'Winning arguments won't bring gas': Miftah hits out at energy minister

KARACHI:

Former finance minister Miftah Ismail on Monday took a jibe at Energy Minister Hammad Azhar for issuing a challenge to a journalist to debate the country's LNG and gas issues and advised the latter to stop such evasive indulgences.

Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Ismail lashed out at the ruling party over the ongoing gas crisis, saying “winning the argument won’t bring gas”.

“The government can't provide [gas] three times [in a day] so my request is to the minister that abandon this debate,” he said.

On November 19, the energy minister had dared the Geo News anchor Shahzeb Khanzada to debate on the energy crisis.

"I would like to challenge Shahzeb Khanzada to debate LNG and gas issues with me, moderated by a neutral anchor and with independent experts. Let the people see the facts without persistent interrupting, volume controls, teleprompters, etc," he wrote on Twitter.

During the press conference, the former finance minister said that time for having debates was up. "Your government has been in power for three and a half years so provide gas and don't argue," he added.

He suggested that to resolve the crises, the government needs to ensure gas supply to domestic and industrial consumers, install LNG terminals and pipelines and refrain from further increasing the rate of LNG.

Read Winter triggers gas crisis

"We will suffer in the winter so set up terminals ... don't just. They [terminals] can only be installed by actually working and it seems you can’t do it."

"Work on the gas pipeline project connecting Karachi to Punjab should also begin," the PML-N leader demanded.

"If the minister accepts this then I think this will be a great personal favour for me and for Pakistan's industry and consumers," Ismail added.

‘IMF deal may intensify inflation’

During the presser, the PML-N leader anticipated that the government’s deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may intensify inflation.

He said after the IMF agreement, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has been made autonomous, adding that although the ruling party did not grant the status of a viceroy to the central bank governor Reza Baqir, "they have granted him everything else".

"Imran Khan's speeches are nice, but they have pushed 220 million people into poverty," the former finance minister said.

The global money lender and Pakistan reached a staff-level agreement on policies and reforms needed to complete the sixth review under the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) which has been 'in recess' since April.