ISLAMABAD (APP): Federal Minister for Power Division Awais Leghari Wednesday said that the country is able to produce surplus electricity due to the efforts of the ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
“Pakistan is presently producing surplus electricity, thanks to the efforts of PML-N,” Leghari said while addressing a joint press conference today. “Only those suppliers that are distributing the utility at low prices will be included in the system.”
He further said that the efforts of his party had born fruit and the country had finally entered the ‘next stage’ where surplus production will be carried out through competitive bidding.
“Companies can now compete in the open market on tariffs of hydel production,” he said.
Taking a hit at PML-N’s political rival, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the federal minister said that the provincial government is responsible for the electricity load shedding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“Blame for electricity deficit in KP cannot be placed on the federal government.”
Earlier this month, Leghari had announced that the PML-N government had fulfilled its promise of producing surplus electricity in the country.
He had said that the overall electricity generation in the country had gone up to 16,477 megawatt, which was about 2700 megawatt more than the demand.
Leghari had stated that the country was producing only 9,279 megawatt electricity against the demand of 11,800 megawatt when the PML-N came into power in 2013 — an average shortfall of 2500 megawatt and almost eight to ten hours load-shedding.
He had announced that a maximum number of feeders across the country would be turned to zero load-shedding from December 4.
“There would be no load-shedding at 5,297 feeders out of total 8,600. Earlier, the number of feeders, where zero load-shedding was being observed, was only 326.”
Leghari had said that the ministry was focusing to enhance the performance of all the DISCOS and expressed the hope that there would be a revolutionary change in power distribution during next couple of months. He had also said a legislation was being made to overcome the issues of over-billing.
