PM Shehbaz Sharif holds PTI govt responsible for loadshedding

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has held Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government responsible for the loadshedding, saying that challenges were being faced in energy sector due to PTI’s bad policies, ARY News reported on Friday.

Addressing a meeting held to review measures to end power outages, PM Shehbaz said that ending loadshedding was the responsibility of the coalition government despite the inherited baggage of crisis from the previous government.

The prime minister reiterated that the government was focused on taking effective measures to ensure an uninterrupted supply of electricity to consumers.

He said the government was cognizant of the problems faced by the people during high mercury levels, adding that every effort would be made to address the genuine challenges.

PM Shehbaz mentioned that to resolve the problem, the government banned the import of machinery for raw materials and avoided the purchase of expensive gas.

The premier pointed out that the lack of maintenance of power plants during the tenure of the previous government resulted in power shortage.

He said quashing the transparent and cheap deal with Qatar for the supply of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) at a 13 percent rate in a period of 15 years was big negligence on part of the previous government.

Also, the prime minister said, despite commitment, the revolving account was not opened with China. He also regretted that during the last four years, the opportunity to buy cheap gas was deliberately missed.

He said the situation led to financial challenges and slowed down the pace of development in the country. vowing to overcome the crisis of power generation in the country by restoring the halted projects.

Earlier on June 29, it was reported that the electricity crisis in Pakistan had worsened as the power shortfall reached 7,000 megawatts (MW).

As per details, the country is facing unannounced load-shedding of 10-15 hours as the electricity shortfall has reached 7000MW. According to sources in the power division, the demand for electricity peaked at 29,000 MW against the available supply of 22,000 MW.