ISLAMABAD, Jun 23 (APP): Minister for Water Resources Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah on Friday informed the National Assembly that we have to pay attention to power generation projects based on indigenous resources including hydel power, Thar coal and local gas. Currently, only 7,000 MW hydel power is being generated out of total 20,000 MW hydel potential, he added.
He called for paying special attention to hydel power generation projects by scrapping other development schemes for the time being.
He said that currently, over 2600 MW was being generated from Thar coal alone while the additional 1000 MW would soon be added to the system shortly.
He said that the allegation of Rs 100 billion corruption was leveled against our then minister in 1995 in $ 5 billion LPG deal with France. The agreement was published in Dawn and later the agreement was scrapped through suo moto notice, he added.
The minister said that agreement remained in place and today, we would have not faced the prolonged load-shedding.
The minister said the Parliament should pass a resolution banning the generation of power from thermal and furnace oil. Power plants like Nandipur power plant etc remained closed, he added.
He also urged the chair to set up a special investigation committee which could ascertain how much electricity was added to the system during 2008 to 2013.
Earlier, taking part in the debate, Noor Alam Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said that most of the ministers did not turn up to the House. At least ministers for power and petroleum divisions should come to the House and inform us about ongoing power load-shedding. The people use to criticize the government including the parliamentarians for the power outage, he added.
He said that the government should ensure smooth supply of electricity due to increasing power tariff. The temperature in our areas has jumped to over 44 degree centigrade and the people were in extreme trouble, he added.
The PTI lawmaker said there should be some power load-management schedule. Power load-shedding and inflation have become out of control, he added. At least there should not be power load-shedding on Friday during 12 o’clock to 2:00 pm so the people could offer Jumma prayer with comfort, he said.
Deputy Speaker Zahid Akram Durrani while giving his ruling, directed the power distribution companies (DISCOs) to carry out load-shedding as per schedule otherwise the Parliament would take action.
He said that even there was no electricity in his constituency for the last 2-3 days.
APP/raz-mag-zah-muk
