No load-shedding from 6pm to 4am in 90% areas across country: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Tuesday claimed that there had been no load-shedding in 90 per cent areas across the country from 6pm to 4am.

Addressing a news conference about energy projects here, the prime minister claimed that the incumbent government had added 10,000 megawatts (MWs) of electricity to the national grid.

He said that 35 percent surplus electricity, amounting to 6,000MWs, had been produced in 2018, noting that the country has the capacity to produce 28,400MWs electricity.

The premier, however, had an argument with journalists over their queries regarding continuing power outages.

PM Abbasi said that newsmen should ask questions instead of delivering a lecture. At this, a reporter told the prime minister that he was going home after completing his term and that they were not sending him.

After listening to the journalist's objection, Abbasi apologised to newsmen over his sentence.

While the incumbent government has claimed to have eliminated the electricity crisis, the country has suffered from intermittent load shedding.

Earlier this month, on May 16, power supply to several cities, including Lahore, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Swat, Multan, Bahawalpur, and Muzaffargarh, had remained suspended for several hours.

The breakdown resulted from tripping of Guddu-Muzaffargarh power line, which led to faults at Tarbela and Guddu power stations, as well as other power plants.

The Federal Secretary of Power Division Yousuf Naseem Khokhar on May 18 had taken a leave from office amid the major power crisis across the country.