IT is quite surprising to know that while Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Parvez Ashraf has given an assurance that the loadshedding crisis would be over by the end of the year, his cabinet colleague, Federal Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis Khurshid Ahmed Shah has categorically denied that, saying it would take some time to overcome the energy shortage. This is the case of one hand not knowing what the other is up to and reflects poorly on the state of governance. Given the intensity of the power and energy crisis where outages of up to 16 hours in both rural and urban areas have become routine, it would not be fallacious to assume that Mr Shah knows the gravity of the situation. Raja Parvez Ashraf's statement is a bit ambiguous also because he didn't tell whether the situation in December would improve only for the time being or it would permanently bring to an end the menace of loadshedding. The load on the national grid is comparatively less in winter than in summer, which reduces the demand and supply gap. However this is only for a month or so, and the load starts to increase again pretty soon. Therefore, the government must not assume that winters would mean an end to loadshedding. Instead, it should initiate measures on a war footing to do away with the crisis once and for all. It is imperative that it turns to sources like wind and coal for electricity generation. Large reservoirs may not be a panacea to all ills, but they have their own worth. The government could do well to create consensus on Kalabagh Dam and going ahead with its construction without any further delay.