Energy crisis: Govt has failed to end load shedding, says Wattoo

PPP Punjab president says govt has no clear road map for dealing with energy crisis.

LAHORE: The government has failed to do anything to end load shedding in the country as it had promised during the elections, Pakistan Peoples Party Punjab president Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo said on Sunday.

“A major electricity crisis will be upon us in a few days when the furnace oil stocks get depleted. The people should prepare themselves for the worst,” Wattoo said in a statement.

“Each day, people living in the urban areas have to face upto 16 hours of load shedding. The situation in rural areas is even worse,” Wattoo said.“The problems faced by the farmers of the province, due to the prevalent energy crisis, are manifold. Most of the farmers are forced to buy expensive fuel to operate the tube wells that irrigate their lands,” he said.

“The present government has failed to address all the major problems facing the country. They have no vision to bring prosperity to the country,” he said.

“Before the 2013 general elections, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had claimed that he would end load shedding within months of coming into power,” he said in his statement.

“Yet almost two years have now passed but nothing concrete has been done to alleviate the host of problems faced by the masses, so far,” said Wattoo.

Wattoo said that the chief minister should confess to his failure to fulfill his campaign promise and apologise for the remarks made against the PPP government over the issue.

He said that the government had no clear roadmap for ending electricity and gas load shedding or improving the law and order situation.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2015.