PESHAWAR: A Pakistani power company is appealing to its customers’ religious consciences in a desperate bid to get them to stop stealing electricity — a major hurdle in efforts to stem crippling blackouts.
The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) has taken out front page adverts in three major newspapers in the country’s northwest during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, reminding readers that stealing electricity is a sin.
“Do your fasting, pay zakat (charitable donations) and serve your parents, but do these things by the light of legal electricity,” the ad says.
“Clerics have ruled that doing good deeds by the light of stolen electricity is against Shariah, so let us stop using stolen electricity and beautify our day of judgement.”
Across Pakistan, from cities to villages and from slums to posh neighbourhoods, people steal electricity every day, usually by means of a metal hook known as a “kunda” connecting the house directly to power lines in the street, bypassing the meter. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered a crackdown on electricity thieves, but they often work with the connivance of power company staff and few people are ever prosecuted — hence PESCO’s appeal to a higher authority.
Pakistan’s power sector has been crippled by years of corruption and underinvestment, leaving people to struggle through blackouts of up to 20 hours a day in the blistering heat of summer.
Given the irregular service, many Pakistanis do not see why they should pay.
Amjad Ali, a welder living in a slum area of Karachi, says he cannot afford a regular connection but wouldn’t pay for one even if he could.
“If I get a connection, half of my monthly income would go in electric bills. I am not a fool to pay for their corruption and inefficiencies,” he said.
People using electricity without paying for it is a major cause of a massive pile-up of debt between government-owned power utilities, electricity generating firms and fuel suppliers, which lies at the heart of the crisis. The blackouts have hammered industry and agriculture, shaving two percent off GDP according to the finance minister and Sharif’s government, elected in May, has said finding a solution is its top priority.
Khawja Mohammad Asif, minister for water and power, told AFP his department was working closely with the finance ministry to find a way to clear the debt, which stands at a mammoth 500bn rupees ($5bn).
“It is a complex matter and would take a couple of months to be sorted out and we would clear off the circular debt by August,” he said.
But even if such bullish predictions come true, Farhan Mahmood, head of research at Sherman Securities in Karachi said the debt would mount up again to around 350bn rupees by June because of corruption and the theft.
All over Karachi, jumbles of hooks connect overhead lines to homes, adding the threat of electrocution to the perils of life in Pakistan’s crowded, violent metropolis.AFP
