This year, I finally broke down and decided to get a backup generator for my home. The price of petrol is low enough that having a petrol run generator will not break the bank. So, here I was calling different people about the nitty-gritty of getting a generator when something happened that made me change my mind. A couple of weeks ago we had the cantonment area local government (LG) elections. On the same day, I had a family gathering at my home that was to occur between the afternoon and the evening prayers. Realising that load shedding occurs after 6.15 in the evening for an hour, I was in a bother about how to make sure that people would not get a bit hot at that time.I tried to plan everything so that by the time load shedding hit, most of the important stuff would have been done away with and food would be on the table. Later in the evening, I was complimented by many of the guests for getting things done on time. As I looked back, I realised that there had been no load shedding that evening and that was why everything had gone well. Clearly, the PML-N government had made sure that there would be no load shedding, at least in Lahore, while the voting was going on. As I dwelt on this fact, I also realised that within a few months there would be LG elections all over the country, including Punjab. And if load shedding persists or gets worse, then the PML-N could lose votes and even the elections. So, I am convinced that load shedding will get better during the months leading up to the elections. And that is why I have decided to delay buying a backup generator.No, I am not basing my entire belief about load shedding on just this isolated incident. A few weeks ago, on my way back from the US, I had a young man sitting next to me on the plane who happened to be a successful businessman from Sialkot. During our conversation he mentioned something rather interesting. He said that the Nandipur power plant was almost complete but suddenly all work on it had stopped. I decided to look up this plant on the internet. Wikipedia mentions that this plant is supposed to start work about now and that too on natural gas. A closed power plant a few miles from Lahore and a mysterious ship full of liquefied natural gas (LNG) floating in the Arabian Sea, and suddenly you can put two and two together and make 22. There was all this scuttlebutt about a ‘deal’ between somebody on our side and somebody on the other side to import LNG from Qatar. Even if we ignore those rumours about unnamed people making much money on that deal, we cannot ignore the timing of the arrival of this ship and the fact that the methodology of transporting this LNG to where it will be used has not been figured out as yet. It would seem that the import of LNG had to be pushed up because the courts insisted on early LG elections. The bottom line is that, however it can be done, the PML-N government, especially in Punjab, is going to try and cut down load shedding as much as possible during the months leading up to the LG elections. That, at least, is my opinion on this matter. And if things look up in this connection during the next few months then I might just break down and vote for the PML-N candidates from my area. If the scenario I present above is true, then there are some that might call it a conspiracy and they would be right. Contrary to common perception, all conspiracies are not necessarily evil. In this particular matter, if the PML-N is indeed ‘conspiring’ to ease up on load shedding in the months leading up to the LG elections, that might well be considered a good conspiracy. However, if the PML-N government could have alleviated the load shedding problem much earlier but delayed any relief to time it with the upcoming elections, that would be a bad conspiracy. If indeed the PML-N government is trying to provide load shedding relief, making public the details of such attempts would be quite all right. If things work out, people will appreciate that and if it does not work out but it seems that the government was indeed trying its best to do the right thing, that would not be all bad either. Here, as a superior conspiracy theorist, I must make a couple of things clear. First and foremost is the sad reality that most conspirators are by nature inept. This is a result of hiding things from others all the time to the point where they start hiding things from themselves. And, second, as has been repeatedly determined in US politics, a scandal or conspiracy is often not as politically damaging as the subsequent attempt at a ‘cover up’. The third thing to remember is that what is thought of as a conspiracy often just happens to be a bad or inadequately thought out plan. The planners are afraid to make the plan public in case the plan fails and the planners are held to public ridicule. We shall have to see whether there actually is a plan afoot to seriously alleviate load shedding in the months leading up to the LG elections. As far as my plans to delay the acquisition of a backup generator is concerned, if the PML-N government does not do the needful, I will just take the money I saved and add a bit more to it to a buy a plane ticket to the good old US and spend the really warm months where they have not heard of load shedding. The author is a former editor of the Journal of Association of Pakistani descent Physicians of North America (APPNA)