Karachi: The provincial Sindh assembly on Monday passed a resolution sternly rejecting the federal government plan to increase the power load-shedding plan in the province for about 20 to 22 hours a day.
The resolution was tabled by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Pakistan Muslim League (Functional) and the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) against the proposed doubling of the existing load-shedding in the province.
The provincial legislators said that already Sindh province was faced with about 12 hour power cuts a day and if the duration of the load shedding would be increased, there would be complete shutdown of business and industrial concerns as well as households.
The water and power ministry in Islamabad was in the process of drawing the load-shedding plan for the upcoming summer as the power shortage still remains a big challenge, despite government promises to eliminate the menace when it took over in 2013.
The authorities in the Sindh government say that disconnection of power supplies in the province was unconstitutional as it allows the provincial government to distribute power beyond its own power generation capacity.
Private sector K-Electric, which enjoys electricity distribution monopoly in Karachi, the largest industrial city of the country, was at loggerheads with its state-run counterpart Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) for electricity supply.
Wapda had warned K-Electric of cutting its regular supply of over 600 megawatts as the former was not generating enough electricity from its own power generating units.
Minister for water and power, Kahwaja Asif last week told the media that he was hopeful that power cuts could end by 2017. He said that the government was working on a number of projects aiming at ending the power shortage.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also reiterated his pledge to end the long drawn pressing issue of the load-shedding and completely weed it out before the completion of his term in office.
In a meeting he presided over recently, Prime Minister Sharif was quoted as saying that an additional quantity of electricity would be added to the national grid before the start of the summer so that the load-shedding could be lessened.
