A rip-off?

The report that the Water and Power Development Authority has sought a five- fold increase in hydel power tariff with immediate effect has caused a lot of confusion in the relevant quarters, while consumers across the country feel slummed.

As it is, the cost of producing power from Tarbela has been almost zero for years now. If the cost of Mangla is added, it is said to go up to 13 paisas per unit, and the recently built Ghazi Barotha is said to be producing power at 58 paisas per unit.

This means the average cost per hydel unit is no more than 23 paisas. One is horrified to know that Wapda has arrived at a figure of Rs1.169 - almost five times more than the seeming cost.

Without this, Wapda thinks it cannot survive. At the same time, Wapda demands that the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) pay the entire tariff in the form of a "capacity price" at Rs525 per kilowatt.

This would cost the NTDC as much as Rs22 billion per month. This appears to be a broad daylight rip-off. What Wapda is trying to do here is to make the consumer pay for even those winter months when water availability will be very low for producing any significant amount of power.

The NTDC buys power in bulk from various sources, including Wapda and pays different tariffs to different suppliers. But, while selling it wholesale to distribution companies, the NTDC charges average tariffs, and these average tariffs would certainly get swollen unjustifiably because of the distortions caused by capacity tariff on hydel power. Ultimately it is the consumer who suffers.

It is unfortunate that the Wapda proposal should have come at a time when a task force set up by the prime minister to find ways and means for reducing power tariff has actually submitted a number of positive proposals.

Also, the chairman of this committee is said to have described the Wapda proposal as absolutely undesirable and highly detrimental to consumer interest, as it would, in his opinion, take away the advantage of cheap hydel power and raise the average tariff considerably.

There is certainly a case for rationalizing the power tariff to reduce its burden on the domestic, commercial and industrial consumers. During the 1980s, successive governments kept increasing the power tariff on the grounds that the government was obliged to do so under a convention signed with the World Bank which was making concessional finances available to Pakistan to expand its power generation capacity.

However, while the power tariff kept increasing, the generation capacity continued to decline in relation to the expanding needs, and by the late 1980s Pakistan was facing severe and extended power breakdowns, forcing the country to close down its economic wheels almost for half the year - year after year. This situation forced the then government to set up costly thermal power stations, and that too in the private sector.

During the last seven years, Wapda's excuse for pushing up the tariffs at the drop of a hat was the front-loaded debt repayment arrangement with the sponsors of these private power producers.

Now that this excuse too is about to vanish, Wapda appears to have come up with a new one to cover up its inefficiency and corruption. The National Electric and Power Regulatory Authority would be well advised to take a thorough look at the relevant petition and point out the absurdity of the proposal to Wapda.

US rights abuses

The conduct of US forces in Afghanistan has again come in for some harsh criticism, and this time the reprimand has come from closer home. New York-based Human Rights Watch has issued a damning indictment of widespread abuses by American soldiers in Afghanistan, so much so that the country seems to be an extension of Camp X-ray at Guantanamo Bay.

American forces are on the hunt for Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants, but this has led to many instances of innocent Afghans being detained for long periods without being told what crime they have committed.

The rights watchdog says that Afghan civilians are being held in a "legal black hole" with detainees not being allowed access to lawyers and given the right to defend themselves in a court of law. Those who were eventually released after wrongful confinement have complained of being severely tortured by the Americans.

This is distressing on several counts. First, it is a reminder again of just how much power Mr Karzai and his government actually wield in Afghanistan. Second, this is not good even from America's point of view.

An Afghan who is kept in detention without charges and then released after being tortured will have cause to be angry at what he will perceive to be a pro-US government and its lack of authority in the matter.

Third, it certainly does not bode well for Mr Karzai's authority that he has foreign soldiers running around in his country's village conducting arbitrary arrests and keeping them in confinement.

If the government in Kabul is serious about asserting its authority then it will have to sort out this matter with the Americans. The US government for its part could begin by asking their man in Afghanistan to conduct inquiries and punish soldiers who overstep their authority.

If it cannot see the logic in abandoning such negative tactics altogether then it should at the very least set limits on the period of detention and allow detainees access to legal aid.

Capital police revamp

One hopes that the big dose of money the Islamabad police are slated to get will have a salutary effect on their performance. One is appalled to know that at present 61 per cent of the Capital's police force is engaged in security duties.

Along with the doubling of the force's current budget from Rs650 million to Rs1.238 billion, the government intends to divide the Capital police into two branches comprising security and investigation operations.

Each branch will have its own SSP and IG. To achieve this goal, the Security Guards Division will consist of approximately 5,000 men as opposed to 4,000 personnel in the investigation division.

Those in the former category will be granted one extra basic salary per month, whereas only half of the investigation division force - to be selected annually in accordance with a set of prescribed criteria - will be entitled to this benefit.

Given the fact that there have been two attempts on the life of President Musharraf, one hopes that the Capital police will attain high professional standards and be a source of inspiration to police elsewhere in the country.

Providing security to the VIPs is only a small part of the duty; the real job of any police force is to give a sense of security to the people and control and detect crime.

Islamabad also needs a better traffic control system, especially when it comes to checking reckless driving. Last but not least, the Capital police should see to it that its attempts to provide security to the VIPs should not be at the cost of inconvenience to the rest of the city.

Cordoning off roads to allow the VIP cavalcades to pass should not be done in a manner that causes other vehicular traffic to remain stranded for hours on end.