I read a couple of articles a few days back in which WAPDA seems to have alleged that they had warned our leaders of power shortfall as early as 2002. President allowed them to proceed with their plans but the prime minister, last year, refused to grant his permission citing some kind of contract with WB (which makes me wonder who the boss is- President, PM or WB :hehe:).
I don’t get it.. Mr President and Mr prime minister love to deliver long technical speeches about how they are going to turn Pakistan into an energy grid, but were unable to plan for the next few years? Now WAPDA has been given the green signal to continue the same projects. What happened to WB covenant? Now when the whole country is facing hours of unannounced power cuts everyday, Mr Banker seems to have learnt the art of strategic planning. Couldn’t our energetic leaders foresee these energy problems especially when they had been forewarned?
I’d love to make a detailed reply Amorphous but I am not sure you will have time to read it between power cut offs and if you are in karachi or Islamabad.. water shortages. So I shall be brief, first your complaints are the words of a ghaddar, someone ungreatful and borderline on being pro Nawaz and Benazir..
Sab acha hai, thanks to the qaum aur mulk kee khidmat of our beloved Roshan khyals: our economy is booming, the World bank begging bowl has been broken (into many more), Pakistan is shining (except during load shedding at night, but in the day time without power the sunlight does reflect light), theBaloch are being developedand abducted at the same time (oddly they don’t seem greatful?), Waziristan has been freed of terrorists (as reports of clashes in other parts of FATA confirm) and most of it’s indigneous population as part of the governments Pakistan first policy ( the people in FATA are not Pakistanis so they don’t count..except when the GOP needs help in fighting in Afghanistan or liberating Azad Kashmir).
So you see your complaints make you ungreatful and if you are in anyway implying load shedding is worse in some places than in others I must inform you that you are being anti pakistani and if you persist on asking for accountability, rights etc you may be exiled, smeared or arrested for your pro India policies.
p.s: Just so that we are clear despite being in power for over 6 years, all load shedding is the fault of the previous government. As you know Faujis when they commit mistakes, only do so in good faith. :halo:
Ghuddar me? I never said that the solution to power crises is merging one half of Pakistan with one country and the other half with another country. All those countries are energy starved.
Anyways, I’m trying to get to the bottom of the word ghuddar these days. For starters I’m trying to get my hands on Nawaz Sharif’s new biography ‘Ghuddar Kon’. Then I would wait for Mushy to publish a rebuttal. As far as Balochistan and FATA are concerned, Mushy and Mr Banker should follow the advice of the ‘coward’ general, Karamat. :halo:
What triggered this thread is a realization that we lack energy despite having such energy-conscious leaders. Secondly, albeit, I believe in free market and minimum government interference, I hope this government is not going to contract out our energy needs to private companies in the form of ‘Benazir contracts’ (bemisal mua’hede).
My understanding of the power problem in general and probably KESC is limited but here is what I understand is happening:
*Over the last 10 years WAPDA has been consistently posting high level of losses because of corruption, pilferage and problems ranging from poor infrastructure, IPP payment problems and equipment problems which in some cases has not been upgraded or replaced in over 20 years. The extent of wastage can be explained because of WAPDA’s monopoly over electricity and no regulatory authorities control over it, by comparison at the source in Tarbela and Mangla if electricity was distributed through local companies or sold on site per unit charges come down to 1/5th. This has been proven in NWFP by the provincial governments work but WAPDA did not allow similar micro projects to continue (the power of the federal monopoly).
*The Army takeover in 1998 initially cut losses, in karachi from 60% to 40% by 2002, however overall infrastructure remained essentially the same , with time the same army officers either through corruption or incompetence failed to deliver more profitability. Line losses were covered by increasing per unit charge of electricity.
*Infrastructure problems causing load shedding were not as severe as they could have been from 1997-2002 because the economy was not growing.
The economic improvement did not translate into increased expenditure on infrastructure or the social sector to my understanding.
*The sale of KESC is interesting, it seems the previous management was doing a form of sandbagging. That is covering up the extent of the problems till the sale was completed.
Thats all I know, why such severe outages have started happened in Punjab as well I am less..as I was under the assumption line losses were lower in interior Sindh, Punjab and NWFP.
With regard to being a Ghaddar, have you read Javed Hashmis book? I believe he made history by being the first Southern Punjabi ever convicted of anti state activity (in case you’ve forgotten his crime was showing a piece of paper to the media)
appreciate your input, zakk. let's see what becomes of WAPDA after its privatization.
power outages were happening in Punjab even before WAPDA was asked to provide 'additional' electricity to KESC. the fact is that these power outages are usually not considered newsworthy as long as they are limited to small cities of the country, or as long as people don't draw attention to their plight through some emotional outbursts. (not supporting any violent protest). i have also read about hours of loadshedding in Pakhtunkwa and AJK. oh and much of Balochistan is still without electricity. the bottom line is that we have not enough electricity and the electricity already available is not reaching the end consumer. its hard to trust govt when it says that all the areas of the country would have electricity within a couple of years. i hope there is no other secretive 'covenant' that will prevent them from fulfilling this promise.
nevertheless, my knowledge of such technicalities is also limited, but i expect our rulers to be a tad more knowledgeable than me.
I’d love to make a detailed reply Amorphous but I am not sure you will have time to read it between power cut offs and if you are in karachi or Islamabad.. water shortages. So I shall be brief, first your complaints are the words of a ghaddar, someone ungreatful and borderline on being pro Nawaz and Benazir..
I never said that the solution to power crises is merging one half of Pakistan with one country and the other half with another country. All those countries are energy starved. 