Tuesday 24 January 2023

Pakistan Black Monday: Electricity Outage Mystery

On Monday January 23, 2023 almost the entire country plunged into darkness. While supply has been restored partially, many areas are still without electricity.

The official sources say it may take 48 to 72 hours to restore supply to all the consumers due to some technical reasons.

Even a person with ordinary wit fails to accept ‘official statements’ at face value due to confidence deficit. This has switched on rumor mill because whatever officials is being termed ‘dubious’.

The overwhelming perception is that it was a preamble of default and reminds the situation in Sri Lanka. A little before officially announcing default, the government ran out of funds to import fuel.

At late night there was a rush at petrol pumps because there were rumors that Pakistan has been left with 7 days petrol.

One of the opinions was that the incumbent government stopped power plants which have helped in saving US$ one billion in less than 24 hours.

However, many analysts question this saving because markers, offices, factories ran on standby generators which used millions of gallons of diesel etc.

If one adds to this the value of production loses the amount goes much higher to the saved foreign exchange.

With each passing day the situation is getting from bad to worse. Banks are refusing to extend foreign exchange for opening up lf letters of credit as well as refusing to negotiate documents.

Demurrages are mounting and goods are becoming stale.

 

 

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