The whole country has come into the grip of loadshedding, with the gap between supply and demand crossing 6000 MW, at a time when the summer has barely started, and with the full intensity of the heat yet to strike. However, while fans and air-conditioners are going on, the power for them is not available. The federal government, faced with this crisis, is doing what it does best, whether or not a solution emerges: the President is holding a meeting. It is probable that the meeting will be told that one of the problems causing the present loadshedding is that the snow-melt has not started. It is not for some days that Tarbela and Mangla Dams are expected to fill, and then provide the hydro-electricity they are not generating at the moment. Another factor that will be brought up is the problem of circular debt, which has hit the IPPs in particular, because state-run PSO is unable to provide them furnace oil, and they have had to close down.While nothing can be done about the hydel power, or the vagaries of the weather in a climate which has been disturbed by global warming, circular debt can be dealt with only by an injection of cash. Though the government has promised the IMF to end any semblance of subsidy to the power sector, it has also promised the end of circular debt. To this end, a special mode of financing, through a new instrument, is being envisaged. However, the present crisis makes it impossible for the present government to go on ignoring, as it has done, the Kalabagh Dam project, not as any kind of substitute for the Bhasha Dam project, but as an additionality to all the many hydel generation and storage projects along the Indus that are possible, and which must be built.It should be kept in mind that the circular debt issue may be solved now, but has the potential to crop up again, not to forget that at best it can only supply expensive and polluting oil-generated power to the grid, as opposed to cheap and non-polluting hydel. Unless the government shows its commitment to Kalabagh Dam, its readiness to tackle the current crisis will remain in doubt. However, as it is primarily engaged in saving itself, its demonstrations of concern will not have any effect on the electorate, which is looking to the next polls to express its opinion about the government, unless it can be successful in tackling the problem. People, already suffering and fearful at the coming onslaught of summer, will not be fooled by the mere holding of meetings. There must be results; the time for mere talk is over.