Populist move: Nawaz orders Rs2.32 cut in power tariff

Announces that petroleum prices are also expected to be further slashed later this month.

PESHAWAR:

Taking yet another populist step in an apparent bid to placate the masses in view of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s ongoing anti-government campaign, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has announced a Rs2.32 per unit cut in electricity prices.

“Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government wants to provide relief to the public despite lack of resources. This step will provide reprieve to domestic users, industrialists and farmers,” said the prime minister while addressing a press conference on Friday at Governor House in Peshawar.

He said petroleum prices are also expected to be further slashed later this month. The PM emphasised that the benefit of cuts in petrol prices should reach the common people but noted that except for one province [Punjab] all the other provinces could not make any significant change in the passenger fare.

“The reduction in the petroleum prices will affect the agriculture sector positively, which will also benefit the common man,” he said.

The PM clarified that he did not want to talk about sit-ins, protests and political crisis in the country “but only about development, for which the PML-N government has made a solid plan”.

However, he could not stop referring to the political crisis as a hindrance in the country’s progress.

He said the power crisis in the country cannot be ended in a single day as it did not emerge in a year or two but over a long period of time. The PM also said that the government could not give any deadline for overcoming the crisis.

“But the PML-N government will struggle to end it in its current tenure,” he said, and added: “We want to generate cheaper and more electricity in the country.” For this purpose, he said, the government has decided to start a joint project with China of generating electricity from coal.

“The project will start producing electricity after three years of its inauguration. However, unfortunately the project could not be launched so far due to the ongoing protests in the country,” he added.

Linking the power crisis with economic development, Prime Minister Nawaz said inflation will decrease only when the industry is developed and the industry will strengthen only when cheap energy is made available to it.

He recalled that in 1997 – when he was heading the country as prime minister – Pakistan was producing surplus electricity and India wanted to purchase it. “If development continued at that pace, Pakistan would have been in a much better position today,” he said.

The premier said government also wants to stop electricity theft across the country. “For this purpose, we will take action against corrupt elements in Wapda and electricity distribution companies,” he said.

The premier said electricity transmission system in the country is also poor and cannot bear extra load. “This is why our government has planned to upgrade the system,” the PM said.

Talking about other development projects, he said the government will soon start work on Lahore-Karachi Motorway. “We have also laid the foundation of ‘Naya Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa’ by inaugurating construction work on Hazara motorway in Havilian some days ago,” he said, in a reference to the PTI’s slogan.

He said the government will also connect Peshawar with Kabul by a motorway to promote trade in the region.  “The government will soon start work on extending gas pipeline from Gwadar to Nawabshah, which will later be joined to the Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project and will help reduce gas outages,” he said. He said the government through its policies had managed to lower the dollar exchange rate to Rs98. “But now due to the political crisis and protests, it has again crossed the Rs100 parity,” he said.

Earlier, the PM went to the house of Awami National Party MNA Ghulam Ahmad Bilour and condoled with him over the death of his nephew Usman Bilour.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2014.