Members of the Standing Committee on Energy have showed concerns over prolonged loadshedding and non-replacement of the transformers by Discos, alleging that people have to give bribe in order to get their transformer replaced.
The National Assembly Standing Committee on Energy (Power Division), which met under the chairmanship of Chaudhry Salik Hussain, was of the view that power outages have become a norm in different parts of Pakistan.
The committee put aside the agenda circulated vide Notice of the Standing Committee on Energy (Power Division) dated 3rd June, 2021 and requested the chairman to discuss the worsening situation of loadshedding especially in the past couple of days. The members were dismayed at the absence of the Minister Hamad Azhar, Federal Minister on Energy, and were of the view that the agenda consisting of important Bills cannot be discussed without the minister’s input.
The chairman concurred with the views of members and said that prolonged power outages have become a norm in different parts of Pakistan, adding that government should give a plan to resolve this crisis.
Members hailing from KP, Sindh and Punjab said that besides the problem of loadshedding the transformers which are either damaged or burnt down in remote villages are not replaced. People have to give bribe in order to get them replaced. The Secretary Ministry of Power committed to hold an inquiry into this allegation.
The Secretary of Power Division said that the demand & supply gap has widened and the problem of loadshedding worsened due to the closure of two tunnels of Tarbella Dam.
The situation is improving steadily after the Tarbella Dam is becoming functional. The Committee vowed to have a comprehensive briefing on loadshedding in the next scheduled meeting and asked the Secretary Power Division to direct the CEOs of all DISCOs to personally resolve the loadshedding problem in remote villages.
The meeting was attended by MNAs Sher Akbar Khan, Ghulam Bibi Bharwana, Malik Anwar Taj, Saif Ur Rehman, Lal Chand, Engr. Sabir Hussain Kaim Khani, Saira Bano, Azhar Qayyum Nahra, Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Raza Rabani Khar, Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah, Shazia Marri, Zahid Akram Durrani, secretary from M/o Power Division and senior officers of the relevant departments.
Originally published at The nation