F.P. Report
PESHAWAR: Adviser to the Prime Minister for Political and Public Affairs, Engr Amir Muqam here Friday that the Imran Khan Government was responsible for the prevailing energy crisis and hike of petroleum products in the country.
Addressing a press conference after attending a high-level meeting on energy shortfall at Pesco headquarters here, Amir Muqam said that Imran government had signed agreements with IMF and agreed to withdraw subsidies on the petroleum products and added that present government was left with no other options but to abide by these agreements in order to prevent the country from bankruptcy.
He said Imran Govt had intentionally delayed withdrawal of subsidies on petroleum and electricity after knowing that the days of his rule was numbered and left economic landmines for the present government. Muqam said PMLN led Government was well aware of people’s concerns over recent increase in petroleum products, adding today the entire nation was paying the heavy price of the ill-planned policies and agreements of the Imran Khan Govt.
“PTI Chairman is responsible for the prevailing price-hike, increase in petroleum products and long hours power outages besides economic quagmire in the country.” He said load shedding in Khyber Pakthunkhwa was due to gap between energy’s demand and supply as a result of shortage of water in dams. He said demands of energy in Khyber Pakthunkhwa were increased by 35 percent this year, which had put additional burden on the power system. Engr Amir Muqam said hydel generation was affected due to decrease of water in hydropower projects due to slow melting of glaciers and lack of rains. “Last year, our hydel generation was recorded to be about 6,000MW while today it was only 4,000MW due to slow melting of glaciers in mountains areas of Pakistan,’ he said.
He expressed the hope that hydel generation would reach 5,500MW after an increase of water in Turbela dam and 900MW of the Port Qasim project that would increase electricity supply to Khyber Pakthunkhwa. The PM adviser said politics on load-shedding should not be made for political gains and clarified that no one can dare to deny provincial rights to KP under PMLN Government as his politics revolved around rights and welfare of people of the province.
He raised a question on the poor performance of PTI government in the energy sector, adding that how many megawatt electricity was generated during nine years rule in KP and four years of Imran Khan Govt. Amir Muqam said the country would have plunged into darkness today had Nawaz Sharif Govt not added 1200MW electricity to the national grid during 2013-18. Terming KP budget as jugglery of words, he said that how can KP Govt claims that its budget was self reliant when it was receiving about 70percent funds from the federal government. He claimed the PTI Govt had taken 100percent more loans in its nine years rule that was unprecedented in the entire history of Pakistan.
To a question, he said the rising number of forest fires incidents has raised many doubts in minds of people about transparency and the number of trees planted under billion trees project. He said such a high number of forest fire incidents were not reported in the past and demanded an impartial inquiry of these forests fires incidents. He said the Federal Govt had offered discounted wheat flour to the KP Government but it was not reciprocated well by PTI leadership.
He said in line with the Prime Minister’s directives, flour supply at an affordable rate was started in Khyber Pakthunkhwa besides an increase of flour stock at Utility Stores in KP. Muqam said Imran Khan’s Sunday agitation call would face the same fate as his flopped long march call on May 25. He said work on gas and power projects were smoothly underway in Khyber Pakthunkhwa and transformers based politics were being discouraged as it was not the property of PTI or any other political party but of people.
Muqam accused PTI Govt for its lackluster approach towards development of merged tribal districts and poor utilization of development funds. Earlier Muqam while presiding over a high level meeting at PESCO headquarter directed the officials that unannounced load shedding was unacceptable and strict action would be taken against officials involved in unannounced load shedding. He said an information centre has been opened at PESCO headquarters for assistance of consumers and registration of complaints for prompt actions. He directed PESCO authorities to replace the old electricity wires in Peshawar with cable wire to prevent power stealing and electricity related incidents.
