ISLAMABAD, Apr 25 (APP): Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader, Musaddiq Malik Monday said that instead of paying heed to the baseless propaganda spread out by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) about a foreign conspiracy, the public should question PTI about hatching an “internal conspiracy” against Pakistan by derailing it from the path towards development and prosperity.
Addressing a news conference here, he said that due to incompetency of the previous government, 11,000 MW power – which was added by the PML-N-led government in 2013 – has been cut off. Resultantly, people are facing intense load-shedding in the holy month of Ramzan.
Explaining the electricity cut off, the senator said that more than 5,000 MW power was unavailable because the previous government did not buy oil and gas.
“Additional 4,000 MW is unavailable because the PTI government never repaired some power plants, whereas 2000 MW load shedding is regular schedule for annual maintenance of power plants,” he added.
“Had the previous government arranged timely fuel and repairs, the people would not have suffered from load shedding,” he noted.
Moreover, PTI’ incompetency also increased the cost of per unit electricity. “In 2018, power plants were producing electricity on Rs 9.60 per unit cost which now was at the rate of 16.20 rupees,” the senator added.
Furthermore, the rupee fell by Rs 80 against the dollar during the era of incompetent Imran Khan, Malik said, adding that this depreciation of rupee put an additional burden of Rs 300 billion on power consumers.
Besides this, the PTI government also hatched another ‘internal conspiracy’ against the people of Pakistan by not purchasing furnace oil, diesel and LNG on time, he claimed.
The PML-N leader said that Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif had taken notice of this worrisome situation and directed to take every possible step to end the sufferings of the people.
“It has been decided to purchase three cargos of furnace oil for next month and one ship for June to make the closed power plants functional,” Malik further said.
Responding to a question about the subsidy given by the previous government on electricity, the PML-N leader said that the PTI-led government gave a subsidy of
Rs 600 billion on electricity till June 2022 without including this huge amount in budget. “The fate of this subsidy is yet to be decided,” he added.
