Loadshedding to be reduced to 3.5 hours from tomorrow: Shahid Khaqan  

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has announced that the power loadshedding would be reduced to 3.5 hours from Tuesday (tomorrow), ARY News reported on Monday.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad flanked by federal ministers, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that the country’s electricity demand has exceeded 25,000MW.

He pointed out that when the current government assumed charge, the electricity generation capacity was at 17,000MW which was increased to more than 21,000MW.

“Today we are producing 21,000MW and there is still a shortfall of 4,000 MW,” he said, adding that as a result, the authorities had to opt for a four-hour loadshedding across the country.

The former premier said that from Tuesday, there will only be 3.5 hours of power outages in the country and from June 16, the period would be reduced to three hours. “By June 30, the duration will be less than two hours,” he added.

Shahid Khaqan noted that the coalition government was not interested in making excuses and was focused on fixing the issues plaguing the country.

He also criticised the PTI government, claiming that not a single megawatt of energy was inducted into the national grid during the PTI government. “There is a long story of negligence,” Khaqan added.

In response to a question, the former premier said that the government was not receiving any tax on petrol and it is being sold at the purchasing rate. “We’re hopeful the rates in international markets will reduce and it will impact the local market too,” he added.