Umar Rehman Malik lauds Aseefa Bhutto for raising public issues in NA

Abdullah Jan

Islamabad: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Umar Rehman Malik this week lauded First Lady Aseefa Bhutto Zardari for raising the public issues in the National Assembly.

“A very pertinent point raised by Aseefa Bibi. Seems the total load of the country has been artificially capped despite having excess capacity to generate in the system,” he said in a statement, citing Aseefa Bhutto’s speech in the National Assembly on load-shedding.

Umar Rehman Malik: “Power plants lower down in the merit order list in Punjab generating expensive electricity are running whereas plants in Sindh higher up in the merit order generating cheaper electricity are not being given dispatch, leading to load shedding.”

Earlier, amid heightened scrutiny and ambiguity surrounding the independent power producers (IPPs) the federal government claimed that no loadshedding is being carried out in the country due to generation shortfall.

Speaking on the National Assembly floor, Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said that distribution companies (Discos) are carrying out load management in areas based on losses in corresponding feeders.

The minister’s remarks come as the incumbent government faced much scrutiny owing to exorbitant electricity bills and hours-long power outages across the country – especially during this year’s summer.

Ever since coming to power in February earlier this year, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration has faced challenges on multiple fronts with power sector being one of them. The Centre faced country-wide protests over prolonged loadshedding and sky-high bills throughout the summer.

However, Energy Minister Awais Leghari said that the nation would receive “good news” regarding the IPPs soon.