Ashraf constitutes committee to oversee power crisis

PM Raja Pervez Ashraf chairs a meeting. – APP File Photo

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has constituted a Load Management Committee headed by the minister for water and power to supervise the distribution of electricity through DISCOs (Distribution of Companies) with a view to ensuring equitable loadshedding in the country by better management of the available supply of electricity.
The prime minister was chairing a meeting of the Energy Committee here at the PM Secretariat on Wednesday.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Water and Power Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Minister for Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Advisor to PM on Petroleum Dr Asim Hussain, Minister for Kashmir Affairs Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, Minister for Textile Makhdoom Shahubuddin, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira, senior officials of the relevant ministries, the President of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) and CEOs of DISCOs in the country.
The prime minister directed the committee to ensure the distribution of electricity to each DISCO and its further distribution in the respective regions without deviating from the scheduled loadshedding plan.
He also directed all the CEOs of DISCOs to double their efforts without fail in curtailing the line losses and also speed up the recovery of the receivables from the public and the private sectors in their respective regions.
The prime minister gave full authority to the load management committee to get rid of those who were found responsible for fiddling with the system or did not take their responsibilities seriously or failed to comprehend the gravity of the challenge and correspondingly took no corrective measures to control the situation.
He further directed that there should be no loadshedding at “Iftar and Sehar” timings during the holy month of Ramazan.
The prime minister lauded the textile sector for its contributions in the volume of foreign exchange earnings besides providing tens of thousands of job opportunities to the people.
He took the representatives of APTMA into confidence for appreciating the energy situation in the country and sought their cooperation in this regard till the decline in demand.
The prime minister appreciated the ministry of finance and the ministry of petroleum for ensuring the uninterrupted supply of fuel oil and the available gas to the power sector, so critical to maintain the level of power generation at more than 14000 MW.
The meeting was told that one nuclear power plant has become operational and the other one will also start generating electricity very soon.