ISLAMABAD: Opposition Leader in Senate Sherry Rehman on Wednesday slammed the government over deteriorating power situation in the country while Minister of State for Power Abid Sher Ali claimed that the current government had added 13000 MW to the national grid and that there was no load shedding anywhere in the country right now.“The government talks about the sanctity of vote but has provided no relief to the people of Pakistan. We have been hearing promises since 2013 that load shedding will end once and for all. They ran their campaign on this promise. Yet, here we are living in an era of brutally long hours of unannounced load shedding,”Senator Sherry Rehman said while speaking over a calling attention notice in the Upper House of parliament.Highlighting the consequences of major power cuts in the country, she said, “Pakistan is suffering due to this excessive load shedding. I have been told that power shortfall is around 7000 MW to 8000 MW.”
Minister of State for Power Abid Sher Ali assured the House that no load shedding would be observed during Sehar and Iftar in the holy month of Ramzan. He said today electricity generation stands at 19,300 megawatts, which is equal to the demand. He said 3500 megawatts of additional electricity would be added to the system as a result of power projects being set up by the government. He also sought cooperation of the provincial governments against electricity theft in the country.
Responding to another calling attention notice, Minister for State for Finance Rana Afzal said that an amount of Rs21.9 million of the Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) would be paid soon. He claimed that the EOBI funds were transferred to Pakistan Baitul Mal and Climate Change Ministry during the PPP tenure. The notice was presented by PPP Senator Raza Rabbani.
The Senate also continued discussion on the budgetary proposals for the next fiscal year.Participating in the debate, Talha Mehmood said industrial sector should be revamped to strengthen economy of the country. He said that increase in salary of government employees didn’t match the increase in prices, which eventually leads to corruption in government departments.
Published in Daily Times, May 10th 2018.
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