The return of loadshedding
July 10, 2021
Loadshedding is back. In some places for two hours a day, in some places for four or more – but it is back. It took Nawaz Sharif and his PML-N energy team, led by Shehbaz Sharif, Shahid Abbasi and Khawaja Asif, five years of planning and hard work to end this menace. Yet in three years Imran Khan and the PTI, due to a combination of graft and incompetence, have brought loadshedding of both gas and power roaring back to Pakistan.
Readers will recall that up until a few weeks back, before the advent of widespread loadshedding, PTI leaders were crying themselves hoarse claiming that the PML-N set up too much capacity to produce electricity. But if there is excess capacity, why is there power shortage? Before the PTI answers this by saying there is a shortage of LNG or gas, we will point out that every gas-fired power plant in Pakistan runs on two or more types of fuel, so shortage of gas is not the right answer. Besides, who created the gas shortage?