ISLAMABAD: In a move to facilitate the public, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday announced an end to power outages across the country from May 1.
Sharif declared that the government had operationalised 20 out of 27 power producers which he claimed were shut down for a year.
Chairing a high-level meeting to devise a policy to address the shortage, he said the step was an “Eid ul-Fitr gift” for the public who had been suffering power outages in summers.
The prime minister directed the authorities concerned to resolve all the issues pertaining to load-shedding by April 30 so as to ensure a smooth and uninterrupted power supply to consumers.
He stressed establishing an integrated and sustainable fuel system to meet the requirements of power generation and also a plan keeping in view the hot season in particular.
Sharif called for a long-term effective plan to eliminate the loss of feeders of the power distribution companies.
He took notice of the complaints of artificial shortage of diesel during harvesting and directed the relevant authorities to identify the perpetrators and ensure strict action.
The prime minister emphasised an uninterrupted supply of diesel to farmers to run agricultural machinery and urged the district administration in rural areas to facilitate the farmers.
The meeting was briefed that the re-operationalisation of the 20 power plants had increased power generation. It was claimed that the previous government did not purchase fuel for power plants in four years which led to load-shedding.
However, the government of Sharif within two weeks managed the availability of fuel besides increasing the capacity of electricity generation.
It was informed that the total power generation in the country was about 18,500 megawatts while the shortfall was between 500 to 2,000 megawatts.
The prime minister was also briefed in detail about the loss-making feeders of the distribution companies.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and senior officials.
Sharif, soon after assuming the office, had ordered to operationalise power plants in the country that were shut down due to lack of fuel or other technical glitches.
He had also ordered to address other causes of load-shedding including negligence in timely repair and lack of maintenance of power plants.
New energy minister promises to address loadshedding issue before May 1Â
Federal Minister for Energy Engineer Khuram Dastgir on Tuesday said the government would address the issue of load shedding before Eid.
Talking to a private news channel, he said load shedding issue aroused due to mismanagement and not paying attention to this sector during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.
He said the country had capacity to produce 36,000 Mega Watt electricity and 25,000 was requird of the country.
The minister said the present government under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif would make all out efforts to reduce all the national issues with consensus.
He said the previous government had destroyed the all national institutions and badly damaged the roots of the foreign policy.
He strongly condemned the Karachi terrorist attack and he expressed grief and sorrow over the tragic incident in which several people had lost their lives.
He also expressed sympathies with the bereaved families, adding the government would treat the responsible with iron hands and they could not escape from the law of the land.
