Past rulers responsible for neglecting power sector: Kaira

Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira on Saturday said that the media should make the previous rulers accountable for failing to produce electricity during their tenures and widening gap between its demand and supply.
“You make us accountable for our performance. You should also need to question those who have failed to produce even a single megawatt of electricity from 1999 to 2007,” Kaira said while replying to a question during the post-budget press conference addressed by Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.
He said those who could not execute any power production project were public offenders for which they should be questioned. The federal information minister said the PPP government had come into power through people’s votes, so they better realised their agonies because of the power outages.
He said for bridging the wide gap between demand and supply of the electricity, both short and long-term strategies were required. Kaira said the government had already started Neelum Jhelum Power Project, Thar Coal power Project and Diamer Bhasha Dam, besides alternative energy projects to exploit maximum power potential in the country. He said the democratic government was well cognizant of its responsibilities and was dedicatedly working to overcome the power crisis. However, the minister said this struggle could be made successful only through coordinated efforts and asked the Punjab government to implement the decisions made in the energy conference.
The energy conference had unanimously decided to announce two weekly holidays across the country besides ensuring closure of markets at 8pm; however, the Punjab province had not yet implemented the decision.