No More Loadshedding? Blistering Heat Exposes Claims of Ending Power Shortfall

The outgoing government has built its narrative around the fact that it has supposedly gotten rid of loadshedding. The very few things that the government officials continuously rave about are the improvement of infrastructure and eradication of loadshedding.

The government announced in May last year that Pakistan will have surplus electricity by November 2017. In May 2018, one year after the announcement, the electricity shortfall stood at 7,000 Megawatts. Currently, it stands somewhere around 4,500 Megawatts.

However, the government’s lame claims, that there is no load-shedding, don’t even have a shred of dignity and a trace of shame as the country goes through hours-long shortage of electricity day in day out.


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Many areas have been hit with the hottest temperatures ever recorded, including Karachi. Amid the extra heat at the start of the summer season with more heatwaves expected to follow, the shortfall of electricity further fuels the situation.

The government previously announced that there will be no load shedding in the holy month of Ramzan. However, they quickly retracted their claims as the shortfall continues at full swing while people fast facing the rising temperatures.


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Govt Claims There Will be No Loadshedding During Ramzan


Load-shedding or No Load-shedding?

It is crystal clear that the government has failed to deliver on its manifesto of getting rid of electricity. On top of that, instead of acknowledging this fact, the officials keep on living in the delusional world where “there is no load-shedding in Pakistan”.

This tweet of the daughter of the disqualified-for-life-ex Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is the prime example of the party leaders’ arrogance, ignorance, and total denial of facts.

The Pakistanis that don’t know what load-shedding is? Yes, they exist, they just don’t live in Pakistan.

Hope they see this.

The morning alarm.

This is actually pretty funny.

A valid point.

The federal capital.

“I Won’t Be Responsible”

Shahbaz Sharif, the outgoing Chief Minister of Punjab, recently said that they will not be responsible for load-shedding from this day – referring to their tenure’s end date. The party that ruled the country for 5 years says that it will not be responsible for whatever happens next.

As per the latest statistics, Pakistan is facing a shortfall of 4,500 Megawatts with the production standing at a total of 17,000 megawatts. Umer Saif recently tweeted that Pakistan is generating 20,000 Megawatts. The number is in clear contradiction of actual figures reported by the independent media and what the people have been facing every day. Here is the Chairman Punjab Information Technology Board’s tweet;

Maybe, Pakistan did generate 20,005 Megawatts of electricity in May. However, we have no idea where it went as almost every city goes through 8-12 hours of load-shedding daily.

This is not based on any political bias, it is meant to highlight how the relevant authorities keep on lying again. The government officials need to acknowledge the ground realities, their incompetence, and work on it.

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  • begairton ka toola, Finally utter gaya, I guess they will never win the election again, if they do, then why does people crying for basic needs.

    • I am expecting that Imran Khan will resolve this issue as PTI government produced electricity in KP but media is so biased they did not show any project completed by KP government.

      They produced thousands of megawatts, in fact more than Punjab. That is the reason we see no load-shedding in KP, all due to visionary leadership of KP govt and PTI.

      As all provinces get agreed share from NFC award and they spend it as per their priorities, in KP their priority was power generation which they did and credit must be given to KP government.

      • KP governement is so focused that they completed numerous project but even when their respondents are questioned about the projects they completed, they remain stun silent, latest Chief justice took notice and called the chief minister KP, when he asked how can you brag about KP that its changed and there are numerous developmental projects completed, KP chief minister stayed in coma and not quoted a single project, they didnt even complete metro bus project, now media is bias, but now i believe SC is also biased and chief minister is also biased that he doesnt mention any project,,,,
        Now i’d have to be a PML-N supporter in order to point out PTI

        grow up you PTI supporter..,, open your eyes, You’d have to keep watch these politicians, they are all out to eat you be it Imran or Nawaz or Zardari…

    • Waqaii beghairt hain… I live in Lahore obviously (not in some other country) and over the last whole week (28 May – 3rd June 2018) the total electricity outage at my home was 3-4 hours including 15 -20 minute system trips.

      If you are in doubt, you can come and check my UPS records.

      The same duration in 2008-11, I was experiencing 10-12 hours loadsheding (1 hour after every hour with a couple of 2 hour gaps during the day)

      And by the way, this year round I have my AC working approximately 50-60% more as compared to yester years due to Ramazan. Lets see kitna bill aata hay…

  • inn ki government k baad to ab aur bhi ziada loadshedding ho rahi hai
    janboojh k kar rahe hain ye k dobara vote miley.agar loadshedding fix kar di hoti to inn k jane k aik din baad kharab kese ho gayi??? aur shehbaz ka comment”aaj k baad loadshedding k hum responsible nai honge” se saaf pata chal raha hai k inn nei bijli ka kia jugar lagaya hai.

    AAO PATWARIO AAO!

    • you said “inn ki government k baad to ab aur bhi ziada loadshedding ho rahi hai”

      One simple question, how did they generate electricity then ? I think their narrative is that establishment of Pakistan will do it on purpose to give an impression that leaving government did nothing.

      • Ok so how much electricity Pmln produced in 5 years provincial term from 2008 to 2013 at that time they curse zardari for load shedding by saying provincial government can’t produce electricity as everything is under federal government means under zardari abusing him “chor zardari Punjab ko bijli do”.If provincial government is responsible for pruducing electricity like Kp government for kp province then why they haven’t produce electicity in Punjab from 2008-2013. If they can’t produce it in provincial government and need federal government to do it how can any other party do it in provincial term.Just remembering how much load shedding we faced in punjab from 2008-2013 during pmln government in punjab so how ppp is responsible for load shedding in punjab as it was Punjab government duty.Then Ppp is responsible for whole country despite pmln government in punjab and now Pti is responsible for everything bad in Punjab and whole country although their government is only in kp.

        “So why two standards for Judgment if they put responsibility on Kp government for everything in kp they should also take responsibility for everything that happened in Punjab 2008-2013 but for that PPP Is solely responsible but for now Pti is responsible for everything.What a Hypocrisy. We should try to think in Neutral Way.

      • when did i say they generated electricity? they didn’t. its just that it is a part of their plan, they are not even giving the electricity that pakistan was generating in the past

  • Dear Aitzaz,

    It is fine to be member of PTI but will you use language that is used by Fawad Chaudry just because you have a platform ?

    A few questions:

    1- The projects installed by last government aren’t in Pakistan and have not added to electricity generation figures ? Where that electricity is going ?

    2- Electricity consumption in Pakistan will stay consistent or will increase over the years?

    3- Should government provide electricity to areas in provinces where theft is common ? Do you know recovery in FATA, Kohat, Bannu, Balochistan , Karachi ?

    4- How could government spend 1000 billion in overhauling the whole grid and line infrastructure in 5 years ? Will your favorite party be able to do that ?

    5- How many megawatts KP, Sindh and Balochistan governments have added to national grid ? Was it responsibility of federal government only ?

    6- Do you see air conditioners advertisements daily on Pakistani TV channels ? How they run? where the electricity is coming ?

    I expect you to jump into the discussion like Aamir sometimes does. I am an overseas Pakistani who see that it is very common in Pakistan to welcome and expect too much to be true from a government fixing what is not done in 70 years. Anything less than expectations and here you go, articles and commentary like this pops up.

    • Leave all that, PML (N) did claim they will end load-shedding once and for all. First they gave a deadline of 90 days, then 6 months, and then they lost count. If they had no idea they could do it, why did they announce it again and again, and you are an overseas Pakistani which automatically means you have no idea whats actually happening here. Ye log maanty bhi nahi hain ky load-shedding ho rahi hai.

      • sheikh rasheed said he will end load shedding in 10 days, its political stunt,, but over the years demand increased more than the production,,, moreover they point out Karachi loadshedding which is not a problem of the FEDs, KE is an incompetent organistaion, they are the worst which lacks on their side,, most of the times you see their grid stations failing due to some technical failures,,
        hopes are still alive though that we saw many of the project did open which will be opening in the end of 2018,,, but nowhere loadshedding is at 12 hours, the writer is just trying to smart because u get way more attention if you blame the govt.

        even then I believe govt must be questioned and specially when they pass immature comments like no loadshedding or ending loadshedding in 6 months

        • The writer is just talking about the blatant lies of the government officials. How they kept lying until the last day and most of them are still lying.

          • political stunts,,, not lies,, politics is all about lying but they dont call it a lie…I pointed out where writer was lying…

            • Stunts or Lies whatever you call them. At the end of the day it’s our loss and we can’t allow them to lie and get away with it. Do they think that the public only consists of idiots?
              You said “but nowhere loadshedding is at 12 hours, the writer is just trying to smart because u get way more attention if you blame the govt.”
              However, there is 12 hours of loadshedding in villages.
              And of course, you should blame the government. Who else is responsible for this?

              “I pointed out where writer was lying”
              Care to point out where you pointed out that the writer is lying? And its ironic that you think the writer is lying but the politicians and the govt are not.

              • Politicians are gonna lie for their interests, why the article?
                U r missing the point here..
                UtsI easy to blame the govtgovern and get popular, because the wind is against the government so blame the it and fit right in, be the smart one, easy!!!
                Not quite right,,
                The writer should have done more research why and what is happening instead of assuming things up himself,,,
                The public consists of idiots what do you see everywhere?
                More than 90% consists of rural villages and u know what kind of education lies there, they decide ur government, it’s their decision when have u became the popular vote?

    • I’d say you are being completely unfair to the writer claiming that he used a language similar to a political party member. You even alleged that the writer is supporting his favourite party here.

      I’ll try and answer your questions in a neutral manner. As someone who’s also been an overseas Pakistani during the current and previous government’s tenure, I know one thing for sure that you can’t understand the situation in the country through social media or other media. You have to be here to understand the issues and witness if there’s been any improvement or not.

      1. Projects have indeed been installed, but not nearly as many of these are functional as the politicians or their PR guys might make you believe. Electricity generation projects weren’t planned well and projects like Neelum Jhelum suffered because of it (Yes I know the project started before this government but the issues quadrupled under this govt).
      Secondly, installed capacity is not equality to production capacity. Little attention has been given to longterm power projects (large hydel) and short term projects (solar, wind). Most of the focus has been on coal power which isn’t as cheap as solar, wind or hydel. (Yes solar and wind are now cheaper and installed faster). Not to mention the huge environmental setbacks, clearly evident from the increasing heatwaves across the country.

      2. Electricity consumption is bound to increase but the government failed to meet the demand and failed to keep their promises. And that’s wat the writer actually wrote about in this article.

      3. Do you know that most of the electricity units are lost in Punjab and not anywhere else. The combined power consumption of the areas you mentioned is less than a city like Islamabad.
      And yes govt should provide electricity to everyone, it is their basic right. It is unfair to punish one person for another person’s crime. It is also the govt’s responsibility to ensure that electricity theft and line losses are dealt with properly. Making excuses about line losses doesn’t suit a sitting govt.

      4. The government doesn’t need to overhaul the whole transmission network. And it won’t cost Rs 1000 billion.
      Upgrading lines or adding new sub-networks is part and parcel of generating and distributing power from new powerplants.

      5. You clearly skipped Punjab in the provinces you mention, showing your bias towards the ruling party.
      And yes all provinces have added power to the overall generation capacity. Do you think all CPEC projects are between the federal govt and private companies only? You need to review that.
      Plus hundreds of small dams have been installed in KP which is why the province isn’t facing huge power issues like Punjab and other areas.

      6. Your argument is completely invalid. Anyone can advertise anything they want but that doesn’t mean that they are selling their product well of even if their product is being used at all.
      However, ads for UPS and solar inverters does show that there’s still a market for this stuff. If loadshedding had ended they wouldn’t even be in the market any more.

      And finally, you should read the article again. Its about the government’s false claims and blatant lies. They kept saying that loadshedding has ended, lying to people’s faces and PP just showed people’s response to the issue.
      It is a fact based article clearly showing the false claims made by govt officials. It isn’t related to what you asked. It is about the blatant lies and then admitting failure within 24 hours of the end of their tenure.
      I live in Islamabad and a “power failure” of more 6 hours is not uncommon. It happens twice a week usually. Almost the same in most areas of ISB/RWP.

  • Ok so how much electricity Pmln produced in 5 years provincial term from 2008 to 2013 at that time they curse zardari for load shedding by saying provincial government can’t produce electricity as everything is under federal government means under zardari abusing him “chor zardari Punjab ko bijli do”.If provincial government is responsible for pruducing electricity like Kp government for kp province then why they haven’t produce electicity in Punjab from 2008-2013. If they can’t produce it in provincial government and need federal government to do it how can any other party do it in provincial term.Just remembering how much load shedding we faced in punjab from 2008-2013 during pmln government in punjab so how ppp is responsible for load shedding in punjab as it was Punjab government duty.Then Ppp is responsible for whole country despite pmln government in punjab and now Pti is responsible for everything bad in Punjab and whole country although their government is only in kp.

    “So why two standards for Judgment if they put responsibility on Kp government for everything in kp they should also take responsibility for everything that happened in Punjab 2008-2013 but for that PPP Is solely responsible but for now Pti is responsible for everything.What a Hypocrisy.

  • Ha ha ha…I thought this PITB guy was load shedded out himself !
    What about those WiFi towers and incubators and AI, robotics, you name it…


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