ISLAMABAD-The NEPRA chairman has said that the country is facing worse loadshedding situation as electricity generation from imported fuel has declined owing to scarcity of dollars to purchase expensive fuel, adding that against the demand of over 27000MW only 20000-21000MW electricity is being produced.
The matter of unscheduled loadshedding echoed in the meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Power as senators claimed that rural and urban areas are facing 18 hours and 8 hours loadshedding respectively. The Senate Standing Committee on Power met on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Senator Saifullah Abro here. The chairman committee said that the country has paid Rs3000 billion capacity payments in three years to the IPPs and asked why the public is being deprived of electricity when the closed power plants have capacity to meet the demand. 
The committee discussed at length the NTDC’s response on the recommendation and query on the 765 KV Dasu transmission line project. The Committee in previous meeting had directed to produce work orders, work completion certificates and other experience certificates of companies which participated in bidding process for hiring of consultant and contractors.
The NTDC informed the committee that the World Bank being the financing agency has not allowed to share the documents as per their applicable procurement regime, guidelines and stipulations of the loan agreement signed with the government of Pakistan. A detailed discussion took place on the laws and rules of the NTDC and the Committee came to the conclusion that there is no legal justification for not providing the documents to the Senate Standing Committee on Power. The chairman committee while producing various documents came to the conclusion that NTDC has misled the committee while manipulating their own drafted regulations and shielding behind the World Bank in order to save themselves from producing the documents. Moreover, officials from Power Division along with NTDC failed to satisfy the members of the Committee. Furthermore, the chairman committee remarked that the World Bank has nothing to do with the submission of documents and the NTDC is trying to use World Bank as shield to hide their own mala fide. The committee reiterated that how come public procurement, involving pubic money is not transparent and documents cannot be revealed that too on this august forum of the Senate’s Committee. It was also transpired after evaluating various documents that false and forged paperwork has also been produced before the committee for leading them astray. 
The Committee also observed that none of the argument of the Power Division was rationale and there were many gaps and differences leading to argument presented in defense by the Ministry. The committee produced various records in order to justify the irrational and misleading arguments of the Ministry as well as the NTDC. The official from Power Division was totally clueless on the internal inquiry conducted by NTDC on wrong doings including awarding of contract to a bidder who was previously disqualified. It was decided that the NTDC is given a final warning on the production of documents in next meeting. 
It was also decided that the meeting will be held in camera, if deemed necessary, in the presence of senior officials from NTDC and the Power Division. The chairman committee maintained that the matter will not be concluded until the procurement process of project of 800 million dollars is completely transpired as per the rules as it will directly affect the Pakistani public. Furthermore, the chairman NEPRA informed the Committee that the electricity generation in the country is 21000MW while the electricity demand is more than 27000MW. He said that electricity generation from imported fuel was 62%, which has been reduced, due to shortage of dollars and high value of fuel, however, he said that at present, 38% of electricity in the country is being generated on imported fuel whereby electricity production in this way is very expensive and the country is left with no money to buy imported fuel. Senator Bahramand Khan Tangi has recommend that to control power theft and losses, the Power Division may go towards Smart Metering system. With smart metering, electricity will be cut off for those who do not pay the bill.  The committee also directed the Power Division that the employees of the WAPDA companies should be reshuffled after every three years as they are involved in theft of the electricity. The committee was of the view that this reshuffling will discourage Kunda system and loadshedding can be reduced. 
The NTDC argued that the theft of large electrical appliances has become a daily routine in Sindh and other places, where law enforcement agencies were tasked to control on the theft. The officials said that rains in June & July leading to thunderstorms caused the wiring to disrupt. It was apprised that 160 MV Transformer and Tower at Shikarpur is required. Senator Haji Hidayatullah Khan also raised the issue of unannounced loadshedding around the country especially in the KP region. He said that the government promised free transformers to be installed, however none of the transformers are in working conditions and the repair work is also slow and the wiring required for the transformer is also not available. Senator Hidayatullah said that without electricity water problems are also rising.