Caretakers’ handiwork: Blackouts to discredit PPP in polls, says Mukhtar

Mukhtar fails to understand why there was load shedding in the urban and rural areas when summer was just beginning.

Former Federal Minister for Water and Power Ahmed Mukhtar said on Sunday that excessive load-shedding at this time of the year is a conspiracy hatched by the interim minister and secretary of the water and power ministry to discredit the Pakistan Peoples Party in the polls.

“It is obvious that some game is being played to harm the party in the forthcoming elections,” a press release quoted Mukhtar as saying.

He said that as the minister he allocated sufficient funds to generate approximately 14,000 MW of electricity, thereby ensuring minimum load-shedding in the country.

Mukhtar said that he fails to understand why there was 12 to 14 hours of load shedding in the urban and rural areas when summer was just beginning.

He claimed that during the last months of the PPP-led government load shedding was reduced to two to four hours. He requested analysts to compare the situation of the load shedding during the last month of the PPP government with the present situation.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2013.