Well if I can properly remember it was somewhere in 2005 when the then President Gen. Pervez Musharraf took this bold step to introduce this scheme in a so-called bid to save energy for Pakistan. Then it was a very unpopular move and it soon ended after passing 3 or 4 months.

However, no one’s life was probably much affected by this scheme and to be honest no one cared about it. This time, it was initially planned and nearly announced to end somewhere by the end of August but suddenly it was extended indefinitely. It came to an end on Friday Oct 31st when the clocks went back by an hour to bring it back to the standard time.

What is appears confusing is, wasn’t it a bit to impress the western bosses to tell them look even our watches are western. Nowadays rumors have it that the government is seriously considering to make Saturdays off in Pakistan in an effort to save energy for the fast energy losing country (Be aware of the rulers of this land, both the president and the prime minister have served sentences in notorious jails on different charges) what surprises me is not official two days off in a week but what the hell are the political and administrative set up upto?

Can’t they think of creating energy from different resources? A couple of weeks ago I read a provincial minister’s interview in a local Urdu language newspaper claiming that only a single district namely CHITRAL of NWFP (Pakhtunkhwa…as the newly proposed name should be) has the capacity to produce over 4000 mega watts of electricity where even Big Dams are not needed. According to him what you need to do is simply come over there, install some turbines and get electricity as simple as that.

Another friend of mine informed of a Norwegian company’s survey that had proposed it to the high ups that they are ready to generate electricity from the areas of north Pakistan and they had reportedly offered to provide the whole of Pakistan with free electricity and they would earn their profit by exporting electricity to neighboring countries. This potential is there but I think the hindrance put on their work by the government was explicitly due to the corrupt bureaucracy that can’t see above its nose.

Anyhow, by getting your clocks a head or back by one hour you are never going to hit the target. It requires sincere efforts and courage to take up strong initiative to provide energy to a nuclear state. If you can produce nuclear bombs, why can’t you produce electricity? A point to ponder upon. If anyone knows a convincing answer, please let me know.