THE remarks made by Federal Minister for Energy Sardar Owais Ahmad Leghari during a television programme transmitted depressing signals to the people about the inability of the government to formulate and implement an effective strategy to address the real issues of the power sector. He stated that the country suffered losses worth Rs. 600 billion annually on account of power theft and that despite availability of 6,000 megawatts of surplus electricity generation this could not be provided to consumers as this would have caused a loss of another Rs. 2.5 billion to the nation.
This is not for the first time that people of Pakistan have heard from the horse’s mouth about the quantum of theft and its impact on national exchequer but regrettably successive governments miserably failed to chalk out a workable plan to eliminate dare devil power thefts in parts of the country. The areas plagued with the theft are fully known to federal and provincial authorities as kundas are freely used, meters are nowhere to be seen and even illegal transformers have been installed but the government lacks the courage to enforce its writ. The only thing that the government has so far done is to stop supply of electricity to such grids for longer durations but this mechanism is also now being challenged and undermined no other than elected representatives and a provincial government. The helplessness of the government was highlighted by the fact that as the Minister was speaking, reports said another MNA, accompanied by his supporters, entered Jandola grid station and restored power supply to the area forcibly. The MNA asserted that PTI workers would remain in the grid station to ensure power supply to the area. We have been emphasizing in these columns that the issue of theft would remain there until and unless the provincial governments are actively involved in rooting out the menace but what is happening in KP is a clear challenge to the writ of the state and amounts to official patronage of the theft. The issue should thoroughly be debated in Parliament and a nationwide operation launched to eliminate theft and recover defaulted money. The status quo is unacceptable as it means burdening honest consumers elsewhere in the country.
