The material presented in Chapter three provides extensive examples of how the themes of violence, rents, power, and personal relationships dominate the rules of the game in dealing with the state run electrical sector. Wealthy individuals, industries, and even other public sector organizations must all navigate the same waters in securing their electricity supply. In this section I supplement the observations in chapter three with some additional illustrations of how the world of formal rights and legal connections has much in common with the experience of the 44 quarter residents.
Industrial consumers are some of the most prized consumers for a distribution company to have as they are very easy to monitor and service. Zeeshan’s family own an industrial facility in one of Islamabad’s industrial sectors which his brother and he run on a daily basis. He has an Masters in Business Administration from the United States and is wealthy enough to drive a Land Rover. Zeeshan’s industrial facility is served by a legal connection and he has all the rights which come with that, but even in this situation his experience is that the formality of the relationship is not relevant:
“To have a relationship (taluqat) with a government officer here means that you are giving them money. Nothing else (Bus.)”
At every level they take money. To get a new connection you have to give money. Else you’ll wait 10 years. Since Pakistan was made, you have to pay to get work done. Everything’s foundation (bonyad) is money. They won’t do for you an unpermitted (najaiz) thing, but you have to pay for your rights.130
Zeeshan’s view is that one’s rights may or may not exist on paper, but it is money which determines whether you can enjoy those rights. As an industrialist, Zeeshan’s main concern
(along with cost) is the predictability of the electricity supply so that he can schedule his shifts, and it is on this topic he meets regularly with the IESCO staff. He needs their
cooperation for the success of his business, and in those relationships with IESCO officers he has to pay for the predictability of his supply.
When the house I lived in from 2008-‐2011 developed some electrical problems in 2010 I called the local sub-‐division office to register my complaint. This is an unremarkable suburban neighborhood where I rented the top half of a two story house. The residents of this neighborhood are typically college graduates, professionals with good salaries, and relatively well off. After six attempts over three days, I succeeded in having an IESCO lineman come to my house to look at the electrical problems. He found a loose connection in my distribution box and tightened it, but the problem reoccurred two days later. The following exchange is with Shahid, an electrician who had worked for me frequently and I had called over to look at the problem:
I called the electrician (Shahid) and told him the situation. I asked if it was something he could deal with or whether I should call WAPDA. He said he'd look at it.
When Shahid came he opened the door of the d-‐box to look inside. I told him not to do anything dangerous. There are three sets of wires there, but the ones running to my meter are much thinner (copper, not aluminium). He took a testing device of some sort out and checked that current was flowing -‐ it was. He then took a pliers and started pulling and twisting the top-‐most of the three cables (the loose one). I heard crackling and a thin wisp of smoke came up from the box, which Shahid then banged and kicked a few times.
'You can't work on a live system' I pleaded with Shahid. He replied that 'You can only work on it like this' and continued to poke and pull at the loose wires (with
continued smoke and sound effects) until the third phase light on the meter came on. Displeased with the result, he then undid the twists of wire with his pliers and redid them to his satisfaction (I was nervous and wanted him to stop, but thought better of interrupting him).
After he was done [with the repairs] Shahid asked me: 'What did the lineman do when he came?'
IN: 'He tightened the connection like you did, and then told me off for not doing it properly when it was originally connected. He said that I would have to get the proper connections put on.
Shahid: Everything after the meter is done by the electrician, everything before is WAPDA's responsibility. We aren't allowed to touch it. If I had dropped my pliers and it had touched two wires then the transformer back there could have blown up. IN: I asked if he could do it and he said that it was my responsibility to arrange for it, but that he could do the work for me if I wanted.
Shahid: He wanted to get some money from you. This is Pakistan. This is how things work here. Don't give him any money for this, or else he'll loosen it every time he goes by so that you'll call him and he can get a little more money for it. The thing to do is to call somebody higher in their office, explain the problem, and have them attend to it.131
The source of the fault is located in the distribution box. As Shahid states, that can only be attended to by the IESCO staff because any errors on Shahid’s part could have damaged equipment which served my neighbors as well as me. The lineman misinformed me in an effort to get some money from me. Shahid feared (rightly) that my naiveté would cost me money. Even though my relationship with IESCO is based on the formal rights of a contract for electricity supply, in practice those formal rules form the basis for transactions of favors, money, and power relations. To secure the electricity supply I needed, I employed a private contractor to do the work of the electricity company. The work was dangerous and
completely against IESCO rules, but the alternative was to pay the IESCO lineman to do the same task in his personal capacity even though it was actually in his official job description.