DIFFERENCES between the Federal Government and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa over the issue of massive electricity theft and the resultant load-shedding in the province assumed dangerous proportions during Eid holidays as Chief Minister Ali Amin Gundapur and scores of Members of the Provincial Assembly (MPAs) took virtual control of most of the grid stations to resume power supply, apparently in clear violation of the understanding reached between the Federation and the province last month. On Wednesday, the Chief Minister himself visited a grid station in his home town DI Khan and restored electricity to the area. As if this was not enough, he also issued official directives to all MPAs to restore power supply in their constituencies and warned the KP Police not to entertain FIRs against those violating the law and challenging the writ of the Federal Government. He also warned, once again, to curtail the power supply to the national grid.
What happened during Eid holidays sent a clear message to the nation that the country lacks the will to address the real issues in the power sector and instead the decision-makers resort to the easy solution of burdening the honest consumers in the rest of the country rather than making defaulters pay. Electricity is not a facility but necessity and more so at a time when the mercury is rising in parts of the country. Therefore, the protest demonstrations held across the KP against longer duration of load-shedding are understandable but it has also to be realized that it is not a free of cost service, rather consumers in other parts of the country are paying up to Rs. 70 a unit for the electricity they consume. It is but natural that each and every consumer should be provided metered electricity and its price should be paid honestly and regularly every month.
However, it was revealed during talks between the Federal Energy Minister and the KP authorities last month that countless consumers in the province have not paid their electricity bills during the last twenty years. This is in addition to thousands of consumers who have all along been resisting installation of meters on their premises. One can understand the quantum of losses that the power sector is suffering during the last twenty years and the need to enforce the writ of the state. Regrettably, instead of offering cooperation to the Federal Government in recovering the defaulted money and bringing the theft to an end, the Chief Minister argued that the Centre should forget about twenty years and focus on recovery of average bills for one/two year and that too in instalments. It was also agreed that the grids where the instance of losses was between 20 to 60% would experience load-shedding up to 15 to 16 hours and the situation would ease out when losses come down. Regrettably, the provincial Government is not cooperating with the federation in addressing the issue of theft and default and now it has started issuing warnings to stop electricity to the national grid. What an audacity that the provincial government has stopped the police from registering FIRs against law-breaking MPAs and protestors and the Energy Minister has taken up the matter with the Federal Interior Minister.
It would be worthwhile if the Federal Government makes public fuller details of theft and default and the aggregate amount is deducted at source against royalty and net hydel profit. Similarly, based on the known defiance and non-cooperation of the provinces in realizing defaulted amount and tackling the power theft effectively, prudence demands handing over of distribution companies to the provinces but here again the Government is persisting with unrealistic policy measures like privatization of most efficient Discos and retention of the most inefficient, meaning thereby that the honest consumers would continue to bear the burden of theft, corruption and inefficiency for the foreseeable future. This approach is part of the problem and not part of the solution and at best can be described as a lollipop.
