Free electricity: Omar Ayub reacts to Punjab CM's announcement

ISLAMABAD: Former Federal Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Omar Ayub Khan has criticised the Punjab chief minister’s announcement of free electricity, terming it ‘a total gimmick’, ARY News reported on Monday.

Taking to Twitter, the PTI leader said that [CM] Hamza Shehbaz’s announcement of waving 100 units consumers’ power bills is a total gimmick, adding that it was announced to influence the 20 constituencies election in Punjab on July 17th.

They r not paying the Power Producers & hence the Load Shedding. As the Govt does not have the ability to pay the subsidy, a reduction in rev will have to be met through increased Load Shedding. Punjab should brace itself for increased Load Shedding. This Govt is a Circus. 2/2

— Omar Ayub Khan (@OmarAyubKhan) July 4, 2022

Further criticising the announcement, Omar Ayub said: “The [Punjab government] will have to pay Rs160 billion as subsidy,” claiming that the ‘imported’ regime was begging the International Monetary Fund (IMD) for a tranche.

He claimed that the government was not paying that Power Producers, which results in the loadshedding. “As the [government] does not have the ability to pay the subsidy, a reduction in [revenue] will have to be met through increased load shedding,” he added.

The former federal minister also warned of more power outage, terming the provincial government a ‘circus’.

Earlier in the day, Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz announced to provide free electricity to households that consumed 100 units per month in the last six months.

Addressing a press conference in Lahore, the Punjab Chief Minister announced that the provincial government will bear the power cost of households that consume up to 100 units of electricity in a month.