The end of load-shedding in Islamabad, too good to be true

The end of load-shedding in Islamabad, too good to be true

When it was announced earlier in the month that there would be no more load-shedding in Islamabad, there was a general sense of relief and a wave of peace sweeping over almost every citizen of the city.

At the same time however, everyone was sure to have fostered the thought that the news may have been too good to be true in the back of their minds.

Yet as the days rolled by without any interruption from WAPDA (Water and Power Development Authority) it seemed that there was some truth behind it. People began to lower their guard and truly believed that the government had found a solution to the power shortage, at least for Islamabad.

There were still those who were sceptical, however, even they would have enjoyed the removal of the load-shedding burden from their shoulders. Yet, as an old saying goes:

‘If it is too good to be true, it almost always is.’

Catching the local residents of Islamabad completely off-guard, load-shedding came back with an unannounced vengeance, and if one was quite enough he could hear the moans emanating from every household in its neighbourhood.

The government may have let everyone down, but that is something that the people of this country are used to. What really hurt was the fact in the manner with which it returned. The peace of mind and smiles passed to oneself when the ‘light’ did not go at the time it used to, was as good a gift as any that the people of Islamabad, if not the country would have wished for.

In the end, however, it was all taken away from them, from right under their feet. The same old routine of planning one’s activities based on the load-shedding schedule returned and limited the short-lived freedom of the people enjoyed for such a seemingly short time.

The return of load-shedding brought with it a renewed sense of disappointment but at the same time, one has to ask the question: if the government can end load-shedding in a city for as long as they did, can they do it again for longer in the future?

So maybe there is hope for the end of the load-shedding phenomenon after all, but you will have to excuse me for a moment, I have to turn the generator on; it is almost 8pm.

Posted by Musa Afridi on Oct 19 2011. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry