ISLAMABAD, May 8: The Water and Power Authority came under fire in the Senate on Thursday over what lawmakers called its lavish spending and abetment in power theft and deficient planning which has caused the worst power shortage in the country’s history.

Speakers from both sides put forward a number of suggestions for improving the working of Wapda and its affiliated companies.

Senator Prof Khurshid Ahmed called for proper management and conservation and urged resolution of political issues linked to dams to overcome the worst energy crisis in the country.

He said some 40,000 megawatts of electricity could be produced from hydel sources but there had been a criminal negligence on the part of the government for not taking up such projects because of political considerations.

Referring to the Kalabagh dam, he said there were credible arguments in favour of and against the project, but even projects on which there was a political consensus, like Bhasha and some small dams, had not received due consideration.

He severely criticised Wapda and called it a highly inefficient and mismanaged organisation. He said the organisation was responsible for record line losses of 50 to 60 per cent, much more than the internationally-accepted limit.

At the current consumption rate, he said, gas reserves of the country would not last more than eight years.

Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of JUI-F said that no-one had tried to resolve the energy crisis which was at its peak today.

Balochistan, he said, was not being given its promised share of 500 MW of electricity which had severely affected the lives of the people.

Col (retd) Tahir Hussain Mushahidi of the MQM said that Sindh was not getting power supply for 12 to 14 hours a day which had severely affected the functioning even of hospitals.

Senator Mumtaz Hussain said the country had 175 billion tons of coal reserves in Thar which should be used for power generation. Salim Saifullah Khan of the PML-Q said that the blame game should end now and practical suggestions should be put forward to solve the problem.

Senator Dr Javed Leghari said that the problem of energy shortage could be solved with better load management and by setting up rental power stations and exploiting coal and hydel resources.

He said Germany and India had been producing 20,000 MW and 8,000 MW of electricity, respectively, from coal, but Pakistan was not using its precious resources.

Senator Amjad Abbas said that power supply should be cut in Parliament Lodges as well in order to make influential people realise sufferings caused by power outages in the country.

Minister for Water and Power Raja Parvaiz Ashraf warned what he called the black sheep in Wapda and said the government would not tolerate slackness, misappropriation and mismanagement on the part of Wapda management.

“Wapda is supposed to serve the country and its people and I will not allow the people usurping the rights of the people to stay in the organisation,” Mr Raja Parvaiz said while winding up a two-day debate on the issue.

The minister said that saving one per cent of line losses would mean a saving of Rs4 billion.

“We are trying to put in place a system to nab big fish responsible for line losses as we want to restore the status of Wapda as a profitable and an ideal organisation which it once used to be,” the minister said, adding that every effort would be made to curb electricity theft and to minimise line losses.

He said the present crisis had not erupted in a day or a month; it was the result of bad planning and management of several years.

The minister assured the house that the government would overcome the power crisis in three years because it would take at least three years for a power house to become operational and six to seven years for a dam to produce electricity.

As producing electricity through hydel and coal projects required a long-term and short-term measures, the government would generate power through rentals which would take six to seven months.

He said rental companies had already been told that the electricity produced by them would be used for only three to four years.

The minister also stressed the need for conservation of electricity through a change of lifestyle and use of energy saving bulbs which the government planned to import.