islamabad-In Rawalpindi, in densely populated areas where a house normally means a box of 750 or so square feet, the midnight hour during which the electricity is disconnected comes out to be among the most testing times in one’s life. As the mercury rested over the higher side during the past week, the power cuts were hitting even harder.
For the last several years, Pakistan has been passing through acute shortage of electricity, which compelled governments to rationing of the commodity. For the purpose, electricity is disconnected in a particular area with intervals of different lengths. In Rawalpindi, in majority of areas, the electricity cuts off for an hour after every three hours. It means that during the night, the electricity would cut twice at least.
Ever since the power outages were accepted as an undeniable reality with no immediate solution in sight. The well-off people and others could afford UPS systems at their homes for ensuring uninterrupted power supply, but houses that have no such facility are still in overwhelming majority. These are the households that suffer the most during an hour with electric power.
The moment the electricity disconnects, nearly every person of the family suddenly wakes up with an UFFFF, as the prickly heat starts biting badly all over from toes to forehead. The next moment a kid starts complaining of mosquitoes’ ambush, the elders also changing sides and eventually getting up scratching their skin itching due to mosquito bites. Moms start looking for hand fans when a kid shouts for drinking water and the other screams out of heat prickles. Elders start cursing the government as the house women enquire when this misery will end.
The weather these days has turned particularly hot. People in areas where the electricity is disconnected for an hour at 11pm prefer to remain outside their homes till the light is back, but in areas where electricity is disconnected an hour after 11pm, most of the people are in beds by then. This is the class whose already restless sleep breaks twice during a night. As the schools are off these days, moms are less worried about getting up early to prepare the school-going for the day, but the working women and men are in great trouble these days, for the offices do not bother about how much sleepless the employees were at night. They require them by the same fixed time.
It was in Musharraf era that electricity loadshedding emerged as a serious problem in Punjab and Sindh. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the loadshedding persisted since the day the electricity was first provided to the inhabitants of the province. Musharraf and his predecessors did not take the issue seriously, but after 2008, the elected government tried to fix the problem in a haste, and with lesser investments, as the hydropower which exists as the cheapest sources of electricity, not only takes much longer time but also much higher costs. Therefore, the PPP-led coalition government went for ready solution of rental power plants, which came out as a failure due to allegations of corruption and subsequent intervention by the Supreme Court. During the period, the Punjab government intended to pursue a project in Nandipur, but the central government was not providing the required quarantines for the purpose. Nandipur also proved as a failure when the PML-N came into power at the centre and provided everything sought by the Punjab government.
But the situation is improving now, as the central as well as provincial governments are vigorously pursuing various energy projects with sustainable approach. The central government claims to have added more than three thousand megawatts of electricity to the national grid during the last four years. The Punjab government recently inaugurated a 1320MW coal-powered plant in Sahiwal while the Sindh government has also successfully completed a 100MW power plant under public-private partnership. A 1450MW extension project at Tarbela Dam is also near completion. China also intends to tap the hydropower potential of the Indus cascade. It can safely be said that Pakistan would have overcome the crisis by the next decade, and would enter a surplus zone in near future if the Chinese dream of Indus cascade materialises.
The situation has also improved on the ground. In Rawalpindi, the power outage frequency has dropped from every three hours to almost six or eight hours even during these utterly hot days. During Ramazan, the frequency was every 12 hours in the otherwise neglected areas surrounding the Pirwadhai Morr, while during a full week before Ramazan, the residents were unable to believe that they were getting truly uninterrupted power supply, occasional breaks unaccounted for.
In rural areas of all the four provinces though, the situation is not such rosy, but in areas wherefrom the government is paid back, the people are witnessing visible improvement in supply of electricity. In KP, the members of the national and provincial assemblies are providing their development funds to Peshawar Electricity Supply Company for segregating the areas from where electricity bills are collected up to the mark from areas where people do not pay bills or are involved in electricity theft on larger scales.
The reason behind this is the present government’s policy of providing more sustained provision of electricity to the ones who pay bills. It means that a difference does exist now, an improvement in electricity supply to those who pay for it, not like the past when everyone cried for it.
The interrupted sleeps are not much bitter now, as there is a hope that the days and nights of uninterrupted power supply are not very far.
-The writer is a member staff