Energy crisis and Punjabs industry

The business community of Punjab strongly supported the PML-N in its election campaign and this support has served well in delivering a strong mandate to that party. The hope among businessmen and investors is that the PML-N will deliver pro-investment policies and also bring a swift solution for the energy crisis that has been crippling economic growth.
But for the third time Prime Minister, this will not be an easy task.
Post-18th amendment, each province has the first right over natural resources extracted from there, including natural gas. Each province has the right to meet its own demand, before providing the excess to other provinces.
Massive loadshedding in Punjab has been a consequence of this reality, and has the industrialists and domestic consumers alike. That is the very reason industrialists of Faisalabad, Sialkot, Gujranwala and Lahore are persistently complaining about power shortages.
There are voices in Punjab demanding the government to stop providing 650MW to the KESC from the national grid under a contractual obligation. Details regarding that agreement have so far not been shared publicly or even presented to the State Bank of Pakistan.
Industrialists, traders and other consumers in Punjab have kept on protesting against these anomalies. The then-Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif had also raised the issue many times, but in vain.
Now with PML-N forming the government in Punjab, the business communities in Punjab are going to speak on their deprived rights. Even in yesterdays newspapers, APMTA congratulated PML-N on winning the elections and expressed hope for quick resolution of the energy crisis.
Its a hard task to revert that 650MW to the national grid. The details of that contract are not clear and KESC or government has never shared it with media. Its high time for KESC to upload that agreement on its website and there should be deliberations amongst policy making circles on what to do to revert a balance in energy supply within the country.
The resolution of power crises is not confined to above mentioned issues, but these are steps that can be taken immediately for industry in Punjab to have some breathing space.
Then the government should work on the empowerment and accountability of the distribution companies (Discos). The question is why Lesco, Fesco and others in Punjab are bearing the leakages that are taking place in Hesco or other discos.
The mechanism for linking energy losses from each region to its own users must be developed. The government must also immediately embark on a drive to change the energy mix to be more dependent on coal and hydel power.