Panama Papers verdict to shatter evil designs of PTI: Abid

FAISALABAD: State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali on Saturday said the verdict on the Panama Papers case was expected very soon, which would shatter the evil designs of PTI Chairman Imran Khan

Talking to the media, he said Imran should cool down and prepare himself for the third marriage, instead of hatching conspiracies against the elected government of the PML-N.

Regarding former president Asif Ali Zardari, Abid said Zardari had failed to deliver in Sindh and was criticising the government just to cover up his own misdeeds.

He said the PPP didn’t have even any councillor in Punjab and Zardari should be worried about Sindh as PML-N was going to become the voice of the people of Sindh.

He said the government had performed well during the last three years and electricity was being provided to the industrial sector round-the-clock. He added that new transmission lines were also being laid to supply electricity from power houses to major load centres of the country.

Abid said loadshedding would be further reduced in the coming months with the increase in generation capacity and totally eliminated by next year except the areas where people did not pay the bills and there were high losses.

He said no forced loadshedding was being carried out in country. The country was facing power shortage of 2,000 to 3,000 megawatts, he added.

He recalled that there was 20 hours of power outages in the past and if the government had not taken steps then the situation would have been the same. Industries were totally exempted from loadshedding, Abid added.

He said 4,200 MW of electricity had been added to the system by the incumbent government and another 9,000 MW of electricity would be part of the national grid by March.

He said there was a shortfall of 800 MW in hydropower generation which 2,400 MW last year but currently stood at 1,600 MW. He added that the situation would improve in two to three weeks with the increase of water flow in rivers.

Abid also asked media to inquire from the distribution companies’ heads about the reasons behind outages.