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Pakistan's ruling establishment blind to problems View on Pakistan
The street protests with the public denouncing Pakistan's government for its failure to tackle growing electricity and gas shortages, says much about the state of the country's economy.
- By Farhan Bokhari, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 23:58 January 6, 2009
The street protests with the public denouncing Pakistan's government for its failure to tackle growing electricity and gas shortages, says much about the state of the country's economy.
With the public clearly outraged over such issues, it is vital to remember that Pakistan is also in the midst of a critical loan programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Some of the conditions from the IMF include tough criteria for Pakistan to sharply reduce its fiscal deficit so that the government's finances are brought under increasing control.
The deficit reduction requires painful measures, including cuts in subsidies given by the government to electricity and gas consumers. In recent months, cuts in those subsidies have put forward the prospect of much higher electricity and gas tariff.
The riots that have taken place recently of course make it virtually impossible for any government to act in ways that would bring more financial pain to the Pakistani consumers.
The profile of some of the protesters also says much about the emerging tussle between the Pakistani government and the public on the issue of supply and pricing of energy to consumers.
Last Saturday, owners of small and medium businesses in Faisalabad, a key industrial city in central Pakistan, went on a complete strike to protest against energy shortages.
The manner in which they went on strike also reflected the prevalent angry mood. The protesters attacked two offices of the local power company in Faisalabad while pelting stones at motorists.
Similar protests also took place in other cities of central Pakistan, including Lahore, which is capital of the Punjab province, and Kasur, which is a major centre for agriculture.
In response to this violence, the government appeared to be helpless. Raja Pervez Ashraf, the Minister for Water and Power, could only appeal for calm in the hope that the demonstrators would give up the road to violence.
"The burning of public property and the damage to government buildings will not resolve the power crisis. We need to get united and resolve the issue by supporting each other," said the minister in an unusual appeal from a high office bearer of the Pakistani government.
While the political pressure is obviously mounting rapidly upon the Pakistani regime, there are no easy solutions.
The electricity shortages have to do with a number of factors, which include widely inefficient power transmission systems that are simply not capable of transporting electricity in a timely way.
Additionally, corruption remains a factor in ways such as electricity company officials supplying power to consumers through illegal connections, where the officials receive amounts in cash rather than payments made through a regular bill. Such practices have caused electricity companies to go heavily in to loss.
Meanwhile, gas shortages have built up over time across Pakistan as the country's own reserves have fallen short of meeting the needs of a growing number of consumers.
This essentially means that Pakistan is simply not able to keep up the supply in accordance with the demand of gas from a range of consumers across the country.
In this background, the immediate solution offered by Ashraf is essentially to provide no more than a band aid solution. His orders issued in the past week for the supply of thermal oil to electricity generation companies may indeed alleviate the situation in the short term.
But the minister has failed to answer pertinent questions on how best to solve the term dilemma faced by Pakistan. This week's protests are still far from becoming an eye-opener for Pakistan's ruling establishment.
The writer is a journalist based in Pakistan
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