THE federal government needs to learn a lesson from the violent protests by consumers against long duration of power loadshedding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), which culminated in the provincial chief minister taking aggressive actions.

It is true that thefts and line losses are unacceptable and cannot be defended, but by shutting down the entire feeders the distribution companies (Discos) across the country are making the honest consumers to suffer as well in this hot weather for no fault of theirs.

It is the failure of the Discos to identify and arrest the power thieves, and to disconnect the power supply with the backing of the provincial government concerned. It is absolutely unjustified to punish the honest consumers who are paying their bills religiously.

Higher tariffs are becoming unbearable, and result in higher volumes of theft. There is every likelihood that lawlessness, as was recently witnessed in KP, might spread in other parts of the country in view of ever-rising electricity charges and unbearable loadshedding for which only the mismanaged Discos and the mindless handling of the power sector as a whole are responsible. The federal government needs to put its house in order.

Riaz Bhutta
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2024