by Masroor Gilani
ISLAMABAD, April 14: The nuclear-armed Pakistan led by a military strongman and the best bet of the United States and western world to fight their terror war for the past eight years is plunging deep into its darkest era.
 The 168 million strong Muslim Pakistan is starved of energy because the US-backed government of controversial President General (retired) Pervez Musharraf did not increase a single megawatt of electricity from thermal or hydropower resources as it had been too busy projecting fudged figures for economic growth of more than seven percent.
Those who can raise some money are rushing to buy inverters or uninterrupted power supplies (UPSs), but the power outages ranging between eight to 14 hours daily do not allow the batteries to be fully charged.
The next expensive option to beat the ubiquitous "load-shedding" or power black out is petrol, diesel and natural gas generators. These machines are expensive to buy and equally expensive to run and maintain and noisy. The dilemma of most of the people is to chose a lesser evil to get a few hours sleep under a running fan during the hottest summer Pakistan is going to have in few weeks.
Pakistan is facing 3,000 megawatts of electricity shortage, says water and power minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and he has no idea that how long it will take to fill this gap as he does not have a magic wand in his hand.
New power projects take their time, at least a year or two, to be fully ready to generate electricity and the patience of people is already running out. Riots broke out in the central Pakistani city of Multan on Monday as hundreds of power loom workers wandalised electricity supply company offices protesting prolonged loadshedding which threatens their industries and jobs.
This is a potentially explosive situation as the poor masses have already been queuing up for getting basic food rations like wheat flour, cooking oil and sugar, prices of whom have already skyrocketted. Food inflation is at the highest level.
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani Monday appealed to the people particularly in Multan to remain calm, show patience and restraint from violence since it would not help to overcome the electricity crisis, his office said.
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The PM said that the issues of electricity/energy shortage and wheat crises have been inherited by the present government, yet it is striving to resolve the problems on war-footing.
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Gilani said that the he had already directed the Minister for Water and Power to personally visit different cities, regions and asses the needs and take immediate measures to help redress the difficulties of the people.
The South Asian countries mainly relies on Tarbela and Mangla water reservoirs and thermal power plants for its energy needs.
Comments
could you tell me if any muslim country making cars...
muslims are adopting how to enjoy life on ready-made stuff.
In our country there is an example of a guy who is generating his own electricity, why can't we all do that?
Its not only givernment responsible for those things, we are all on same boat and its time to think and impliment.
regards, Moody
Wonder if purchasing electricity from Iran is an option that can be considered or not...
The problems are much more deep rooted and basic in nature. The most serious problem is the theft of electricity dubbed as "line losses" which the authorities and the World Bank both have admitted are above 40 percent, and this has been going on for several decades. Now if such a huge number of consumers are stealing electricity by bribing the electricity comapnies' staff, then how can these companies be sustainable?
The companies have devised a novel methodology to recover the line losses, by punishing those customers who do not steal electricity and pay full bills. Every month the buck is passed on to such customers, but even then these companies feel cash strapped, why. Because the public sector organisations and government departments do not pay their bills for months and years. What an example the government is setting before its citizens.
And the crippled law-abiding customer who has to pay for the theft the neighbours are committing is forced to shake hand with the line man to curtail his bill by paying bribe. God bless our country.
Yes malaysia makes car, and really good ones. Proton. check it out online: http://www.proton.com/about_proton/proton_world/proton_worldwide.php
as for problems not being only the govts duty to solve... sorry i disagree.. what the hell is hte govt there for? why do they take those massive salaries?
if the people have to create resources for their basic necessities like electricity,water and fuel, what use is the govt?
REVOLUTION!!! Islamic state!!!