We all remember PML-N leaders who gave stormy speeches against power theft, before and soon after last elections, and promised that they would eliminate power theft, which is considered to be the main cause of load shedding in the country. But to everyone’s great dismay the PML-N government, which is about to complete one year in power, has completely failed to control power theft or and catch power thieves. As a result, circular debt has resurfaced and reportedly swelled to Rs.286 billion during the first nine months of current financial year. We also know PML-N government settled circular debt amounting to Rs 480 billion with tax payers money soon after it came into power in June 2013 and promised to make sure circular debt does not resurface.
There is no way that energy crisis, which is hitting hard the staggering economy of the country, can be overcome unless power theft is controlled. I don’t doubt Khawja Asif’s sincerity or Abid Sher Ali’s but I would like to know what steps have they taken for controlling power theft? Why has the government, which had all the necessary machinery to catch power thieves, failed to control power theft? Khawaja Asif minister for water and power has recently announced that before the intensity of the upcoming summer starts he expects around 2,000 Megawatts electricity will be added to the national grid. I appreciate the respectable minister’s services for this additional 2,000 megawatts of electricity but would like to ask him what steps has he taken to ensure that the substantial portion of even this additional electricity is not taken away by power thieves and the honest people of Pakistan end up paying for the influential power thieves as we have been doing up till now?
I would like to suggest that the government works comes up with a professional plan to control power theft as soon as possible and share the information with the public and inform them of the goals achieved in this area on a regular basis .
EJAZ AHMAD MAGOON,
Lahore, April 16.