Khawaja Asif says nation suffering due to negligence of former govt

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif on Wednesday said that the federal government being blamed for the heatwave deaths in Karachi is unjust as actually the entire nation is suffering due to the criminal negligence of the former government.

Asif went on to say that since the start of Ramazan, power crisis has created unrest all over the country.

As the minister was continuing to address the National Assembly session today, the opposition chanted slogans to which the minister responded by saying, “They are about to face load-shedding themselves.”

The Minister for Water and Power further said that K-Electric owes Rs. 57 billion to various institutions, adding that it is provided 650 MW from the national grid.

Asif also claimed that, “K-Electric takes cheap electricity from us and earns profit on it.”

The minister went on to say that no load shedding is being carried out during Sehr and Iftar timings, as per the promise made by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

He said that the total generation currently stands at 13184 MW against the demand of 16645 MW. He added that currently there is a gap of 3000 MW and in such a situation un-announced load shedding is not carried out.

He further said that five hour load shedding is being carried out in the urban areas and eight hours in rural areas.

Asif said that the government has started several power projects to cope with the energy crisis. He said that 14000 to 15000 MW of electricity will be added in the national grid by 2018; 1020 MW will be added to the system in 2015-16, 4692 MW in 2016-17 and 5142 MW in 2018.

He also said that an additional 3600 MW will be generated through LNG, adding that contract for import of LNG with Qatar has not yet been signed but it will be below 14 percent of the Brent. He assured that Pakistan will import the LNG at the lowest rate in Asia which will help save the country billions of rupees.

The Minister for Water and Power further said massive investment is also being made to improve the transmission system in order to provide uninterrupted electricity to the consumers. He said three grid stations of 500 KV and 11 grid stations of 220 KV are being set up in the country.