Task force reviewing IPPs system: Tarar

ISLAMABAD: Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Attaullah Tarar on Wednesday said a national task force was reviewing the whole system of Independent Power Plants (IPPs) to note which IPPs did not produce electricity and were getting capacity charges.

“Rest assured that all projects of K-Electric with regard to capacity payments will be reviewed and concerns of parliamentarians addressed,” Tarar said while responding to a calling attention notice in the National Assembly.

MQM MNA Aminul Haq said K-Electric over the time became a state within the state and did not follow any directives from the provincial government and Nepra. K-Electric has been following the practice of unnecessary loadshedding in the name of technical faults and bad weather. “Electricity disappears with the first drop of rain,” he said and questioned why K-Electric despite earning billions of rupees had not been able to increase its generation capacity.

MQM’s Moin Pirzada, while calling K-Electric ‘Katil Electric’, said around 700 deaths were reported due to loadshedding amid severe heat in Karachi.

Tarar said loadshedding had nothing to do with the generation capacity. Loadshedding is mostly caused by technical faults, electricity thefts and line losses. Other MQM members Nighat Shakeel and Ms Rana Ansar also called K-Electric a ‘white elephant’ and ‘dracula’. Nighat did not agree with Tarar that no deaths were reported due to electric shocks during rains in Karachi.