An important measure has been ordered by the Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power, on Wednesday January 12th, i.e. directing the concerned authorities to compile a list of defaulters or those stealing power while not paying the dues. Carried out effectively, this check on power theft will help overcome the prevailing energy crisis in the country.

Power theft has become an infamously prevalent practice in many parts of the country, both rural and urban, and more than 400 consumers in Karachi have been reported as using electricity without paying bills. Many more cases go unreported in various cities and villages, costing a lot to our country’s burdened economy. People usually pay some local electrician a little money to reverse the electricity meter of the house and/or slow its pace. Some people also learn the ‘trick’ from an electrician and help their family/friends steal electricity.

For the government authorities, it is hard to stop these people. One important obstacle in this effort, especially in case of the rural and/or more traditional urban/sub-urban families, is the cultural factor of ban on stranger men’s entrance to a house – the privacy factor. Due to this, the government has been busy taking the electricity meters out of the houses and fixing them outside on the walls or some nearby post etc. Perhaps, it will be helpful if neighbors report power theft to the authorities but then it has its own drawbacks: the reportage being taken for calumny and abusing the permission to do so for mischief.