May 12, 2007	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 24, 1428

ISLAMABAD, May 11: The Pakistan People’s Party has expressed concern over the looming power crisis in the country saying that the dilemma was due to corruption, neglect and mis-governance and asked the government to address the issue urgently.

PPP spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said in a statement issued here on Friday, the loadshedding in summer had not only made lives of the people miserable but also led to closure of industries and adversely affected the national productivity.

“Gen Musharraf has been making promises of ending loadshedding, for the past several years, but the pathetic state of power sector mocks at the tall claims of the regime,” he said.

Mr Babar said the PPP government, between 1993-96, added 7,000 megawatts to the national grid from the Independent Power Producers and another 1,000 megawatts from Ghazi Barotha hydel station.

But addition to the national grid during the past eight years of Gen Musharraf has been dismal at less than 2,000 megawatts, he added.

The regime has been discrediting the PPP for its power policy accusing it of allowing a high tariff of 6.5 US cents per unit but Nepra under this regime has allowed the setting up of two 420 megawatts thermal plants at a tariff of up to 14.5 cents per unit, he said.

Corruption and bad governance lay at the root of the problem, which was evident from the way the KESC was privatized, he alleged. He asked the government to address the issue of power shortage on an urgent basis instead of wasting public funds on non-productive projects like building a new General Headquarters for the army in the federal capital.