The scourge of power pilferage

The Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) has detected a total of 57,401 kundas/ illegal connections from where the customers were pilfering electricity in all its five districts including Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Kasur, and Okara in the past 166th day when the corporation launched a grand anti-power theft campaign. According to the details, 52,957 FIRs have been registered in respective police stations, and 17,627 accused have been arrested. The LESCO has charged a total of 76,301,843 detection units worth Rs 2,933,049,663 to all the power pilferers. According to authorities, the operations would continue without discrimination until the complete end of electricity theft. The electricity pilferers as well as the LESCO officers and employees who facilitate them are also being brought to justice.

Illegal electricity theft, or the unauthorized use of electricity without proper metering or payment is a widespread problem in today’s Pakistan. It causes significant financial losses for the government and relevent power producers/providers companies, contributing to power shortages, overbilling, or circular debt of the government entities. The government and power companies have adopted multiple strategies including the installation of smart meters, technical monitoring, public awareness campaigns, and legal prosecution of the offenders but all those sane endeavors could not work effectively. The issue not only persists but has shaped into a grave challenge for the government and utilities companies facing default and debt payment crises. Unfortunately, the volume of illegal power theft is so massive that over 57000 cases have been caught red-handed in a single five-district zone whereas the gravity of the issue could easily be assessed in 170 districts across Pakistan including four provinces, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.

Apparently, such a large-scale crime is not possible without internal complicity and malignancy of the WAPDA employees and staff of power-distributing companies. Due to this reason, no effort of the government and power distributing companies could ever succeed in its goal throughout the past. The caretaker government in collaboration with the Pakistan military has recently launched a nationwide crackdown against power theft and uncovered thousands of illegal connections across the country. There is a dire need for strict handling and severe punishment of the culprits involved in anti-state crimes. Meanwhile, the concerned linemen and other field staff must be penalized for not curbing illegal activity and failure to report crime in their area of responsibility. Until and unless, there is no example of stern justice and ruthless accountability, corruption and crime could be controlled in this nation at any time in the future.