Prime Minister-elect and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) political party Nawaz Sharif speaks to his party workers during a seminar in Lahore, to mark the 14th anniversary of Pakistan's first successful nuclear test in 1999 on Tuesday. — Reuters ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's new government plans to sell $5 billion in treasury bills to pay off a chain of debt choking the country's power sector and its economy and boost electricity output by a quarter – all within its first 100 days in power. The incoming administration of Prime Minister-elect Nawaz Sharif has identified widespread blackouts that last up to 20 hours a day in some areas as its top political and economic challenge. Sharif said Tuesday it was a “tragedy” that a country with a nuclear arsenal was crippled by chronic electricity shortages. The deepening power shortages have sparked violent protests and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs in a country already beset by high unemployment, a failing economy, widespread poverty, sectarian bloodshed and a Taliban insurgency. Several key members of the incoming government's energy team interviewed by Reuters over the past few days said that out of a long list of challenges ranging from lack of investment to electricity theft, plugging a 500 billion rupee ($5.08 billion) financing hole was the most pressing task. Sources in the new administration said these funds would be raised through sales of 3-month, 6-month and 12-month treasury bills. By breaking a vicious cycle of withheld payments running through the entire power-generation chain from end consumers to electricity distributors, power plants to refiners who can't import enough oil because of unpaid fuel bills, the team hopes to bring immediate relief. “In the first three months of our government, we plan to add 2,000-3,000 megawatts to the national grid and at least 16,000 megawatts in the medium term,” said Khawaja Asif, who is due to take the energy portfolio in Sharif's cabinet that will be sworn in on June 5. Pakistan's power sector now generates about 8,000 MW, with needs estimated at 15,000. A “100-day roadmap” for the energy sector, due to be unveiled by Sharif on June 5, and made available to Reuters, also calls for an overhaul of a decades-old system of subsidies that is considered one of the root causes of the crisis. That, alongside a promised push to tackle electricity theft and a growing mountain of unpaid electricity bills, can set the new government on a collision course with the country's rich and influential elite. The incoming government's response is to pick competent managers to run power distribution companies and give them revenue and other performance targets. — Agencies
