A lot of concern is being made about the energy crisis especially since the new government has taken the reins. Now, after the four years of agony due to suffering of the common man and towards the end of the so-called mandate of the constitutional time of election term, the present government failed to remove the most painful hardship bestowed on the subject. This span of pang and misery will go as the darkest period in the history of our country. While the hordes of glittering cars are moving on the road, the public is depressed by loadshedding. The festivity of PPP rulers is due to an adhoc coalition of smaller parties with divergent manifestos. But energy crisis is one of the greatest challenges for maintaining level ground to develop and progress. Since the inception of the incumbent govt, the energy crisis has deteriorated. The irony of this crisis is that it was purposely allowed to fester only to save funds. For instance, in the Dawn of 12 Jun 2008, in the first budget of the present govt, it was clearly published that the then capacity of electricity was above 20297 MW and that Rs.76 billion were allocated to increase another 2000 MW for the next fiscal year to make it more than 22297 MW. Surprisingly, after three years i.e. in 2011, the capacity was declared as low as 13,000 MW. WAPDA had lost about 9000 MW.
Despite, a letter in national press on July 2011 on “Load-Shedding: Consumers in a fix”, no attention has been paid by the government or WAPDA. Instead, the maximum capacity of electricity has further declined, at the moment.
A.Q ANJUM,
Rawalpindi, February 23.