The target was to first minimize electricity crisis gradually and then eliminate it altogether as he would draw near to his third term. It was hoped that being a Punjabi Prime Minister:

 

* He would have far much power to clamp down on the electricity mafia of IPPs and GENCOs

*He would stop giving almost free gas and electricity to military companies like Fauji Fertilizer

*He would recover the electricity bills of billions from public sector organizations

*He would come hard on the electricity theft.

 

It was also hoped that Nawaz Sharif would introduce corporate like efficiency in the whole power system due to his business background. It was hoped that he would ensure transparent and agile appointments of top professionals in this sector. He would over haul the whole system. He would increase the throughput of existing infrastructure, would run closed plants, and would bring in new systems on war footings. Now as we stand at the tail end of first year of Nawaz regime, we look back in horror.

 

Total confusion is the name of game over the last whole month. No sense of direction, and no sense of vision is what describes how they ran the power sector. Instead of appointing professionals, they gave us specimen like Abid Sher Ali, Khawaja Asif, and Shahbaz Sharif. Nobody knows who is doing what and when. Ishaq Dar produced another rabbit from his hat and paid of circular debt at the start by printing more notes. Lo and behold, that circular debt is  back again and has already crossed Rs. 330 billion mark. One wonders why Shahbaz Sharif doesn’t stage a dharna against federal government now at Minar-e-Pakistan like he did not so long ago?