Pakistan - Producing electricity through prayers

By Elf Habib  

The nation presently has no recourse but to besiege the mercy, intervention and indulgence of Providence for uninterrupted and unlimited electric power.

The fervour of the faithful lining up in Lahore to propitiate the Almighty Provider to send a celestial downpour to beat the severe sweltering summer heat and scarce water supplies was really quite a momentous and moving event. The scenes splashed on some television channels while eliciting instant spontaneous intonations by the viewers also made them realise that the Lord stands as their sole source for succour and relief where their mundane masters and mavens have failed them. Most of them will also be wondering if similar collective prayers could also mitigate the misery of the long, torturous, unscheduled and inordinately prolonged power cuts during the sizzling summer season. The agony exacerbated by the scorching heat and sweating even sparks unrest, street agitation and protests.

The utter inability of the Mians in managing any requisite relief may be painfully epitomised by the erstwhile, ominous enunciation by Khawaja Asif, the minister for power, that “prayers were left as the only option for improvement in power supplies”. His confession evidently confirmed how the crisis has stymied their efforts and strategies. The pre-election promises by the Mian clan for quicker and qualitative relief actually foundered with the soaring temperatures making a mockery of their fiery protests and flagellations against the previous government for its inability to enhance generation capacities. Lies in shambles similarly also the Shahbaz Sharif’s shtick at the Minar-e-Pakistan, presiding over his cabinet in an ornate canopy and the ostentatiously orchestrated and frenetic swirling of their hand fans to stop the sweat streaking their faces and files before them.

The scene repeatedly played out by their partisan television channels was evidently meant to shame the federal PPP government into releasing the electricity stocks that they had allegedly withheld and expose their utter incompetence and apathy against the masses. The Mians and the media had actually manipulated a morbid perception that Zardari had somehow locked away a larger part of the generating potential at the presidential palace. Ousting him through public protests or the mighty mice wielded by Iftikhar Chaudhry thus could instantly unleash the hidden cache. Khawaja Asif’s adventures in this case seemed most comical. Seeing him, in his long discarded advocate’s outfit, and sauntering into the Supreme Court (SC), to pound the rental power perpetrators was almost too theatrical.

Immediately after the formation of government, they unfolded their recipe to raise the mammoth energy mountains for the masses, manufacturing and exports. Marathon whirlwind foreign visits were made to rake in the aid, loans and investment. Thirty nine billion dollar deals were signed with China alone. Trips to Turkey and the US were touted to turn in even more voltage. The glitter of their gushing energy grids feels so fabulous but none of them has yet dispelled the darkness and six of their most flaunted coal-based units have already been scrubbed. The uncertainty regarding the rest, the painful periods preceding their completion and the fear of excessive profit pegged prices by the investors obviously necessitate some more immediate and inexpensive alternatives. This dire dilemma, it must be emphasized, has not been forced merely by political governments. Even the Mush dictatorship, displaying the efficiency and expertise of the entire constellation of our sovereign commanders, could not contribute a single electric unit to the system.

So, the nation presently has no recourse but to besiege the mercy, intervention and indulgence of Providence, the greatest Lord of lords, for uninterrupted and unlimited electric power. Some critics, of course, could cloud the actual efficacy and relevance of such prayers by various inane arguments. They may argue that advanced western nations have managed their energy needs despite a patent decline in their religious beliefs, prayers and practices. They could cite the futility of our prayers for ummah unity, Kashmir and kindred glory and conquests, witnessed during the last six decades. Yet these sceptics must realise that Pakistan, being a special divine blessing, has its own characteristic cosmos, psyche, standards and perceptions. Unique and supernatural strategies, accordingly, are inevitable for its needs, renaissance and splendour. For this, the familiar traditions of collective prayers for dire emergencies like deliverance from drought can be reprised to combat this calamity of crippling power cuts. The reports of special divine indulgence to send special green robed bearded guardians rising to rip off the bombs rained by India during the 1965 war indeed have been so fondly relished by our compatriots.

We must thus spurn all such contentions and rush to organise collective prayers to overcome the outages that have outpaced our entire human and material efforts. The exact mechanics for this obviously will have to be hammered out by the higher inter-ministerial echelons. A possible plan, for a real ultimate expression of collective and sincere national supplication, however, would be to constitute a leading council representing all sects. The prayers led by the minister of power production must be held and transmitted simultaneously across all television, radio and mobile phone networks to ensure maximum possible participation across the land. It would be still better if the premier, known for his religiosity and frequent marathon trips to the holy lands, himself leads the supplication. Some leading preachers can be inducted to infuse a really charged flux of the mood, mind and soul. This rare, collective and continued surge of daily prayers, offered over a sufficient span of time, will certainly help solve the energy crisis preferably before the relentless monsoon rains and the ancillary merciless muggy spells set in.

Such hope and optimism, in a way, also seems to be supported by the scientific basis that electricity is actually a transformation of energy from heat, falling water, moving winds or ocean waves. Light rays, by their proper realignment, are also converted into giant laser power while sounds set in some ragas that were long believed to light the lamps and the phoenix pyres now can be used to make sonar bombs. Given a bit of the Lord’s will, the energy from the sounds of our synchronised collective supplication could similarly emerge as electric power. This utterly non-conventional and perfectly pollution free process of producing energy without consuming any raw material, if accomplished, could establish Pakistan’s prestige and prominence as the most innovative industrial icon in the world. Harnessing the powers of our piety, prayers and emotions could thus herald the honour and glory that, despite our material might in the mastery of missiles, nuclear arsenal and ceaseless spurts for strategic depth in neighbouring lands, have invariably always eluded us.