Load-shedding a never ending story... by Talha Mehboob

Pakistan is a third world country that is currently facing all kind of problems. Energy Crises is one of the major reason that is keeping the country from advancing. The shortage of power has led to many social and economic crises in Pakistan. Electricity is needed in every sector of modern life. The working of railways, hospitals, industry, farms entirely depend on electricity. It is unfortunate that the production of such a vital thing is insufficient in Pakistan. The production of electricity is far less than the growing needs of our farms, hospitals and industry. Electricity crises have caused immense problems for the textile industry of Pakistan. Electricity shortage has resulted in reduced capacity of textile production by up to 40% which is the highest in any industry. The industry is facing problem in achieving production targets which is putting a negative impact on exports for textile goods, which was considered a major foreign exchange earner for the country. Pakistan is the 8th largest exporter of textile products in Asia the contribution of this industry to the total GDP is 8.5%.In a short period the exports of the textile industry have suffered a sharp decline by up to 14%. Although, alternates like generators are available for the industrial sector but that only increases the cost.

 Like textile, many other sectors have been severely hit by the worsen power crises. Homes, markets, hospitals, offices, and educational institutions the wheel of all comes to a standstill without electricity. The unscheduled blackouts have affected the people in their domestic as well as commercial lives because of the fact that the electricity has become an urgent need for the survival  In the 5 year tenure of the PPP government many promises were made and many deadlines were given to put an end to this misery, but in those 5 years the shortage of electricity has only increased to up to 10000 mega watts, all the efforts directed towards reducing load shedding have come to nothing which can only be marked as a failure of the former government. In order to solve this problem the upcoming government should focus on building dams which will be a long-term project stretching from 3-7 years. However government can also initiate Wind power projects which take lesser time to be established.
These steps are necessary to drag Pakistan out of the Dark Age.

     Author: Talha Mehboob