Gas, electricity load-shedding happening because of PTI’s incompetence, greed: Shahbaz – Press Release

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PML-N President and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif has said that the masses have to face problems of electricity and gas load-shedding because of PTI’s “incompetence and greed for money,” Geo News reported Sunday.

According to the report, in his statement, Shahbaz expressed concern over the disruption in the supply of gas to industries and the CNG sector and said that it is, indeed, “bad news for the nation.”

Shahbaz said that the “never-ending problem” of electricity and gas load-shedding has been going on for the last few months, which is a sign of mismanagement on part of the government.

He said that the government’s claim that the PML-N had produced more electricity than required during its tenure has been proven false, adding that time has shown how the PML-N had increased the power generation capacity keeping in view the needs of the country. 

Last week, Shahbaz had said that the PTI-led government had subjected the masses to the curse of electricity load-shedding.

“There can be no greater crime than this,” Shahbaz had said while addressing a press conference in Lahore along with other PML-N leaders.

“When in power, the PML-N took measures to completely eliminate the problem of electricity load-shedding. As against that, the entire nation has been subjected to the curse of load-shedding by the PTI once again,” he had said. “There can be no greater crime than this.”

‘Don’t mislead people,’ Hammad Azhar 

In response to the comments, Energy Minister Hammad Azhar told Shahbaz that he should “not mislead people” with his statements, adding that electricity load-shedding takes place not because of a shortage in production but owing to the weaknesses of the transmission system.

“For several days, we have been successfully delivering 24,000 megawatts of electricity to the masses,” Azhar had said, adding that Pakistan’s average power consumption is 16,000 MW.

He criticised the previous PML-N government and said that while it sings praises for its initiatives, it installed power plants that run on imported fuel, incurring additional costs.

“If the PML-N had made cheap deals, why did the circular debts increase by Rs1,200 billion?” Azhar questioned.

Refuting PML-N’s claim that people are suffering from excessive load-shedding, Azhar maintained that he has discussed the situation with the National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC), adding that there will be no unannounced load-shedding anywhere in the country.

Taking a jibe at Shahbaz, Azhar said that ever since the government had stopped the PML-N leader from going to the UK, he seems to have been in a bad health condition.

“We are already dealing with the mess [the PML-N] made during its tenure. Kindly, do not further mislead people,” Azhar had said.

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