INEFFICIENCY of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) is reflected in the fact that it took one year and five months to find out that the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) is responsible for the nationwide blackout that lasted over 20 hours on Jan 9 last year.

It has fined NTDC merely Rs50 million for having failed to restore the power supply in a timely manner within a reasonable period. Apart from the fault of NTDC, the question also arises over the efficiency of Nepra, which took extraordinary time to arrive at its finding and then punished the responsible agency with the imposition of a mere Rs50 million fine when the loss to the nation had run into several hundred millions as a result of that complete power shutdown, crippling the industry, commerce, agriculture and domestic sectors.

Besides, there existed a security risk and great inconvenience to the public at large. It is worth knowing if all the shortcomings and weaknesses in the national power system contributing to that nightmare have been identified and addressed. The public has the right to expect Nepra to ensure that such unacceptable happenings are not repeated.

Also, people want to know why Nepra took 17 long months to investigate the incident and arrive at its findings. Shouldn’t Nepra also be taken to task for this inordinate delay in its duty? All said and done, it is clear that all is not well in our power sector and its operations.

Riaz Bhutta
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2022