Power Crisis in Pakistan

IrfanJan | April 27, 2011 As summer starts and temperatures rose within the realm of 40 centigrade plus across Pakistan, power deficiency, certainly the worst in the countrys history, has broken all past records taking a heavy toll of socio-economic life; the country losing billions every day because of commerce, industry and agriculture scarcely taking a step ahead and the people braving the vagaries of sizzling hot days and wakeful searing nights owing to long hours of power suspension that now span around 10 to 12 hours in cities and 18 to 20 hours in rural areas. If this is the position at the beginning of the hot weather, it should not be difficult to imagine the plight of the people when mercury would go up to the threshold of 50 centigrade and the people would have to switch on their air-conditioners; this period is only days away. This crisis deepened when the Pakistan State Oil and other oil companies suspended largely the supply of furnace oil to power companies under the Pakistan Electric Power Company and power production came to a mere 7,000 MW as against a national demand ranging between 14,000 and 15,000 MW. PSO suspended the supply of some 30,000 tones of furnace oil a day after PEPCO defaulted in the payment of about Rs 200 billion about five days back and that immediately rendered several powerhouses out of commission and resulted in loss of electricity to half of the national demand. It was at this belated stage that President Asif Ali Zardari, living in a house where the menace of load shedding does not visit, took a serious notice and sought of the ministry and officials to suffer a damage control exercise. On Monday, the government managed to persuade the Attock Oil Refinery Limited on Monday to lift maximum quantity of crude from fields and utilize its full refining capacity to prevent power crisis from deteriorating further. Nevertheless, the problem is mainly because of financial crunch and the situation cannot be improved without immediate liquidity injection. The crisis will not solve with a wholesale change in the administration of oil and gas companies either that prime ministers adviser Dr. Asim Husain has made since the last week. No doubt the Musharraf regime and the second Nawaz Sharif government have added to the gravity of the condition, the incumbents three-year rule is not above board either. Bad governance and corruption in the ministry, inaction at serious times and failure in evolving an energy policy also made its contribution. The only significant measure that can be taken to cut down power shortage to half in the shortest possible time is the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and the earlier this import is made, the enhanced for society and the countrys economic health.

The writers vocabulary:

The writer has used very authentic vocabulary in this article which is easily understood. He told us in this article about economical issues in Pakistan. He used very correct wording which makes the article very impressive.

The writers ideas:

In this article the writer told us about economic issues such as electricity, oil and gases as well as the solution about these issues. He believes that these problems are mainly caused by financial crises. He said that the significant measure that can be taken to cut down power shortage in possible time is the import of liquefied gas and the earlier this import is made, the enhanced for society and the countrys economy health.

My point of view:
I agree with the writers point of view but some changes that we have to make in this article are; We have to take into account that the use of energy per capita is still significantly growing (for example: China, India) because The population still grows enormously (doubles every 25 years) There are of course alternatives: Utilizing sun energy, wind, tidal, geothermic and bio energy The only problem is in general they aren't available in the scale

and concentration in which it is needed and are much more expensive. However, the costs for producing electricity is rising and might even raise more when we near peak oil scenario, and at the same time techniques for producing large scale wind or sun energy, are decreasing. We should stop the export of oil to the foreign countries so that we can fulfill our needs. If we follow these instructions we can surely get rid of these problems.