IN a bid to provide relief to masses amid the ongoing heatwave, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Tuesday directed the authorities concerned to minimize the load-shedding through better load management. The Premier, chairing a meeting on load management and power theft, reiterated that the government would strictly deal with the power thieves and that the ongoing mission against them would be taken to the logical end.
It was during the tenure of PML (N) that the country moved towards elimination of load-shedding, thanks to the early harvest power projects completed under the framework of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). People heaved a sigh of relief as the then Government succeeded in making the country surplus in power generation but regrettably the intended relief from load-shedding is nowhere to be seen because of the constraints of both the distribution and transmission networks that were unable to sustain the burden of increased generation. We have a Planning Division and full-fledged Power Ministry but still no proper planning was done to improve and upgrade transmission and distribution systems. Now the meeting was told that the south-north power transmission line was being upgraded and the situation would improve on completion of the project. It is also regrettable that the power theft continues as usual in some regions of the country despite repeated claims about anti-theft operations and campaigns. There are areas where even notables are not paying their electricity bills and the provincial governments are not extending due cooperation to check the menace of rampant theft. Continued power theft is a mockery of the writ of the state and the burden of the losses so occurring is being shifted to honest consumers. This is sheer injustice and needs to be undone forthwith.
