THE government has legally allowed the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) employees to enjoy free electricity at their residences, with the number of free units depending on their respective grades.

This is such a grave injustice that even MNA Noor Alam heading the National Assembly`s Public Accounts Committee (PAC)has recommended the withdrawal of this facility.

There is a departmental tradition in Wapda that the units consumed by the employees is never recorded, and this basically means that electricity consumption has no limits for Wapda employees.

Wadpa employees, however, are not the only ones using free electricity.

Their counterparts in other departments, as well as industrial undertakings, also adopt illegal methods that enable them to use the facility for free or for charges that are a minor fraction of what they should actually be paying. Owners of factories,foundries,cold storages, etc. enjoy `cooperation` of fered by Wapda of ficials.

Also, most police stations and the living quarters around them pay no electricity bill. Some high government of ficials/ politicians are given free electricity as service perks.

The facility is drastically misused as air-conditioners are installed even in the quarters of their grade IV servants. A large number of citizens, especially in rural areas, use electricity to their heart`s content with the active `cooperation` of meter readers or by obtaining direct connection f rom the power lines.

In orderforPakistantobe able to receive the next tranche of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)loan, it has to raise the electricity tarif f for consumers to unimaginable limits. It is hard to comprehend as to why the IMF does not force the government to end the culture of providingfree electricity that is firmly entrenched in the country.

Once that happens, the need to spike the tarif f will not be there anymore.The only solution to stop illegal use of electricity countrywide is to privatise all Wapda-run distribution companies.

Sayed GB Shah Bokhari Former Public Relations Director, Wapda Peshawar