CCP PRESS RELEASE for Load shedding 25 APRIL, 2010

 PRESS RELEASE 25 APRIL, 2010 The Concerned Citizens Society of Pakistan (CCP), a civil society pressure group that struggled for the restoration of judiciary with the lawyers and other members of the civil society is calling the attention to all of the political leadership in power towards the issues related to “planned power outages” and its hardship on citizens, industry and agriculture sector. We recognize the present situation was handed over to the Government from the previous dictatorial regime. The mismanagement and corruption in pursuit of power to prolong the rule made this a costly oversight. The people who voted for the current government to manage and lead the country out of this crisis should be considered the number one job for the elected government. It has been two years and still temporary plans are being offered to the citizens and businesses who are bearing the brunt of the sacrifice. The CCP strongly suggests that the leadership steps forward and makes visible changes in the running of the country and the parliamentarians need to take responsibility, as the sacrifice is a shared experience for all Pakistanis. The current announcement for energy conservation is welcomed, however it is not enough! CCP proposes the following additional steps to be undertaken by the government: 1. Pursue corruption at all levels, ruthlessly, to stop the leakage of funds. 2. Reactivation of currently installed generation capacity through the payments of overdue charges to Wapda so that that the evils of circular debt can be finished. This will help the agricultural, industrial and employment sectors. 3. Stop electricity theft effectively by implementing the law and imposing penalties on the thieves instead of raising tariffs all the time and adding to the misery of the masses. 4. Immediately reduce the redundant ministries, the Prime Minister and Chief Minister need to do with less Ministers and unelected panel of advisers. This also means, immediately freeze overseas trips by Ministers, especially the Prime Minister and President. 5. Elimination of the “VIP Culture” that has destroyed our society. The CCP is confident that such actions will free up enough cash to improve forced power outages and to ease the suffering of Pakistanis. The money saved will be used to reduce the “circular debt” and increase production fro the existing power plants. Then implement the medium and long-term solutions that are optimum for Pakistan. It is necessary avoid short-term and rash solutions like RPP, which will put an extraordinary burden on the average Pakistani GOVERNMENT HAS TO LISTEN! CCP and other Civil Society members will continue to protest against government’s inaction to address this serious issue.

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