PTI rubbishes govt's 'zero loadshedding' claim

Minister for Power Awais Leghari on Sunday claimed government was producing surplus electricity

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has refuted the federal government’s claim that more than 5,000 feeders in the country do not trip, saying that some 42% of them do.

A couple of days ago, Federal Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmad Leghari had announced that 5,297 feeders were made not to trip in the first phase of loadshedding-free Pakistan.

PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry on Monday termed the minister’s statement “eyewash ahead of the general elections”.

Chaudhry said, “The federal government cannot claim ending loadshedding by merely extracting a few urban centres out of the electricity crisis zone.”



“Rural areas across the country continue to face hours-long blackouts while the government absurdly claims to have nearly ended loadshedding,” he said, adding that majority of the population lived in rural areas and suffered from acute shortage of electricity.

He said Pakistan was not a country confined merely to a few urban centres, adding that failed policies of the PML-N government had affected the industry negatively and resulted in continuous drop in exports.

“No one other than the PML-N could even think of rejoicing over ending loadshedding at the price of bringing the industry to a halt,” he said, adding that the only way to lead Pakistan out of the crisis was to hold early elections.

Taking a jibe at Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, the spokesperson extended his sympathies towards Aurangzeb as her post required her to make fake statements.

“She must learn the fact that if such statements could have helped Nawaz Sharif then he would have never faced such humiliation in the first place,” said Chaudhry.