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Power shortage adding to Musharraf’s woes

KARACHI: Pakistan’s worst electricity shortage in memory has sent rioters onto the streets of several cities and poses a fresh headache for embattled President Pervez Musharraf, officials say.

Regular power cuts lasting from two to 12 hours increased the resentment of a population amid a blistering heatwave that claimed the lives of at least 100 people in the past fortnight.

An 18-year-old man in the NWFP shot himself in the head with a Kalashnikov assault rifle on Saturday, in what his family said was a protest against the continual supply problems. He died instantly.

Mobs angered by the blackouts hurled stones at passing cars and burned tyres in Karachi on numerous occasions last week. Protests also erupted in Lahore and many rural areas.

Even the normally well-heeled Islamabad has suffered, with legislators staging a sit-in outside parliament after several upscale districts suffered cuts.

“They send us the electricity bills every month but not the electricity,” complained Karachi resident Anila Khan.

Officials admit there is almost a 20 percent shortfall in the country’s electricity needs. This amounts to nearly 3,000 megawatts – roughly the equivalent of the 25 power stations which are out of order due to technical problems, gas shortages and a creaking distribution system.

“This is the worst energy crisis in Pakistan’s history,” a senior official from the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), said. He blamed poor management and said the problems “might prove to be more lethal for the government than the ongoing political and judicial crises.”

Amid grumblings that the government is more interested in prolonging its rule than solving people’s problems, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz last week ordered immediate measures to meet the “unprecedented” demand for power.

Aziz said the shortage was due to high economic growth and ordered steps including approving the building of more power plants and providing extra gas supplies, a statement said.

Senior WAPDA official Akram Arain, who is in charge of operations in Lahore, says however that there is no choice but to cut the electricity sometimes.

More people are buying generators but the cheapest costs Rs 10,000, over two months’ wages for the average worker.

“Our distribution system is old, lines are bad and transformers lack capacity,” Arain told AFP. “Regular repair and replacement work is needed but that often causes long power outages.” The Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation said there was “little or nothing we can do” so long as it mostly depended on under-performing state-run power plants.

“We don’t blame people’s reaction but we have to do load-shedding (cutting power) for two hours in the afternoon and two hours at night,” said spokesman Sultan Ahmed.

Residents say the blackouts are longer than that and that they are hitting trade in the commercial hub.“Business activity has almost come to a standstill,” said shopkeeper Mohammad Yusuf. “Residents came onto the streets to protest over the power failures. Police are maintaining law and order,” Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqi told AFP. afp

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