‘Hammad should step down after Tarin’s statement’

KARACHI: Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh has said the latest statement by Federal Finance Adviser Shaukat Tarin has supported the provincial government’s stance on the prevailing energy crisis in the country.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the provincial minister said the statement issued by the finance adviser in which he had conceded that there was a serious gas crisis in the country was in fact a charge-sheet against the performance and incompetence shown by Federal

Energy Ministry Hammad Azhar. The Sindh minister said the public exchequer of the country had come under irreparable loss to the tune of billions of dollars as the relevant federal authorities had failed to timely issue the tenders to purchase the Liquefied Natural Gas. He said the incumbent and former ministers of the federal government had continuously gave false statements on building new LNG terminals in the country.

Shaikh said that Federal Energy Minister Hammad Azhar should immediately step down while accepting his responsibility after the statement issued by the Finance Adviser, who had conceded the situation of serious gas shortfall in the country.

He said the public exchequer had to suffer a historical loss as the incumbent prime minister and his economic team had continuously been doing experiments to tackle the issue of the LNG purchase for the country. He said the citizens of the country had become the ultimate sufferers due to the constant experiment and incompetency shown by the present rulers who were not matured enough to handle the matters of governance.

Shaikh alleged that the influential mafias were part of the present federal government, which had vested interests that were considered more valuable and supreme than the national interest.

He lamented that the prime minister had ordered the Federal Investigation Agency to hold an inquiry against a senior bureaucrat for merely writing a comment on a social media platform. But on the other hand there is no inquiry and investigation launched into the affairs of those who purchased LNG for the country at expensive rates as the silence shown by the NAB and other probe agencies in this regard is really troublesome, he added. He said the incumbent PM and his team of financial managers had emerged as an economic risk for Pakistan and its citizens. He said the people should get rid of the present rulers to overcome several crises in the country.