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Ambitious plan launched to tackle power shortages
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Thursday announced a radical plan to tackle the debilitating energy shortages, including extending the weekend and banning all-night wedding parties.
Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf announced the measures after the energy conference.
Daily power cuts hit homes throughout the country, with some in rural areas without electricity for most of the day, fuelling discontent, crippling industry and triggering violent protests.
Pakistan is able to produce only about 80 percent of its required electricity, officials have said, a crisis blamed on soaring demand, debt, a lack of investment, corruption and a creaking distribution system.
A raft of new measures, effective immediately, was announced after a meeting chaired by the prime minister, who said the plan would save 500 megawatts of electricity per day across the country.
"Never before in the history of Pakistan has such a conference been held with participation of all provincial chief ministers and other stakeholders, showing that all are on board to resolve the energy crisis," Gilani said.
In an effort to curb electricity usage, markets will be ordered to close at 8:00pm, government offices banned from using air conditioning before 11:00am, and lavish wedding celebrations ordered to last no more than three hours.
Pakistan's official weekend will be extended from one to two days -- Saturday and Sunday -- while neon signs and brightly-lit billboards would also be banned, said Raja Parvaiz Ashraf, minister for water and power.
"The decisions will be reviewed by July 30 to see impact of the measures," he told a news conference.
The power quota to Karachi from Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) has been slashed by 300 Megawatts from 650 MWs, he said adding now Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) will receive only 350 MWs.
The government hopes the drastic measures will help calm nationwide dissent over the energy shortages.
Pakistanis have been pouring on to the streets almost daily across the country to protest the power cuts, burning tyres, blocking roads and pelting police with stones in increasingly disruptive demonstrations.
Courtesy www.Geo.tv