vip loadshedding

VIP Loadshedding

Pakistan is suffering an acute energy crisis like never before. As usual it is once again the poor masses who are suffering the most with regular loadshedding adding to their multitude of woes. At a personal level I find that even the optimist in me dies a quick death when I hear that the energy situation will get even worse in the next few years. The blame lies obviously lies squarely with civilian and military governments, both past and present who have committed together a war crime against the Pakistani people by ignoring the issue at their peril. The resulting effect is that Pakistanis are living during dark days at a physical level and metaphorically as can be seen by the above linked martial law page.

The precarious situation Pakistan is in today no thanks to spineless governments means the masses are bound to suffer. Loadshedding is a necessary evil, that much I reluctantly agree, however my understanding is replaced by anger and that anger is multiplied when I see favouritism with the state unashamedly taking sides in bringing light to as Jose Mourinho would say the 'special ones'.

I was red with anger when I stumbled upon a report in the News of 7th January which reports how the VIP districts are left to bathe in light at the expense of the rest of the nation as shown below:

People living in twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have protested over loadshedding in selected areas, as there are no power outages in VIP sectors like F-6, F-7 and E-7 where stalwarts and bigwigs are residing. The people said that there is no load shedding in VIPs sectors as compared to 10 to 12 hours unannounced load shedding in different areas of twin cities by Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO).

They pointed out that the most probable reason for not announcing the loadshedding schedule was that it would expose unfair loadshedding by WAPDA and IESCO. On the other hand, people living in posh areas said it was a well-known fact that the duration of power outages in rural areas was much longer than outages in cities and posh areas. They said it was regrettable that the people tolerated this unfair policy, which encouraged authorities to discriminate between the consumers in posh and poor or low middle class localities of the city.

They said that a majority of consumers were now prepared to brave power outages, as they knew that there was a gap between supply and actual consumption. They said people, however, were not prepared to be discriminated on the basis of their status in the society. They opined that the government and the utility companies are bound to treat all domestic consumers fairly and transparently.

Housewives and office-going people fail to understand the logic of unannounced power outages. A majority of them said that living without electricity was relatively easier during winter but it was not easy if light went out in the evening and in the middle of some important work. They said announcement of load shedding schedule at least gives the consumers an opportunity to plan things to avoid inconvenience during power shut downs. Meanwhile, the general public, including the business community, students and industrialists at large have flayed the plan to continue load shedding till January 25 due to the shortage of electricity being faced by the company.

People from every sphere of life expressed their annoyance and asked what are the reasons behind the shortage of electricity during the winter season when the consumption of power has been reduced during the months of December and January The students living in hostel of International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) said the concerned authorities are unable to manage load management in Islamabad and IESCO has given a gift of load shedding for the New Year. The students have to face disappointment because they are unable to carry out their studies due to unscheduled load shedding, they added. “Power outages are adversely affecting our studies because they occur at regular intervals,” they told Online.

Furthermore the up till now dormant 'Wasim Volcano' residing in me erupted when I saw the following photo in Dawn of 6th January:

power

The photo quite literally added more fuel to the fire as it showed Karachi the city of lights with its lights on during the day. As a result I was left seething with anger and without words which is unusual for me upon seeing such waste and inefficiency which is criminal and a moral outrage. Pakistan must come out of this darkness, as a united nation we must take difficult decisions to ensure all of our citizens and not the chosen few have a life of dignity.

We must do better as a nation, for it is of paramount important that we create a more just nation, that 'other' Pakistan we all desire.

Wasim Arif - 13th January 2008, 02:59 PK Time