ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that thecountry is facing loadshedding due to the gross mismanagement and incompetence of previous government, expressing the commitment to address the situation at the earliest.
Speaking in the National Assembly on Saturday, the Prime Minister said he has held several meetings with the Ministries of Petroleum, Power and the Finance in the last few days and the situation is that the country has the capacity to generate thirty five thousand megawatt of
electricity. This is sufficient to meet our power requirements.
He however regretted that the power plants are closed due to shortage of gas. He pointed out that the previous government did not purchase the gas when it was available at the rate of three to four dollars per unit. He said today the gas price has reached thirty to thirty five dollars per unit.
The Prime Minister recalled that the last government of PML (N) had signed a gas import agreement with Qatar at a discounted rate, on which the previous government of PTI used to raise fingers.
Shehbaz Sharif said that he visited the Rawal Chowk flyover project this morning which had to be completed in twenty four months at a cost of one billion rupees. He said we completed several such projects in Punjab in a matter of seventy two to eighty two days.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that country had the capacity of 35,000 MW of power
generation, but due to the closure of different power-producing plants, run on gas and oil, different parts of the country had been facing load shedding for the last few days.
The prime minister said that about6,000 MW hydel power could be generated which was linked to the melting of glaciers and the availability of water.
But unfortunately, the CPEC coal-based plants and the new LNG plants that could produce about 5,000 MW power, including the one set up during 2019, with a capacity to generate 1250 MW, had been closed for the last four years. It could not produce the power during the previous government.
The prime minister referred to the slow-paced construction work on Rawal Chowk flyover in Islamabad said that the project despite a clear deadline for its completion within two years, had been stalled, multiplying public and motorists’ woes.
The contract was awarded to a black-listed company by the PTI’s government which had been penalized in the past. He said in Punjab province, they had delivered such like projects within 72 days.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday strongly condemned PTI/PML-Q led attack on the deputy speaker of Punjab Assembly, terming it a ‘blatant display of violence and hooliganism’.
In a tweet, the prime minister said that such an incident reflected Imran Khan’s desperation and incitement to violence which was rupturing the society. The former prime minister was attacking the democracy itself, he opined.
“PTI/PML-Q MPAs attack on Dy Speaker inside Punjab Assembly must be condemned in strongest terms possible. This blatant display of violence & hooliganism is fascism, pure & simple. IK’s desperation & incitement to violence is rupturing our society. He is attacking democracy itself,” he posted on his Twitter handle.
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday reiterated to further strengthen and deepen the close fraternal ties between Pakistan and Qatar.
The prime minister was reciprocating a felicitation message of Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdul Aziz al-Thani who congratulated him on taking oath of the office of the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
The prime minister said the two brotherly countries enjoyed closer ties based upon deep and historic friendship, trust and cooperation, adding such a friendship had been a precious asset for them.
