Just before the newbies who think Musharraf is quiad-e-azam attribute Musharraf for inventing bijli in Pakistan, let me remind them that Pakistan did have electricity (load shedding free) before Musharraf came in. It is funny how load shedding only takes place during dictatorships. What good does it do to have every majja gammma carrying a cheap prepaid cell phone and gloat about it, when we have a thing called load shedding which even the developing countries are done away with. p.s. before anyone pin the blame to BB and NS, remember they ended load shedding in their times, and musharraf has been in power for 8 years and had ample time to fix the problem and couldnt…
Energy resources ‘Negligence led to power crisis’
Thursday, January 03, 2008
By Mansoor Ahmad
LAHORE: **Negligence to develop energy resources in time has remained the hallmark of the governments that came to power after removing democratic governments in the past three decades.
Economists pointed out that the country faced the first real loadshedding at the end of 11-year tenure of General Ziaul Haq and it was Benazir government that aligned the private sector to provide much-needed electricity for industrial and domestic use.
When Nawaz Sharif government was deposed in 1999 the country had surplus electricity as well as surplus natural gas. In fact, the Nawaz govt enjoyed the distinction to afford delay in entering into gas supply agreement for the gas discovered by the private sector.
**
The Zia government kept the Kalabagh dam project in cold storage during his tenure when the opposition to its construction was very weak. At the same time his regime failed to look for alternate sources of producing electricity.
The country felt acute shortage of electricity during the end of his tenure as the available surplus was consumed by GDP growth of six per cent during 11 years of his rule. The country entered the decade of 90’s with acute shortage of electricity that slowed industrial growth for a while.
The Benazir govt arranged over 5,500MW thermal power through private sector after it became clear that there was no possibility of exploiting the hydro-electricity generation of the country through construction of mega dams.
Then the Sharif government started the running of the river hydroelectric Ghazi-Brotha project that had the potential to produce 1,450MW of electricity. Both the governments realized that industrial growth would only be possible if the country retains enough electric power to run the industries.
The availability of this additional 7,000MW electricity enabled the present regime to sustain the high GDP growth. These two governments also started the reform process by opening economy and enhancing the creditability of the regulatory institutions by providing full autonomy to the
State Bank of Pakistan and SECP that took over from ineffective Corporate Law Economists giving full credit to the Musharaf regime for not only continuing reforms but further strengthening the process started in the 90’s.
This encouraged the private sector to enhance capacities and productivity. The robust growth during last eight years is even higher than the average growth achieved during the Zia regime. However, the economists pointed out that the government again committed the same folly made by the Zia government of neglecting the additional energy and power that the country would require after accelerated growth.
The Pak-Iran gas pipeline project was unnecessarily delayed to accommodate India. They said: “We should have preferred our national interest instead of waiting for India that adopted delaying tactics.”
They said the private sector had not vigorously approach to new thermal power projects although WAPDA had timely warned the government in 2003 that there would be acute electricity shortage from 2006 onwards if new capacities were not added. Had the government initiated thermal power projects either through private sector or through WAPDA, the current crisis would not have taken place.
but while we have to appreciate the good that the regime did, we have to note their failures, and this is one.