February 03, 2009	Tuesday	Safar 07, 1430

ISLAMABAD, Feb 2: The United Arab Emirates has offered to gift a power plant of 320 megawatts capacity to the people of Pakistan to help them in their efforts to resolve the power crisis.

Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf left for Dubai on Monday to sign a memorandum of understanding with the UAE authorities and to work out a plan for dismantling, packing and transporting the plant to Pakistan.

An official statement issued here said Mr Ashraf had welcomed the UAE offer and said this would strengthen Pakistan-UAE relations.

Mr Ashraf said the PPP government was striving hard to do away with loadshedding by adding electricity to the system within the shortest possible time. Efforts were being made to achieve this target and end loadshedding by the end of 2009, he added.

An official statement of the ministry said that UAE President Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nayhan had offered to gift the used 320MW power plant during a meeting with President Asif Zardari.

The MoU will be signed in the presence of Mr Zardari on Wednesday.