The issue of power cuts ranging from 8 to 18 hours including in the provincial capital of Quetta due to shortage of power in Balochistan was once again taken in the Balochistan Assembly’s session on Saturday. The assembly members, protesting, threatened a sit-in outside the parliament and WAPDA house if the power crises were not resolved.
Seeking the attention of the house about the on-going power cuts on a point of order, Provincial Minister for Industries Syed Ehsan Shah said that 12-hours of outage in Makran had badly affected the life of people. He said the members had been raising the issue again and again but to no avail adding besides many resolutions in the house, all democratic means had also been adopted.
He said the only way left was to stage a sit-in outside the parliament in Islamabad and WAPDA house in Lahore. He said that Iran was ready to provide electricity to Makran at affordable prices but Pakistani authorities were not taking it serious.
Provincial Minister for Mines Mir Abdul Rehman Mengal while supporting Syed Ehsan Shah’s point of order said the members of the house had been demanding the purchase of electricity fro Iran but authorities concerned were neither paying heed nor adopting other alternative means to ensure smooth provision of electricity to the people. He said if power cuts did not end immediately the members would protest in Islamabad and Lahore.
Provincial Minister for Communication and Pakistan People’s Party parliamentary leader Mir Sadiq Umrani, criticising Islamabad said that Balochistan Assembly had passed several resolutions regarding power cuts and other issues but practical steps for the resolutions of issues but the problems were yet to be addressed.
He said that the members did not know what happened to the resolutions after being approved from the house. Speaker Mohammad Aslam Bhootani said that according to the rules and procedures of the house all approved resolutions were immediately dispatched to concerned authorities.
