Pakistan: Protests over load shedding

Just as we had predicted in this space, the people have started raging and expressing their anger openly on the streets against the crippling load shedding and power outages that have brought life and productivity to a grinding halt. Punjab was the scene of violent protests on Wednesday when residents of Lahore and Multan decided they had had enough of the government’s false claims and empty rhetoric as far as the energy crisis is concerned. Angry protesters in Batapur area of Lahore burnt tyres, pelted passing cars with stones and ransacked a nearby office of the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO). They were miserable because of the massive power outages, reaching as much as 18 unbearable hours in rural and far-flung urban areas. Add to this the statement by Federal Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali that the government could not promise zero load shedding on Eid and we have a recipe for disaster on our hands.

The sad fact remains that there is an enormous gap between supply and demand, with the demand for electricity exceeding a hefty 21,000 MW. It is also unfortunate that we have a government that has laid all its hope in promises it had no means of keeping. While there are some new power generation projects being inaugurated, none of them will generate actual energy for quite a few years to come. The immediate solution for all our energy woes, as stated by Khwaja Asif, the federal minister for defence, water and power, seems to be offering prayers to the Almighty and beseeching Him for rain. Prayers are as close to realism as the PML-N government has come so far in relation to the power crisis. Since its election campaign, when it loudly boomed that it would rid the nation of the electricity problem within days to promising that Ramzan would see lesser outages than usual, we have been betrayed by its failure to deliver. These protests are the result of the self-inflicted wounds over the past one year that the government has failed to address. The PML-N has not duped the people but itself also by putting political advantage before the truth. It is time to own up to the fact that the government has been found wanting in fulfilling the most crucial demand of the nation. We have a national grid that cannot handle more than 15,000 MW of electricity and the summer months have caused it more strain than it can handle. The government must tell the people the truth: it has done nothing to amend the current situation so far as this will inevitably take time. If it does not come clean, these protests will become angrier and more violent.