PUBLIC frustration seems to be bursting at the seams as the duration and frequency of power outages in large parts of the country has increased with surging summer temperature. Powerless consumers capturing a grid station in Taunsa and ransacking a distribution company`s office in Larkana indicate where the situation is headed, as tempers rise with the mercury.

Reportedly, 135 demonstrations and rallies have been organised in south Punjab alone since last weekend. And while the protests have more or less remained peaceful, there is no guarantee that the protestors whose life is affected and livelihood threatened by the outages of up to 18 hours a day will not turn violent.

While the prime minister took the matter up in a special meeting on Monday, so far the government has betrayed no sign of taking measures to bring the closed generation capacity of around 3,000 megawatts into operation. More remarkable is the decision of one of its ministers, who looks after the water and power ministry.

Instead of arranging funds for fuel to power the closed generation capacity, he has chosen to cut supplies in parts of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for non-payment ofbills. Some would defend his action, but the timing is questionable. The decision has kicked off yet another dispute between the centre and the provinces and appears to be more of an excuse for the sloppy performance of a government that has failed to add new generation, and control massive theft and distribution losses since its return to power on the promise of resolving the nation`s power woes. Power shortages are the principal constraint to growth in the country. They have led to massive losses of jobs, productivity and exports in the last seven to eight years, shaving 3-4pc of GDP annually. Research undertaken by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics shows that outages forced each electricity consumer to spend an average Rs31,000 or one quarter of per capita income to make alternate arrangements in 2012. Such a situation should not be occurring in a country trying to project itself as an investors` heaven. The government and its ministers had better focus on reviving the idle generation capacity and the formulation and implementation of the energy conservation strategy to reduce blackouts rather than resorting to theatrics.