Federal Govt Will Improve Power Transmission And Distribution System In Karachi, Says Asad Umar

Minister for Planning Asad Umar has promised that it is his promise that federal government will improve the system in record time.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-July 9^th, 2020) The Federal government would improve power transmission and distribution system in Karachi, said Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiative Asad Umar here on Thursday.

He said lack of a proper power transmission and distribution system in Karachi was the reason behind increased load shedding in the metropolis city.

“It is my promise that federal government will improve the system in record time,” said Asad Umar while speaking on the floor of the National Assembly.

He criticized the previous governments of PML-N and PPP for poor system of distribution and transmission system.

He stated that his (PTI) government was doing what the previous governments could not do.

Asad Umar said that this cabinet committee on energy held an emergency meetings and summoned officials from Karachi Electric, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), and the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC).

“Agreements were made and implementation will be done in record time,” said the minister. The opposition, he said, had termed the K-Electric Chairperson as a “mafia”, pointing out that they were giving the impression that the power utility was privatized during the PTI government.

He said: “The PPP government was in power for last five years and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was prime minister. It should tell us as to why they allowed corrupt people to run the company,”. He also mentioned PML-Q, saying that it was privatized during the PML-Q government. Later, PML-N government came into power but they also did not take any action.

“We ask Khwaja Asif who was the then energy minister as to why the action was not taken during their five years tenure,” he added.

The PTI was being told that the PPP could end load shedding within six months if the power utility was given to them, he said, adding that they [PPP] had been involved in load-shedding for last 35 years.

He went on to say that Karachi's power needed to be kept increasing over time but previous governments did not take any step to either increase electricity production in Karachi or to create a system to import it from elsewhere in country.

“There are lot of power plants throughout the country but Karachi could not take electricity from all these plants,” said Asad Umar. The reason was that transmission and distribution system to do that was not created, he added.