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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif Saturday said that country had the capacity of 35,000 MW of power generation, but due to incompetency and mismanagement of the Imran Khan government country is facing the load shedding.
Addressing in National Assembly, the premier said that the closure of different power-producing plants, run on gas and oil caused different parts of the country had been facing load shedding.
Criticizing his predecessor, the prime minister said the former government was indifferent to the public issues, calling them ‘stone-hearted’. The country had the capacity to power production, but the former incompetent government had brought disasters in every sector of life.
He said that about 6,000 MW of hydel power could be generated which was linked to the melting of glaciers and the availability of water but unfortunately, the CPEC coal-based plants and the new LNG plants could produce about 5,000 MW of power, including the one set up during 2019, with a capacity to generate 1250 MW, had been closed for the last four years. It could not produce the power during the previous government.
The PTI government did not give priority to such projects due to their incompetency, corruption, and mismanagement, he added.
He said the prices of LNG import had surged manifold and now, it stood around 30-35 dollars per unit. During 2015-16, the previous government of PML-N had reached an agreement with Qatar for the import of LNG and if it had not been done, what would have happened now!
The new plants could not generate power due to the unavailability of gas or expensive oil. The ministries concerned apprised him that they could not finalize the import of LNG as no one in the previous government was ready to supervise such projects.
The prime minister also appreciated the Emir of Qatar’s personal intervention to provide LNG at a discounted price.
The prime minister, however, assured us that they have been trying to resolve the serious issues on a priority basis. He informed that he had held a number of meetings with the ministries concerned.
The prime minister also congratulated the newly elected Speaker of the National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and expressed the hope that he would uphold the constitution and sanctity of the parliament.
