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Load shedding crisis in pakistan essay

Electricity is a basic need for sustaining human life. We cannot even imagine how our lives would have been if electricity was not discovered. Looking at it from an economic growth perspective of a country, the creation of energy is very essential. Pakistan however has been facing an acute shortage of electricity for many years now (since 2007). Electricity crisis and load shedding reaches to 10hours in Karachi. In commercial and residential areas of Karachi load shedding up to 10 hours continues however in industrial areas load shedding up to 8 hours continues.

Spokesman KESC said that on better supply of gas load shedding likely to be reduced because of dispute of SUI Northern Gas Company and KESC people are in a pitiable condition. People said that dispute always between institutes and their result faced by other people. Due to continuous load shedding people are also facing problem of water deficit, however load shedding to 8 hours in industrial zone has badly affected that sector also. Who’s to blame? Critics blame it all on the government for lack of planning and a vision.

They say no efforts were made in the past to ensure a continuous increase in the power generation capacity of the country. Even now, when the country is faced with devastating prospects, not much is seemingly done by the government to tackle the issue. It has turned into a complete nightmare for Pakistanis. Many people have resigned to the fact that the electricity crisis is here to stay for a long period of time. How did the crisis start? The elections of 2008 saw the PPP government coming to power. With it came hope for change and a shift of policies towards the favor of the people.

What a big mistake that turned out to be. The present government is being touted as one of the worst ever to have ruled Pakistan. Take for example the promises made by the Water and Power minister to the public that Load shedding will be no more by December 2009. It is 2011 now, and we’re heading towards 2012. The crisis has worsened. The government has now pretty much given up and seems helpless with no plan to counter the crisis. It’s a strange situation. One week, there will be load shedding and everything will seem to have been fixed.

And the next week, load shedding strikes again with around 8-10 hours in major cities and up to 12-14 hours in rural areas. After February 2008 election, ruling government Water and Power development minister promised publicly that after 31st December 2009 there will be no load shedding at all in Pakistan. 31st December 2009 came and went but load shedding crisis has taken a form of national disaster with cities facing up to 8-10 hours of load shedding and rural areas facing up to 12-14 hours of load shedding till today. How is the Energy crisis affecting business?

You can imagine that without electricity for a good part of a day (8 hours +) can really mess up your business operations. Everything requires electricity. You cannot work if there’s no power available. Businesses and marketplaces understandably are suffering immensely and some are even forced to close down. The alternate is buying a generator, but the costs of running it are too much for most of the business owners. Shop owners are forced to close down, while business and offices are forced to waste their precious time and wait for the power to come back on.

Productivity is badly affected. Energy Crisis affecting the IT industry Among many industries, the IT industry is the one affected the most with the coming of the Energy crisis and rightly so. The IT industry is all about providing services and products through the use of electronics, computers and everything that is related to power; which we lack! Our IT industry was among the fastest growing industry in the Asian region. The energy crisis has hit us bad. The whole industry has been forced to struggle and cut their costs down drastically just so they can survive.

This has of course had a trickle-down effect on the whole economy and has negatively affected the jobs situation in the country as well. The frightening thing is the fact that people are still now completely aware that this energy crisis has the potential to completely destroy our economy. International Aid cannot be seen as the solution, because it is not. It is only but a temporary bandage on a cancer wound. Rampant loadshedding has brought about mass protests across Pakistan breaking the back of already crippled business activities, a private television news channel reported on Sunday.

After remaining out of powers at all the hours, people went berserk to stage mass protests crying anti-government slogans, burning tyres, blocking roads, sitting in, and whatnot. Life has become hell, a protestor told the television channel. To add injury to the anguish, police swooped upon the protesters and charged them with batons. They stopped breaking batons on the already broken backs of the poor protestors only to cop 7 of them to populate the lockups. Gujranwala was the same story. Powerless sufferers over there gave their ire a vent by burning tyres on the GT Road. Faisalabad has too been boiling with the same sentiments.

This Manchester of Pakistan is a victim of 14-18-hr loadshedding and as a result its once fabled textile industry has become a vegetable deep in the rot. There in Chichawatni people besieged a grid station but to no avail, as it didn’t earn them what they were protesting to have. In export-industry-hub, Sialkot load shedding-beaten traders observed complete shutter down strike on the appeal of Markazi Anjuman Tajran Sialkot in protest against 20-hour long daily power outages in Sialkot. The traders, who kept their shops shuttered down, staged a big demonstration at Allama Iqbal Chowk against the prolonged power outage.

The traders wore black arm bandages carrying agitational banners and placards. The protesting traders also burnt tyres on roads and kept the traffic blocked on various inter-city roads for an hour. They also warned to besiege all the Gepco offices on Sunday and Monday, besides staging agitational sit-ins there. Talking to the newsmen, President Markazi Anjuman Tajran Sialkot Mehar Ghulam Mujtaba said that the perturbed Sialkot traders would not pay their electricity bills in protest against the unending and unscheduled load shedding of electricity.

The biggest victim has been the heart of Pakistan’s business. Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) President Mian Abrar Ahmad has strongly criticised the KESC over industrial loadshedding and said it looks like that power utility has taken upon the role of the government and was trying to dictate the government and at the same time trying to create breach between industrial consumers and others. KESC is also trying to destroy billions of rupees investment of the industry in captive power plants, he added.

It would be worth mentioning that this huge investment was made by industrialists as KESC was unable to meet the requirements of industry and this investment was made as a last resort to keep the wheels of industry running. President KCCI appealed to the President, Prime Minister, Governor Sindh, Chief Minister to take notice of steps initiated by KESC. He said that KESC is trying to create law and order situation. Cases were registered against more than 1, 000 protestors and dozens were arrested in Lahore on account of massive protests against power outages in the city, Express 24/7 reported Monday.

Four hundred and fifty protestors were charged while 53 were arrested by the Baghbanpura police. Chuhng police station has registered cases against 1, 000 protestors and arrested 25 people. The charges also include those under the anti-terrorism act. The protests were held at the Mahmood Booti area on Ring Road, Chuhng and near Data Darbar. Protests were also staged in other cities. A shutterdown strike by the business and trade association of Faisalabad is underway as a part of the protest, whereas, students staged a sit-in protest for three hours in Gujrat.

Load shedding across cities The surge in prolonged load shedding has disrupted life in many cities as load shedding has crossed 12 hours in Southern Punjab. Situation in rural areas is getting worse. Sukkur, Shikarpur, Ghotki, Jacobabad, Nowshera Feroz and other districts in interior Sindh experienced unannounced load shedding. Quetta Electric Supply Company (QESCO) underwent a shortage of 700 megawatts of power, taking the load shedding duration to nine hours, while Balochistan faced outages for 16 hours. Peshawar witnessed 18 hours of power outages on contrary to the four-hour load shedding schedule provided to the city.

Owing to low power generation in the country unannounced loadshedding has been increased up to 15 hours, Geo News reported Tuesday. According to Pepco spokesman, power generation in the country was at 12768MW while the demand has soared to 14479MW, leaving a gap of 1711MW. He expressed hope that situation would improve with starting of shut plants. Power generation through hydel remained 5, 976MW, followed by 1, 932MW through thermal and 4, 798MW through IPPs while, electricity supply to KESC remained 700MW, he added.

The government has contracted itself to erect one crisis after another. At a critical time, when Pakistan has become a target for the Blackwater mercenaries, ongoing military operations in Waziristan, Orakzai, Bajaur, Mehmand, Malakand and Khyber agencies under the American dictate, Northern Waziristan is handed over to America where she is conducting drone attacks with full impunity and thousands of Muslim families are stranded and are forced to live in the open in this extreme cold weather; the government is reating one crisis after another to divert the attention of Muslims away from the American interference in Pakistan.

Hence its “ danger to democracy” rhetorical drama that the government trumps up at times while at others she plays havoc with peoples lives through load-shedding of Gas and electricity just to keep people busy in their problems. shortage of electricy is going to shut down pakistan and then even we dont need any one can attack us , we die with out any military attacks, almost in its like we are living in stone ages, with candles.

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