PESHAWAR: Twenty nine police stations and over 60 checkposts in Peshawar are guilty of power theft, claimed a source in the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda). The latter is helpless in the face of the powerful police 'kunda mafia' (power theft).

Peshawar's police force is indebted to Wapda for Rs15 million. The debtors include both ordinary and model police stations that were established by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government in Gulbahar, Faqirabad and Town areas within the city.

When these figures were brought to the attention of Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Operations Dr Mian Saeed, he acknowledged the crime and said that electricity of all police stations would be legalised shortly once sufficient data concerning power theft by the police had been collected.

Police stations in Peshawar, from the ordinary to the model stations, are openly engaging in electricity theft.

Pakistan faces a year-round electricity shortfall which rises to around 8,000-9,000MW in the summer. In light of these figures, electricity theft may be viewed as a serious crime.

The government has deemed the matter pressing enough to pass legislation and presidential ordinances targeting it.

Suggesting fines and jail time are well and good, but the reality of the matter is that these laws and regulations seem to have been instated only for ordinary citizens to adhere to — as is evident from the conduct of the Peshawar police.

According to a survey conducted by DawnNews, most police stations in Peshawar are openly involved in power theft. This is popularly done through one of the following three methods:

• Stealing power directly from main electricity lines
• Using a 'kunda'
• Indirectly by means of passing a 'kunda' connection through electricity metres

Citizens of Peshawar are open in their criticism of the provincial government and police for their part in the institutionalisation of power theft.

Iftikhar, 35, says: "We are paying for theft which we don't commit."

Also read: Nepra saves power consumers from additional Rs417b burden

Afia Malik, a researcher at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, documented the energy crisis in Pakistan in an edited volume produced by the Lahore School of Economics. She tabulated the stubbornly prevalent high rates of transmission and distribution (T&D) losses across Pakistan.

She found that the highest rates for T&D losses were recorded for power distribution companies in Sindh and KP.

Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) in KP reported T&D losses of 36 per cent in 2011/12, whereas Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) reported T&D losses of 29.7 per cent.

Find out more: Ending power theft

Power theft has remained a bone of contention between the federal and provincial governments for years.

The federal government accuses the KP government for not taking decisive action against the power 'kunda mafia' in the province.