Jahangir Khan Tareen, head of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Policy and Planning Cell, on Saturday presented concrete policy solutions to deal with the ongoing power crisis in the country.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore, he said 210MMCFD gas should be diverted to the power sector on urgent basis to curtail unprecedented load shedding. He added that the government should increase liquidity to deal with the circular debt so that furnace oil was available to the power plants.
Implementing these steps on an urgent basis could increase power generation by 3,000MW and reduce the circular debt, he added. Tareen also said that power generation could be increased by 1,000MW immediately by releasing water from Mangla and Tarbela dams and the water would not be wasted as it is required for sowing of Kharif crop in both Sindh and Punjab.
Tareen also proposed medium-term solutions, which included bringing down line losses from 20% to 10%, increasing collection to 95% and convert 4,500MW from furnace oil to coal. Undertaking the proposed solutions would enable the government to save Rs 475 billion every year, he said.
Criticizing the PPP government, he said the government had doubled the tariff in the last four years and spent Rs 1 trillion in subsidy, but the situation had continued to deteriorate. “The circular debt has swelled to Rs 450 billion and load shedding has become unbearable,” Tareen said. He added that the PTI was deeply concerned for the people of Pakistan and had, therefore, offered the government to implement proposed solutions to deal with the crisis.
