False promises: Khursheed Shah chides govt over power outages

Says PML-N govt fails to lessen load-shedding burden

SUKKUR:

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah taunted the government on Saturday after its claims about capping power failures crashed with the rise in temperatures.

“The electricity crisis has become worse throughout the country and even urban areas are facing 12- to 18- hour outages,” he told the media in Sukkur where the temperature soared to 48 degrees Celsius during the day.

Shah claimed that contrary to the promises made by the Nawaz administration last year, the nation is still suffering long bouts of load-shedding.

Even during the PML-N’s election campaign in 2013, its leaders were telling voters that they would resolve the power crisis, Shah said.

The PPP leader said that power cuts seen during the previous government were far less than the present load-shedding. “In our tenure load shedding was almost 50 per cent less, but the media still raised a hue and cry,” said Shah pointing out that media outlets were largely silent on the issue today. “Where is the protest camp Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had set up against the PPP-led government?” he asked.



In response to a question about former home minister Zulfiqar Mirza, Shah said, politicians should not resort to indecent language and behaviour.

According to him, law and order situation in the country has become comparatively better. He expressed hope that after Zimbabwe, teams from other countries will also visit Pakistan and one day the country will become a major host of international cricket.

Talking about the Axact scam, he said it would be wrong to jump to conclusions rather a detailed inquiry should be carried out. “I have talked about forming judicial commission on the Axact issue to make things clear,” he said.

On another question about the declining graph of PPP, he said, there is nothing serious about it. The popularity graphs of political parties go up and down, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2015.