When China offered to invest in Pakistan for the first time, dissenters opposed it and called it what it is; a neo-colonial strategy. But, the greedy military generals hobnobbed with the political setup to convince Pakistanis that China is good for them. The fact is, the Communist nation has never been good for any of its allies. Now, when their power, a key metric of any kind of modernity is being switched off, Pakistani polity is coming towards this painful realisation.
Internet crisis in Pakistan
According to reports available in the public domain, Pakistanis may have to face dark days in the near future. As it turns out, power supply is probably at its lowest level in Pakistan’s brief history. The disrupted supply and no fixed pattern in power availability to the populace has made it difficult for telecom companies to keep supplying mobile and internet services to the radical Pakistan.
Informing that it is becoming cumbersome to keep services on for companies, Pakistan National Information Technology Board (NITB) tweeted, “Telecom operators in Pakistan have warned about shutting down mobile and internet services due to long hours of power outages nationwide, as the interruption is causing issues and hindrance in their operations,…” Later, the tweet was deleted, partly because of the backlash and possibly because of instructions by the Pakistan government.
Power crisis is main reason
The warning came after Shehbaz Sharif, head of Pakistani civilian setup told local Geo news that average Pakistani may continue to face load shedding in upcoming month. Informing about the grim prospects, Sharif had said, “Pakistan could not get the required liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, however, the coalition government was trying to make the deal possible,”
Pakistan is currently in a double whammy. It is standing at a crucial juncture in its history. After relying on United States for decades, it had to surrender to China since Donald Trump effectively ended supplying endless Dollars to the nation. China had came as agony aunt for it. In return, Pakistan promised China of securing its investment in China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Chinese power companies are not given their dues
But, China’s pampering did not change Pakistan. The Frankenstein Monster which Xi Jinping helped foster came for his money and muscles. The terrorism in the CPEC region made it next to impossible for the Chinese to operate. As a result, their reckless spending started to give negative return on investments. One of those sectors in which Chinese companies were making loss was energy sector.
In May this year, about 25 representatives from Chinese Independent Power Producers (IPPs) raised the issue of dues and threatened to completely shut the power off in the CPEC projects. The IPPs said that “The authorities were pressuring them to maximize generation to meet peak summer needs, but this is impossible for us given serious liquidity issues.”
Solutions are further complicating the problem
Alternatively Pakistan had approached European Companies for supplying them with Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Looking at what happened with Chinese companies, they refused to abide by the contract. It forced Pakistan to buy LNG in spot market. Pakistan was paying $100 million for a single shipment of LNG from the spot market. It put further dent in Pakistan government’s pockets, which was already hit by skyrocketing prices.
Several states in Pakistan have applied restrictions on different money generating activities such as trade, business, marriages among others. The reason being that they consume excess electricity.
This decision will further prove to be dampener. No one knows what lies in the future, but one thing is certain that China may soon take advantage of the crisis and impose its authoritarianism in the country.
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