THE violent protests that the territory of Azad Jammu and Kashmir witnessed on Friday and Saturday highlighted the deep resentment that people of AJK and Pakistan have over the back-breaking inflation that has become unstoppable and continues to be a serious cause of concern for a majority of people despite transfer of power from one party to another besides a caretaker setup. It also highlighted the issue of rule of law as different pressure groups and vested interests make the entire system hostage at their will without being held accountable.
People of Azad Kashmir have been regularly paying their electricity bills as long as the base tariff and a host of other taxes were affordable but these saw phenomenal and unjustified increase during the last two/three years on the pretext of addressing the perennial issue of circular debt, which remains there as it is despite addition of unbearable burden on all types of consumers. In most of the cases, the electricity bills were either equal to or higher than average family income in a country where the official minimum wage is Rs 32,000 and even this is not being paid to workers. It was in this backdrop that at first consumers in AJK expressed their indignation by frequently and loudly telling the authorities concerned to dismantle the electricity network from their areas and now they are urging the government to provide them cheaper/subsidized electricity. There can’t and shouldn’t be different rates for power consumers in Pakistan and those in AJK for any consideration as the burden of such subsidies and thefts (as are fully known in some areas of Pakistan) is always shifted to honest consumers who pay their bills honestly and regularly. However, it is also a fact that the extraordinary increase in tariff is beyond the absorbing capacity of the majority and resentment could boil over in Pakistan as well if the authorities continued with the existing approach to address woes of the power sector. Consumers are so disappointed due to unjustified increase in power tariff that those who have the resources are opting for solar power but this solution is also being scuttled by the bureaucracy, which is advocating for either imposition of a tax on solar generation by individual houses or bring down the tariff for the power so produced to a meagre Rs. 11 a unit. Aren’t we stoking societal unrest deliberately? As for subsidized wheat, people in AJK have long enjoyed lowest rates for the commodity, courtesy subsidy of billions of rupees, which is no longer affordable. If there is no subsidy for people living in wheat production areas then why this should be given to others for an indefinite period at the cost of tax-payers. Leaving aside merits or demerits of higher tariff of electricity and subsidy on wheat flour, the people of AJK are entitled to peaceful protests but no one can be allowed to take the law into one’s own hand. It is the duty of the law-enforcing agencies to maintain law and order and ensure routine life for peaceful citizens but the way the protestors directly fired upon the police personnel, killing a police officer and injuring a number of others is totally unacceptable. Sanity prevailed to some extent after an announcement was made for deployment of Rangers and appeals for calm by both President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif besides Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq who repeatedly expressed readiness to talk to protestors. Talks are the only way out for a crisis situation but those responsible for violence and killing and injuring of police personnel must be brought to book. At the same time, there should be no window dressing and a satisfactory solution to the energy tariff should be found before it becomes too late. The Government should come out with short, medium and long term policies to bring down tariff and encourage and not discourage use of solar power due to the short-sighted approach of some officials sitting in cozy offices and rendering anti-people advice to the policy and decision-makers.
