WHAT IS ENERGY CRISIS? Energy is the basic necessity for life.

But for energy no form of life would have ever emerged. We all know energy for providing us light and comfort. It can help us to cool down during summers and feel warm during winters. It also helps us to go from one place to another. All automobiles need energy to run; but even otherwise all other means of transport need energy. But even though we use it every moment of our life and learn about it at school it often remains a riddle for many all through the life. Crisis is one word which has become part of ordinary Pakistanis vocabulary like nothing else. 1st we have sugar crisis, then wheat followed by electricity and to add more fuel to the fire now we are going through the worst gas shortage in our history. In Punjab this crisis has hurt the most with every person suffering its consequences. Thousands of daily waged workers have become jobless in industrial areas like Faisalabad, in homes women folk is suffering to feed their children, passengers wait for hours as the public transport has no CNG while those having personal transport wait for hours in order to obtain much required CNG refilling. Our innocent executives like their predecessor have a bucket full of excuses in order to justify this mismanagement. For price hike and declining economy they have the common tag line of market mechanism and global slow down to justify this phenomena. In case of electricity and gas load shedding they can find no good reason but to curse increasing demand. The reality which they never accept is the fact that this shortfall is depriving our state from billions of rupees by not availing this opportunity of earning revenue, instead of wasting time on IMF imposed RGST and much more. Some conspiracy theories have floated for quite sometime blaming this shortfall as a dirty mean to maximize their benefits. Like in electricity crisis they have managed to pull out the much debated Rental Power Projects while in case of gas shortage they are earning billions from taxes imposed on petroleum products and LPG. In short this recklessness can only be justified by only one reason, which is that our plans on day to day basis rather than planning in years as done in the developed countries. Since Grade-1 we have learned from our text books that Pakistan is self sufficient and blessed with vast untapped resources of natural gas. The argument remained correct for much of our history, but mismanagement and personnel greed has landed us in this situation. Its on record that still many wells are not operational in Balochistan and other parts of the country. Even if we ignore it, there is no account of unexplored reserves awaiting discovery. Like in many other cases, soon we will hear that most of them have been leased to some smoky foreign party in suspicious circumstances. To make it short, common man in Pakistan will keep on suffering while those in corridors of power will keep behaving like imperialists from history. Shakespeare has been proven wrong in his assessment of worldly matters by the capable leadership of Pakistan. He had the opinion that this world is a stage and we are mere actors playing our part. In Pakistan its nearly the opposite. Every executive and their respective machinery enter the system with a new drama which they plan to execute in their 5 year term.

The 180 million citizens of Pakistan are like extras playing characters of helpless masses being ruled, exploited and fooled by the Czars. The pipeline projects like IPI, TAPI and the Qatar gas pipeline projects are still a far cry. Some recent initiatives have been taken but it will take years for them to become practical. The CNG sector has been intentionally destroyed by the government due to ignorance. Having been started as an indigenous, environmental friendly and economical fuel source, it seems that these 3 attributes have not gone down well with the ruling class. In less than a decade the prices have been increased nearly 500% which today stand at approximately 57rs per kg. Due to the above mentioned attributes, the common man turned to CNG and today it runs nearly 75% of the transport. Having said this its worth mentioning that traditional transport system also converted from diesel to CNG in a very short time but it seems this pleasure of affordable energy is something harmful for IMF and our respected government. The shortage is due to the mismanagement and there is no second argument about it( but it remains unclear if there is shortage in the 1st place or its artificial). Even in this condition, the government policy of 2 consecutive days of load shedding is a crime. Its clear that 1 refilling can last for 1 day in normal circumstances and on the 2nd day every one has to turn to petrol in order to please our honorable executives. They could have done a better job by having load shedding on every alternate day but after ensuring that the gas supply remains up to the mark and available on the proposed day. But my apologies for mentioning something under the domain of public welfare as its a sin mentioned in the drama we 180 million inhabitants have been hired to act in. ECONOMIC IMPACT OF ENERGY CRISIS Pakistan is marred by an energy crisis that has no precedent in its 63-year history. Although, blessed by natural resources, the country has failed to utilize its reserves for the enhancement of its industry and economy. Since the past three years, due to improper planning, lack of long-term strategies, and an increasing circular debt, our energy generation capacity has decreased to dangerously low levels, while the demand is only increasing.

As a result, over a billion rupees are lost each year in the frequent power outages (loadshedding) that occur every day throughout the country. Pakistan has fallen into a vicious circle of crisis upon crisis, and not because it lacks the means. Geographically speaking, our country has been blessed by countless natural resources.

The rivers that come down from the North make the building of dams perfectly feasible, and the amount of coal present in the country along with alternative energy can make Pakistan an exporter of energy if properly utilised. For that, our policies need to be more focused, and energies channeled in the right direction, rather in politicizing every aspect of developmental projects. In 21st century economy is taken as Religion. It is the blood in the veins of nation state, vitality in the human muscles, base for brutal wars and a reason for governments to rule. The motherland has painfully experienced rising poverty and sinking economy; despite worlds best canal system, profitable geostrategic location, and unexplored resources. The nation, who earned nuclear position despite miseable poverty and sever foreign pressure, can do wonders, if provided with dedicated leadership. But for the past seven years, due to various reasons, Pakistans economy witnessed a consistent growth. As a result, energy requirements of the country increased drastically. While the power generation capacity was still more than the requirement in 2007, the power plants were generating at a sub-optimal level. Even now, the total capacity of electricity generation is more than the demand, but due to line losses, circular debt forcing power plants to produce at less than half of their capacity, and fluctuating oil prices, the output is considerably less than the installed capacity, and even less than the demand. As a result, frequent power outages become an obstacle for economic activity in the country, commercial centers are shut down and people lose their jobs, leading to a vicious circle of unemployment, hunger, and poverty. Due to energy crisis,Pakistan is facing very alarming problems as follows y y y y y y y y Unemployement poverty inflation increased cost of production Increase in oil prices Food crisis political instability Social evils

UNEMPLOYMENT,POVERTY AND INFLATION: There is no any hope in the budget that unemployed persons would get job due to massive unemployment resulting to power outage. Tahir Muneer Labour Affairs Consultant said that

government proposed allocation of funds for energy sector has been termed as insufficient and unproductive, aiming to adjust the crisis of electricity shortage within limited resources. He said the energy sector has been badly paralyzed by power crisis, which should have been resolved on priority basis to support small, medium and large business, industries and common man. He said the paucity of electricity hit hard the industrial, manufacturing and agriculture production in the last couple of years, which slows down the growth of overall economy, and high rated unemployment. He said the subsidy of Rs 166 billion announced for power sector will cover the massive line losses that have reached 37 percent by now. He said the oil-generating electricity will be increased additionally with the increase of furnace oil prices in future. He said the government should focus to rationalize energy mix and stressed on alternative or hydel projects to meet the supply of electricity as per demand. He said the circular-debt issue has not been addressed which pushed the overall energy sector on the verge of collapse. He said the government announced allocation for dams in every annual budget but it could not be materialised in the past because of poor planning and political reasons. He said the electricity tariff will continue to increase as oil prices are expected to go up in the future, resulting high inflation and less economic growth in the country. He said the proposed budget has no concentration to carry out fiscal reforms because the government has no vision to cap its borrowing and administrative expenses. He said grievances of people are increasing and it looks there is rarely an economic target achieved by sitting government since it assume the power to rule through lip service and speeches without taking solid measures to address problems Increased cost of production: Nuclear power production costs have increased to the point where nuclear power no longer is as competitive as it once was with other forms of power generation such as coal. Pressures to cut nuclear power production costs have been growing, but concerns have been raised about the impacts of any future cost reductions on safety. Industry claims that rising production costs are a consequence of regulation and that better-performing plants have lower costs. The authors' analysis of the 1987-1990 data suggests that production cost increases are sig nificantly related to enhancements in efficiency; they have no bearing on safety.