Kaira accuses PML-N of politicising power crisis

Information minister says PML-N should know that Punjab is not Pakistan, but a part of Pakistan.

MULTAN: Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, while speaking to the media on Monday, said that the government will not let Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) play politics on power crisis.

“[Punjab Chief Minister] Shahbaz Sharif is blaming the federation without revealing the facts to the people,” he said, adding that Punjab gets 66% of electricity and 45% of Sui gas from the total energy output but the provincial government wants to take away the quota assigned to other provinces too.

Kaira added that PML-N workers were behind the attacks on offices of power companies. “PML-N should not destroy Pakistan in this manner,” he said.

Responding to the Punjab CM’s accusation against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) for exporting 700MW electricity, Kaira said the mentioned amount of energy was not given to any other country but to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

“With his statement, Shahbaz Sharif has proven that he does not consider K-P as a part of Pakistan. He only wants power supply for Punjab,” Kaira said, adding that the PML-N should know that Punjab is not Pakistan but it is a part of Pakistan.

Bashing Punjab government officials for leading energy protests and carrying weapons, Kaira said that the common people cannot be blamed for the loss of billions of rupees they cause due to such protests as the leaders and parliamentarians of this country are themselves violently protesting.

He further accused PML-N of playing politics solely for power and without caring about the loss incurred by the people and the government of Pakistan.

“PML-N has been fooling the people of Punjab with their political rhetoric against the PPP. It has not added a single megawatt of electricity to the national power output,” Kaira said.

No unscheduled loadshedding

The Information Minister, on behalf of the government, also assured the people of Pakistan that no unscheduled, prolonged loadshedding will take place as the hurdles in electricity production have been cleared out.

Kaira said that it was a natural disaster which damaged a 6km-long oil supply line to power plants which in turn caused an “acute shortage” of electricity. “It was in a far-flung area. Even taking the labour and the required material took a lot of time,” said Kaira while appreciating Wapda for the maintenance work.

“I assure you all power plants running on oil are now being fully supplied with oil. The daily supply of oil to these plants has also been increased to 25,000 metric tons from 12,000 metric tons.”

The information minister added that the government knows about the people’s problems and is always trying to help them. “We are using all our resources to bring the country out of the energy crisis but our solution would be a permanent one. There will be no temporary solutions like those given by previous governments,” he said.