed Qamar has adopted the same style of making announcement without doing proper homework that whether or not, what he is saying is possible.
High officials of WAPDA while talking to The Nation said that when minister announced this, they were amazed as he was speaking totally against the ground realities. What the government has done that minister found himself to make such huge claim.
One should ask the government that what happened all of sudden that electricity have vanished from the country while hydel generation is still adding its share in the system. The sources said that government is not sharing actual situation with masses.
The real issue is non-availability of funds for the purchase of fuel otherwise this much power outage in this season is not possible as installed capacity of power generation is almost double of present electricity demand in the country.
The sources revealed that government is all busy in concealing its incompetency in terms of controlling line losses which are highest in the world. They said that 22 per cent losses is a big figure that resultantly are causing troubles for the power sector of the country and without controlling them no one can overcome energy issues in the country.
Earlier Prime Minister had announced no loadshedding for Faisalabad few months back and that claim was also evaporated as that was not based on solid information and no presentation was taken from the ministry for the claim.
PM had announced few months back that within two months Faisalabad would be totally load shedding free zone due to its industrial importance. An official of the ministry said that if he had asked us before making this announcement, we would never recommend.
The official said that the main reason is short recovery and line losses those hit the power sector by Rs 260 billion this year. He told that Rs 100 billion was short recovery and Rs 160 billion loss has to be suffered by the government every year due to line losses. A bigger portion of line losses consists of electricity theft, he added.
He further explained that electricity cannot be generated without making payments to Independent Power Producers and recovery and line losses issue created financial crunch that ultimately caused lesser generation.