PESHAWAR: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday announced Rs 2.32 per unit reduction in the price of electricity and a further reduction in the prices of POL products which was expected to be applicable from the beginning of next month.

Addressing a press conference in Peshawar, Sharif said that the priority of his government was to bear the burden of providing relief to the masses.

The prime minister said that the purpose of the government was to reduce load shedding along with the price of electricity and added that a problem of the past several years could not be resolved in a single day.

Sharif said, "The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) is full of corruption, elimination of which is a difficult task."

He added that staff of electricity companies was involved in theft of electricity.

He further said that attempts to reduce the shortfall in electricity generation were being made with assistance from China.

He said coal-powered electricity generating plants were being set up in the country to slash the price of electricity.

Sharif said that a reduction in electricity prices would result in deflation of the prices of other commodities as well.

He said that a reduction in transport fares was the right of the people but the provinces had not slashed the prices as much as they should have been.

Prime Minister Sharif said that Karachi-Lahore motorway would also be launched soon.

Sharif said that the government was working hard behind the scenes and the fruit of those efforts would reach the people soon.

He said that relations with Afghanistan were improving and there will come a time when a Peshawar-Kabul motorway would be constructed.

When asked about the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) protests in Karachi, the premier replied that he would prefer to discuss development of the country instead of protests.

Sharif said that he hoped to see a new Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and added that had the protests not been taking place, China would have setup more factories in the country.

Sharif said that Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) factories would soon be set up in the country.

Earlier, the Premier visited 'Bilour House' to condole the death of Usman Ahmed Bilour, the younger son of the late Awami National Party leader Bashir Ahmad Bilour.

The 43-year-old nephew of senior ANP leader Ghulam Bilour had died of cardiac arrest on Dec 9.