Electricity cannot be generated just by orders

AS the country is plunging deep into the power crisis with each passing day Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has directed the Minister for Water and Power to add 2200 MW of electricity in the system this year. It appears to be just a political statement without doing any groundwork to hoodwink the angry masses who have been suffering at least eight hours of power breakdowns daily.
It was surprising that 2200 MW of additional electricity will be added to the system by year-end to provide some relief to the masses and to the industrial sector without any groundwork. However, the decision to convene a special Cabinet meeting to deliberate the electricity crisis at length to have innovative ideas from the participants and inputs from Ministry concerned is the right approach. Almost everyday a new solution to cope with this problem can easily be spotted in the newspapers yet practically there is nothing on the ground. Electricity cannot be generated just by orders and a proper planning for short and long-term measures to deal with the issue is always done before initiating any project. Even rental plants would not be available at such a short notice to pump additional power as directed by the Prime Minister. It would have been better for the Prime Minister to have received a proper briefing from the Ministry of Water and Power and then made the announcement. We suggest that the Government, WAPDA and IPPs need to come up with a strategy that tackles the crisis in an effective way. While the public continues to endure prolonged load-shedding, perhaps the worst power crisis in our history, no effort has been made to conserve energy. There is an urgent need to ban lighting of billboards after nine, while the shopping centres and markets must be closed at eight pm. This would save a lot of power for domestic consumers. We are also wasting over twenty-four per cent electricity in line losses and theft and even if this is curtailed to half, the country will be able to meet fifty per cent of the shortage. It is, therefore, time for all those at the helm of affairs to take practical measures rather than making empty slogans to overcome the challenge of power shortage.