PTI MNA censures govt for power outages, price-hike

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government faced wrath of its own parliamentarians in the National Assembly who criticised electricity load-shedding and over-billing in their constituencies and elsewhere in the country.

Noor Alam Afridi of the PTI said he wanted to tell the minister for power that many areas in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were facing shortage of over 20-hour outages on daily basis.

He pointed out that many areas, which in the past, were no-go areas for Wapda people, have now been provided electricity connections.

He said the ministers come and go but it should not mean that anybody should give wrong statement on the basis of briefings taken from their officials. “They have appointed unqualified superintendent to technical seats of SDOs. Then how they will perform,” Afridi said.

The PTI member said the people of those areas were receiving over-billing of Rs34 per unit, along with arrears. “Why they ask for arrears when there were no meters in the past,” he said.

He regretted that many areas in KP province including Mardan, Swabi, Quetta and all over Pakistan were overloaded, saying that he would talk about the whole country whether it is Sindh, Punjab or other provinces.

He said both price-hike and expensive electricity were two big menaces being faced by people of the country. He received applauder from the opposition members.

“Our voters abuse elected representatives when they have no electricity,” he said while calling the minister as his brother time and again.

“They will have to give electricity to people whether they belong to KP, Sindh or any other province; otherwise we will be compelled to launch protests,” he warned.

Noor Alam also demanded the prime minister come in the House to take them into confidence and they would not be satisfied with statement of the minister.

He said if the electricity distribution companies were under debt, then why employees from lineman to chief engineer are provided free electricity while senior officials fight over new vehicles.

Minister for Power Hammad Azhar, who looked upset with speech of his party’s member, said it was not Imran Khan or his government which were responsible for signing expensive power generation contracts, increase in circular debt and poor transmission.

He said it was not Imran Khan who recruited linemen and meter-readers on political basis.

He told the House that by 2023, the country would have 50 per cent more electricity generation than the country’s requirement, but the government would have to pay Rs1,500 billion per year for the whole electricity. “It was not Imran Khan who signed these expensive contracts,” he added.

The minister told Noor Alam Afridi that as the PTI leader, it was his responsibility that truth should be told to the House, but one should not criticise his own government for the sake of getting applause from the opposition benches.

He said the PTI government would improve the system and also reduce the circular debt to Rs250 billion which was increasing by over Rs400 billion every year.

He told the House that Karachi was also being provided another 550MW of electricity and situation was improving there.

Earlier, the PTI members Malik Anwar Taj from Charsadda and Sher Akbar Khan from Bunir also protested against electricity load-shedding in their constituencies.