PEPCO revealed the fact that the shortfall of power crisis in Pakistan is more than 4000 MW. The severity of load shedding common men in Pakistan are experiencing today is persistent. The civil community is experiencing at least ten hours load shedding in urban and around 20 hours power breakdown or load shedding in rural areas.
Prior to the summer season the power breakdown or load shedding was planned and scheduled properly however in present reality the load shedding is neither scheduled nor are specific patterns of load shedding observed.
The reasons of power short fall and electricity crisis can be well understood from a reporting on 18th June 2011 that IPPs have minimized the supply of electricity on account of non payment of their dues by PEPCO and other governmental power managing authorities like WAPDA. 6,297 megawatt of electricity was being provided by IPPs and the ignorance of the recent warning can make the shortfall augmented by more than 1000 MW. The strained relationship between IPPs and WAPDA has been for long due to IPPs dues on government. Secondly main fuel for IPPs power generation is furnace oil and the cost of generating one unit power from furnace oil is about 16 rupees, which is comparatively huge as other power generating sources.
Initially when the initiative of IPPs was taken in 1994-95 it appeared in many circles that it was a very good step since the amount of electricity produced was more then what was consumed. However the agreement of government with IPPs reveals serious facts. The government was bind to buy all power from IPPs even the supply was surplus to the net consumption in early years of the agreement. So by the agreement nation has to pay also of what it had never consumed, additionally the expense of production of power from furnace oil is also too high than other sources of power production. These issues results in huge dues on government which government can not pay since the power tariff charged from the consumers is relatively low than what is actually purchased from IPPs. Due to the non payment of dues, the IPPs are producing too low below their capacity as a reaction to pressurize government to pay their dues.
On the other hand if we take a look on resources of Pakistan for power production it appeared extremely ironic. Pakistan is rich on its own in natural resources like natural gas, coal, wind belts and water sources that counts a lot for power generation. The question is why always government is thinking for IPPs or RPPs expensive assistance for power production. Why do not they develop a national policy on their own? Why do not they structure power generation units in view of the in-house cheap resources? It seems that the introduction of Capitalist solution in the power sector has engraved the power crisis in Pakistan.
Islam binds the Caliph in an Islamic state to treat all energy resources and energy production facilities as a public property and Islam forbids privatization of these energy resources and production units for general public. The Islamic state cannot earn profit on these energy supplies rather the Islamic state is obliged to provide power and energy supplies on cost associated with only the expenses of production and delivery. This very understanding of Islamic law is based on a saying of the Prophet peace be upon Him “Muslims have common share in three: grass, water and fire.” (Abu Dawud, Book 23, Hadith 3470). According to Islamic scholars ‘fire’ here in this tradition is used as a symbolic term for all energy resources and other commodities in supply chain, The Capitalist solution of involving private sector in generating power has already failed and the Islamic viewpoint to Pakistan’s power failure is the only comprehensive solution.
The implementation of this Islamic perspective is flourishing for Pakistan’s economy and power sector, where cheap power resources will be exploited and the cost of power production will decrease drastically. The industrial sector will boom and the cost of other manufacturing units will also decrease radically, further more the inflation that has inflicted on the people of Pakistan can be coped up widely. Pakistan can compete well in the world market by providing cheap commodities. In this way Pakistan can solve the power crisis and Pakistan can be made a powerful economy.