Regrets power plants are closed due to shortage of gas
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that the country is facing loadshedding due to the gross mismanagement and incompetence of previous government, expressing the commitment to address the situation at the earliest.
Speaking in the National Assembly on Saturday, the Prime Minister said he has held several meetings with the Ministries of Petroleum, Power and the Finance in the last few days and the situation is that the country has the capacity to generate thirty-five thousand megawatts of electricity. This is sufficient to meet our power requirements.
He, however, regretted that the power plants are closed due to shortage of gas. He pointed out that the previous government did not purchase the gas when it was available at the rate of three to four dollars per unit. He said today the gas price has reached thirty to thirty-five dollars per unit.
The Prime Minister recalled that the last government of PML-N had signed a gas import agreement with Qatar at a discounted rate, on which the previous government of PTI used to raise fingers.
Shehbaz Sharif said that he visited the Rawal Chowk flyover project Saturday morning which had to be completed in twenty-four months at a cost of one billion rupees.
He said we completed several such projects in Punjab in a matter of seventy-two to eighty-two days.
Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, who was chairing the session before administering oath to the new Speaker, confirmed that Qasim Khan Suri has tendered resignation from the seat of Deputy Speaker.
Hence, he said, there is no need to take up the no confidence motion against him which is on the agenda of the day. Shehbaz said that about 6,000 MW 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 that could produce about 5,000 MW 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, he added.
Shehbaz maintained the former government did not give priority to such projects due to their incompetency, corruption and mismanagement. 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.
