PM takes notice of Dargai incident

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif showed his annoyance over the Dargai incident where people resorted to violence in protest against electricity loadshedding and directed the authorities concerned to provide the maximum relief to the people.

Meanwhile, the opposition members from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa protested in the National Assembly against the power outages in some parts of the province. Meanwhile, Minister for Water and Power made a telephonic contact with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and discussed with him the power supply situation.

The prime minister expressed displeasure over the ongoing loadshedding schedule in some parts of the country and directed the authorities concerned to ensure minimum loadshedding of electricity during the Holy month of Ramazan. 

The prime minister was chairing the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCE) here Monday.  The prime minister, who wasn’t satisfied with the briefing given to him regarding the situation, again convened the meeting of the CCE today (Tuesday). 

Chairing another meeting, Prime Minster Nawaz directed the relevant authorities to adhere to the timelines of the development projects without compromising on the transparency and quality of the work. 

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who had hectic back-to-back meetings the whole day dealing with various departments impressed upon the need to ensure transparency in the work. 

Addressing the CCE, the prime minister emphasised a proactive and solution-oriented approach by all the departments with the aim to provide maximum relief to the power consumers in summer season. He said the government was fully cognizant of the problems being faced by the masses due to power shortage and would not rest till a significant relief was provided to them. 

It was informed that by March 2018, a total of additional 9,107MW power would be available in the transmission system provided that the timelines were met. Water and Power Secretary Yusuf Nasim Khokhar briefed the meeting on implementation status of previous decisions taken by CCE, current load management plan, circular debt, transmission and distribution of electricity from upcoming power projects and status of utilisation of the idle power plants. The CCE was informed that Bhikki and Haveli Bhadur Shah plants were facing normal mechanical problems in some of their turbines which were being resolved. The prime minister directed the authorities concerned to complete repair work at the earliest.

It was informed that a special committee in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources was working on chalking out a balanced conversion plan from conventional fuels to LNG. It was further informed that monitoring of power generation and distribution systems was being undertaken regularly with physical and field monitoring of 270 projects.

Regular meetings are being held with CEOs of Discos to resolve operational issues. Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi briefed the CCE regarding new gas transmission pipelines being built for LNG from Karachi to Lahore. The CCE expressed satisfaction over the pace of work on gas pipelines.

The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and other senior officials. 

While chairing meeting to review progress on developmental projects particularly roads and motorways across the country and metro linking new Islamabad airport with the twin-cities directed the authorities concerned to adhere to the timelines of the development projects without compromising on the transparency and quality of the work. 

Director General FWO Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal, Chairman NHA Chaudhary Shahid Ashraf Tarrar briefed the prime minister regarding progress on various roads and motorway projects being undertaken across the country. The prime minister said that roads and motorways would help in boosting the economy of Pakistan by providing access of far-flung areas to urban centers besides generating employment opportunities. 

The meeting was also attended by Sheikh Ansar Aziz, Mayor of Islamabad who discussed with the prime minister the projects and problems regarding the federal capital.