Pakistan’s complex power theft problem

It is summer time again in Pakistan. The mercury is rising and there is little reason to rejoice as the misery of common man compounds with long hours of electricity shortages.
Summers and loadshedding spells are almost synonymous now in Pakistan. There seems to be no respite in sight and the countrymen need to brace themselves for the worst as the Sharif-led government has officially declared that the situation is not likely to improve within next couple of years. While the authorities claim to be dealing with country’s nagging energy crisis on a priority basis, Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif has termed his own government as a “big defaulter” of electricity bills.
The ministry is carrying out a massive drive to recover dues and has recently disconnected power supply to prominent government buildings such as President House, Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Parliament Lodges and official residence of chief justice of Pakistan. The power supply disconnection campaign is expected to be carried out without discrimination, targeting even the influential individuals. According to official sources, the recovery drive has so far been successful and Rs 3.2 billion has been recovered from electricity bill defaulters, mainly public sector departments.
As temperatures soar higher in summer, the electricity shortage increases to about 7,000 MW in Pakistan. The shortfall leads to loadshedding spells of up to 18 hours in some parts of the country, which has badly hurt its manufacturing sector, leading to massive unemployment and a fall in exports. The government has launched several new projects to add power generation capacity to the national grid system. However, power theft remains one of the key problems faced by Pakistan’s energy sector.
A casual walk on the streets of any metropolitan city of Pakistan would reveal countless cases of electricity theft through “kundas” (hooks). As stealing electricity is not perceived as a case of “theft” in the country, power distribution companies have also launched campaigns to declare such acts morally and religiously unlawful in the past. Most of the power distribution companies are under government control and, therefore, the issue of power theft is a story of corruption and weak controls. Often, the theft takes place in connivance with official authorities against a fixed monthly payment pocketed by them.
With the public sector named as biggest defaulter of electricity bills, it has no moral authority to lead a campaign against other thugs. Besides taking steps to eradicate power theft from public sector, the government should also put some thought behind allocation of power to different sectors of the economy. Agriculture and textile sectors deserve special attention as they are major employers and have the potential to earn huge export revenues. In consultation with all provincial stakeholders, the government should focus on achieving a permanent solution to the rising circular debt, which chokes the power generation capacity of plants.

Till then, people need to patiently brave these long spells of darkness in sweltering hot summers at least for the foreseeable future.