Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid Senator Kamal Ali Agha on Friday continued his outburst in the Senate against the federal government for countrywide load shedding, warning of a public attack on parliament if it did not resolve the issue.
“The people are protesting in Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Vehari and attacking the offices of members parliament… a day will come when the people would attack the parliament if the government did not resolve the issue,” he said.
He criticized the energy conference, saying the prime minister and Punjab chief minister only praised each other and nothing substantive was done to overcome the energy shortage Agha inquired the chair why the federal minister for water and power, who was supposed to appear in the House to apprise it on the load shedding, had not come.
He was irritated further when Leader of the House Jehangir Badar said he had not announced the time for the minister to come to the House.
Agha repeatedly interrupted the chair, which was of the view that the House complete the agenda first.
“People are dying, Mr Chairman and you are talking about the agenda,” he said.
The lawmakers from the treasury benches on a calling attention notice urged the government to take over the Karachi Electricity Supply Company (KESC) as it had failed to end load shedding in Karachi.
Water and Power Minister Naveed Qamar came to the House later, saying the government was pouring in more money in the power sector to ensure the availability of furnace oil until hydel power generation improved.
The minister assured that there would be no prolonged load shedding of 10 to 12 hours, but per a schedule.
Replying to queries of lawmakers on KESC, he said the Ministry of Water and Power had no authority to take over the KESC, as the power rested with NEPRA to cancel the license of the operator. The minister also proposed to form a House Committee on the issue of KESC.
PML-N walkout: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz again staged a walkout from the House after its lawmaker M Hamza talked on the issue of power outages in the country. PML-N Senator Begum Najma Hameed said on a point of order that the PM should resign as he was no more a prime minister after his conviction.
The House also adopted a unanimous resolution for the composition of House standing committees on rules of procedure and privileges, government assurances, problems of less developed areas and finance and all House committees that stood dissolved on March 12.
