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Sunday, July 14, 2013
Tempers run high over worsening energy crisis* KP CM calls for protest against hours-long load shedding; tells PML-N to ensure just distribution
* PPP says load shedding increased despite payment of Rs 300bn
PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Saturday warned the PML-N-led government in the Centre to justly distribute electricity among provinces; otherwise he would lead a protest against power cuts.
According to media reports, the chief minister said that the people of Kyhber Pakhtunkhwa were being discriminated against with regard to distribution of electricity. He said that such an injustice to the people of his province was intolerable. Separately, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Syed Naveed Qamar asked the government to explain as to where more than Rs 300 billion, paid to power producers to clear the circular debt, have disappeared as load shedding has increased in the country. In a statement, he said that the government had claimed that the power situation would improve within days of making the payment “but despite the passage of several weeks and pumping in of hundreds of billions of borrowed money it had further deteriorated”.
He said the deteriorating power situation should serve as an eye-opener for rulers and they should realise the reality that the crisis “cannot be resolved by robbing people… it calls for rooting out the causes of circular debt”.
Qamar said that frustrated by increasing load shedding, the All Pakistan Textiles Mills Association (APTMA) had issued a fact sheet that showed that the power crisis had worsened. Qamar said that the basic issue was the huge difference between the production cost and the price at which power was sold. “If electricity continues to be produced at over Rs 14 a unit and sold at about Rs 9 per unit the problem will persist,” he said.
Qamar said that even if the circular debt was cleared now, it would crop up again unless the basic structural issues were addressed. He said that as the power policy was now being manipulated by power producers it was unlikely that the vested interest would permit addressing the fundamental issues in power sector.
Meanwhile, irked by unscheduled load shedding, people in various cities took to the streets and demonstrated against the government for making false claims.
Demonstrations were held in Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Karachi, Multan, Sargodha, Sanghar and Sialkot.
The enraged citizens were of the view that the duration of load shedding has increased during the holy month of Ramazan although the government had announced that there would be no power cuts during sehr and iftar. In Multan, the protesters first surrounded the MEPCO office in Pak Gate area and later vandalised the building and torched the furniture there. An angry mob also blocked Lahore-Sheikhupura Road and chanted anti-government slogans. staff report/agencies
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk