Pervez Khattak, WAPDA, Load-shedding and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has said the other day:

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Tuesday said his government could end load shedding within a week if Wapda was placed under its control. “We can resolve energy crisis within a week if Wapda is handed over to us,” he told the provincial assembly a point of order. The chief minister said it was federal government’s responsibility to provide electricity to the local residents and not the provincial government. He said Wapda had adopted indifferent attitude towards Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as it was giving it electricity less than due share and thus, causing power outages in some areas for more than 18 hours daily.

(Dawn June 26, 2013 available on http://dawn.com/news/1020744/no-loadshedding-if-wapda-given-to-kp-claims-cm)

The statement, instead of giving a tangible road map, indicates the same often repeated ‘I can do’ mantra which has now become the hall mark of the newly elected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. The CM instead of boasting of his capacity to perform should have talked about the road map as to how production, governance and distribution of energy could be devolved to the provinces.

Only if collective memory is not too short, one would like to remind the CM that an All Parties Conference on Energy had been called in July 2012 by the Awami National Party to develop a roadmap for production, distribution and governance of electricity. Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf had declined to participate in the conference on the plea that only the ANP led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is responsible to fix the problem.

The Express Tribune reported in its July 31 2012 issue:

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

In light of continuing protests against constant load-shedding, the ruling Awami National Party (ANP) has decided to convene an all parties conference on August 9. The aim of the conference is to find a tangible solution to the growing power outages across the province. They demanded that the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) as an entity should be shut down. ANP provincial president, Senator Afrasiab Khattak, said: “Wapda has completely failed and is unable to run a system like this.” “Power outages are managed from Islamabad which is an illogical decision and this centralisation has created huge issues,” Khattak said. “Power companies in every province know the needs of their respective areas better.” There are many power production units in the province, including the Tarbela dam with a production capacity of 3478MW, the Warsak dam with 240MW, the Khanpur power project with 72MW and the Malakand-III power project with 81MW. Khattak said the province produced more power than it needed, yet it has been subjected to 18-20 hours of power outages daily. He said that this was completely unjustified. Available on http://tribune.com.pk/story/415126/mismanaging-power-k-p-govt-takes-stand-against-power-outages/

If collective efforts had started last year, the incumbent government would have a road map by now. But what to do with the Double Speak George Orwell so imaginatively depicted in his novel ‘1984’. The PTI leadership might find some characters in the novel interestingly similar to them.