De-energising Power Rates
Over the past few months it has become quite apparent that Water & Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and Karachi Electric Supply Corporation Ltd. (KESC) are in a serious debt crisis. This was brought into sharp focus by the brutal murder of MD KESC Shahid Hamid several months ago by what seems clear was a professional hit team, the reason being that the late MD was delving deeper into the various irregularities that would have exposed quite a number of people. The explicit warning inherent in the gangland-type assassination was thus made quite apparent to others in similar situations. Needless to say the warning has been heeded to the detriment to the interests of the people of Pakistan even by the small dedicated band of people determined to eradicate corruption. The government has been concentrating on the Independent Power Projects (IPPs) as the major reason for the power rate crisis, that in fact was the final straw that broke the camel’s back.
Let us take the straws that count and list them under two heads, viz. (1) generation and (2) distribution of electricity and then work our way back to some of the more scandalous IPPs. Whether the generation-mode is hydel or hydrocarbon, the machinery has been over-priced. While it did not make much of a difference in hydel-generated electricity, the price padding in hydrocarbon fuel – generation machinery has kept on escalating along with the price of fuel. At least 2 or 3 WAPDA chiefs made enough money to live out lives far in excess of their basic known means, to add to this the power plants are being run quite inefficiently thereby giving us unfavourable power to price ratio. With transmission losses quite high, the basic cost of bringing electricity to the doorstep of the consumer is quite high. At the consumer’s bus-bar a completely different mafia takes over, the meter readers and inspectors. The categories of consumers are (1) industrial (2) commercial (3) domestic urban (4) agriculture (5) government departments and (6) domestic rural. Without almost any exception almost all industrial and domestic consumers cheat. One simple litmus test are the ice factories where it is comparatively easy to calculate possible consumption against the product made. For the ice presently coming out of each factory, four to five times or more greater voltage has to be used. Obviously the ice factory owner would sell at a profit which means that at least 90% of the electricity is not paid for. On a lesser scale so do commercial users since it is easy to calculate the load factor because of the air conditioners and other appliances against the energy that is paid for, the same is true on a commensurately lesser scale for domestic urban users! Government departments do not cheat, they simply do not pay their bills, at least on time. The agricultural consumer not only cheat, they hardly pay their electricity bills whether it be for tubewells or domestic use. Some areas do not pay electricity bills at all e.g. the rural areas of Balochistan and the Tribal Territories, protesting vociferously any attempt to make them do so.
Streets of Fire
Where there is smoke there is bound to be a fire and since Third World-ers are great conspiracy theorists, they tend to believe that smoke is meant only as a camouflage for the perpetrators of the fire. In Karachi this fire is burning fiercely in the streets. For those who have lived in hope that somehow they will be passed by there is bad news, the spreading conflagration is cutting a wide swath across class and creed, sect and ethnicity, etc. There is no convenient fire-escape from this developing inferno, by their benign inaction the Federal Government is seen to be a part of the problem rather than a “fire brigade” dedicated to the rescue of the city’s hapless inhabitants.
Instead of addressing the core issues that have brought Karachi to the verge of absolute anarchy, Ms Benazir seems to skirt the major problems. The general public perception is that there are no solutions on offer because the logical ones tend to threaten PPP’s electoral power base in Sindh. When faced with such Hobson’s choice, Government of Pakistan (GoP) invariably tends to take the easy route of rhetoric, contributing to the PM’s rapidly declining credibility. Hard to believe that this is the same South-Asian vintage Joan of Arc of the 80s decade, holding forth the torch of democracy for the people of Pakistan. Regretfully, the PM is giving the word “obfuscation” due legitimacy much beyond what is generally attributed to bureaucracy.
Breakdown of a City
A fortnight of rain devastation has made Karachi into a city under internal siege, beset by electricity and water problems. As the civic infrastructure collapsed past the point of overload, irate citizens have been protesting violently in front of KESC and KWSB sub-units. A gradual erosion of civic discipline over the past few weeks has been manifest in the masses venting their increasing frustration on a whole range of issues on the more visible and immediate causes leading to their present misery. On Friday July 22, 1994, a massive power shutdown paralysed most of the Province of Sindh for over six hours, some areas in Karachi came on line after 24 hours in some cases. Worse was to follow! On Saturday July 23, 1994, a “flash” led to a fire in the Gizri Grid Station blacking out almost the entire South of Karachi. Many areas (including this scribe) are still without electricity or water for over 48 hours later despite Herculean efforts by the KESC to effect emergency repairs. Not to be outdone in compounding the situation, anti-State forces, ever ready to fan ethnic and religious disturbances, lobbed a grenade into a bus, killing eight and wounding many others. But for the presence of mind of the bus driver, who drove the carnage vehicle straight to a hospital, the casualty list would have been much higher.
The power shutdown symbolically represents a greater breakdown psychologically, that of the social and economic fabric of the nation. As the civic facilities go past the fail-safe line, the seething frustration of the masses is coming to a boil. While all this was fairly predictable, the shocking aspect of the whole affair seems to be that nobody seems to be incharge of this great port city, the economic lifeline to the nation. Indeed despite Ms Benazir’s best efforts, there seem to be a crisis of leadership in the entire country. As far as Karachi is concerned, the Sindh CM seems to have abdicated responsibility. Since the elected Mayor and his councillors have been largely sidelined, a grey area exists between the civil administration and the LEAs. The LEAs are responsible for law and order problems but the civil administration is adrift for the most part, responding half-heartedly to both the political and military leadership, unsure as to whom to turn for central direction. The tragedy is that no single entity exists to organise and coordinate civic relief to the masses of Karachi, whether in crisis or normal times. During the rain devastation the civil administration was totally dependant upon individual dedication and initiative rather than any coordinated, cohesive countering of the catastrophe. In modern cities, a central CRISIS CONTROL automatically takes over most of the TV and radio time to give directions (and relief) to the public, here PTV remained an oblivious bystander, giving only passing mention to the unfolding tragedy. Over a 100 lives have been lost in Karachi due to the unprecedented rains and related problems, why is the administration sitting on its haunches, if not its hands?
Sindh Situation
To revive the Sindh economy, pragmatic and bold initiatives must commence with Karachi which is not only the prime city of Sindh but that of Pakistan, being its only port. Karachi remained economically buoyant during the 70s because of a construction boom fuelled primarily by expatriate funds from the Middle East. While the money for housing is still there, the lack of water and power have rendered housing starts to virtually nothing. Consequently, a large percentage of the traditional labour force is unemployed, the residual effects spiralling upwards and cutting into white collar jobs. The net result has been an economic downturn of enormous proportion that has degenerated into (1) ethnic strife as the population has increased but the economic cake has become smaller (2) deterioration of law and order as the jobless have turned to crime and (3) consequently residual political factors breeding a general state of anarchy. This has been further accentuated by the machinations of RAW, (the terror arm of India), drugs and arms proliferation, activities of armed militants of various political parties, dacoits from the interior seeking kidnap victims from richer urban areas rather than their traditional rural hunting grounds, etc. To complicate the economic scene, entire industries have shifted northwards to safer havens, deepening the unemployment crisis.