THERE are three aspects of the violent power protests gripping several cities of Punjab that stand out. The protests have come at a time when the ruling PML-N has held its own rallies against long hours of electricity suspension. Second, the police have shown little ability, and, significantly, little inclination to stop the rioters and arsonists. Three, assets wearing a federal tag, such as electricity supply offices and railways and residences of lawmakers linked to the PPP government in Islamabad have been a favourite target of rioters who have also blocked highways and attacked private property. The police inaction and delay were largely to blame for the loss of life and damage to property and livelihoods. The railways had to suspend 25 trains after the police failed to respond to its calls for help to save a train from arsonists in Kamoki, not far from Lahore.

The Shahbaz Sharif government has a bigger role to keep the protests violence-free than the one it seems to have assigned to itself, while the government is using taxpayers’ money to call for ‘peace’ through newspaper advertisements. However, given the freedom the genie has become accustomed to in the presence of an almost helpful administration, it will not be easy to put it back into the bottle. The violent monster threatens to inspire others to resort to even bloodier antics against future set-ups. The federal government badly failed to go beyond promises on the issue of power generation. Among other major problems, the politics of acrimony prevented a dialogue on the subject that could have held out hope for the ultimate identification of the best-possible solution to the energy crisis. As the politicians and governments stand apart in the wake of Mr Gilani’s disqualification, the answer to the problem has not changed. The road to an illuminated Pakistan begins right here and all parties must understand this. It is not that these riots do not reflect public sentiment but a more responsible course for the federal and provincial governments would have been to sit down together and jointly find a way out of the darkness.

Via THE DAWN

There have been numerous Energy conferences and meetings aiming to solve the power dilemma.
But the federal government doesn't have the will or capacity to solve the crisis.
I don't know where you live but actually it's no crisis it's a TOTAL BLACKOUT in Punjab , last week we have been on the receiving end of almost 20 hours of loadshedding in faisalabad , and it's hard for any police or gov to stop such frustrated people.
CM Punjab is right in his claim that Punjab has been treated discriminate ly as 700 mw of energy is being diverted from Punjab to Karachi , which is simply unjustified.

There are almost 400 billion rupees which various gov institutions owe to wapda and that also includes Punjab gov (15 billion) .

Solution is no rocket science
1 Get wapda's money back immediately from defaulters.

2. Divert the gas wasted in cng stations to power plants ( gas delivery to power plants has reduced by 1/3).

3 Implement a fair load management plan no discrimination.

4 Reduce line losses ( there again in various cities of Punjab it's less than 10%
And in other provinces it's near to 40).

5 And if these steps are implemented then energy conversation policy be devised .

All seems quite hard In the presence of this corrupt government.

Only way out of this crisis is to raise the tariffs immediately to match the cost of production, while at the same time, a massive bill collection drive must be launched at the end of which, all those who refuse to pay up should be disconnected. Gas supply to CNG stations should be stopped immediately and construction of hydro power projects started on an emergency basis so that eventually, our dependence on furnace oil can be reduced, as well as the tariffs.