PM inaugurates 'Innovation Hub'

The objective of the programme is to facilitate the participation of the public in national policies. The establishment of the IHP will also play an important role in harmonizing policy making with the needs of the country.

On the occasion, the PM was also briefed that under the program, suitable ideas will be scrutinised through a national television programme. Later on, the best ideas will be implemented in policy making by the Strategic Reforms Unit.

The participants were also given a brief opportunity to share their ideas with the premier about public policy.

Addressing the participants on the occasion, PM Shehbaz expressed his commitment to promoting this program personally. He said that under the programme, special cells would be created in all ministries where young talent can share their ideas for improving the respective ministry's performance.

PM Shehbaz Sharif, addressing another meeting in Islamabad, reiterated his resolve to overcome power outages by restoring halted projects.

During the meeting held to review measures on controlling load-shedding, the prime minister said that efforts are afoot to make all power plants functional.

“The government is taking every possible step to control the electricity load-shedding to facilitate the consumers,” said the PM as he noted that the challenges faced by the energy sector were due to bad policies of the previous government. Still, he said, “we are committed to addressing them”.

Expressing his dismay, the premier said he “regretted that the previous government didn't take this issue seriously and no purchase agreement for gas supply was made when the prices were low globally.”

The lack of maintenance of power plants during the tenure of the previous government resulted in a power shortage, according to PM Shehbaz.

He said, “the previous government even delayed the Haveli Bahadur Shah Plant which has the capacity to produce 1250 megawatt electricity.”