Zardari asks PM to resolve electricity crisis in Sindh
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KARACHI: Former president and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to use his ‘good offices’ to overcome the power crisis in Sindh, saying the loadshedding of up to 20 hours a day in the punishing heatwave has made life miserable in the province.
According to a statement issued by the Sindh information department, the former president sent a letter to the prime minister on Monday, asking him to take notice of the electricity crisis in Sindh.
Mr Zardari said most of Sindh areas were facing up to 20 hours of daily loadshedding.
Referring to his meeting with the prime minister on May 13, Mr Zardari said they had discussed the issue of power crisis in Sindh and subsequent to that meeting the Sindh minister for finance and energy called on the federal minister for water and power for a follow-up discussion on the issue.
Mr Zardari pointed out that the Sindh government had paid Rs2.4 billion of its electricity dues. He said the water and power minister had to resolve the payment issues of small power plants in Naudero and Dadu, tariff issue of wind and small hydro plants and reduce the duration of loadshedding in the province.
The PPP leader said the Sindh finance minister had informed him that there had been no progress on the part of federal government towards the resolution of these issues.
According to the statement, Mr Zardari also mentioned a letter that had been sent by the senior minister of Sindh to the federal minister on June 5, requesting the centre to resolve the issue of power crisis.
Mr Zardari’s letter referred to a communication between Murad Ali Shah and Khawaja Mohammad Asif in which it had been conveyed to the centre that Sindh continued to suffer from long hours of power shutdowns.
“The Sindh government paid Rs2.4 billion to Hesco but the federal government did nothing in this regard and the province is still facing the power crisis,” said the statement, quoting contents of Mr Shah’s letter to Khawaja Asif.
“The non-payment to small power producers in Hesco and Sepco region has adversely affected the power generation. The sponsors have started shutting down the power plants. The closure of these SPPs would result in increased loadshedding which is around 20 hours a day and cannot be sustained in the month of Ramazan and extreme summer.”
Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2015
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Comments (36) Closed
Jun 23, 2015 06:38am
Look at this man. He was the president for 5 years and he did nothing other than travelling to countries where he has properties and business interests but now he wants others to solve problems he never considered worthy of his time.
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Jun 23, 2015 06:39am
I want a debate on national TV Of Mr. Sharif, Zardari and Musharraf as to how and why this electricity crisis became what it is. I want accountability and responsibility established.
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Jun 23, 2015 06:41am
Was he able to solve it when in power?
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Jun 23, 2015 07:00am
As if PPP did so much to resolve it during their tenure.
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Jun 23, 2015 07:18am
It was no better during your tenure why now blame your partner in crime.
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Jun 23, 2015 07:21am
What did Zardari do to resolve the electricity crisis. In fact he is the one that created this crisis. He is trying to steal some limelight away fro the Army that is trying to restore order in Sindh created by PPP land grabbers.
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Jun 23, 2015 07:53am
Can you believe Zardari? his party running the Sindh government which is entirely useless anyway, is asking PM to fix their problems. The question is why this electricity problem was not solved during his 5-year tenure? These useless politicians are pretty good blaming each other.
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Jun 23, 2015 07:55am
This is an odd request of Zardari off PM Shariff. This problem of power outages is not new for Pakistan. It is a decade old problem, which is getting worse, as more useage of power is in place.
There fore this problem was very much there when Musharaff and Zardari were in power.
So if Zardari could not solve the problem during his tenure, how does he expect PM Shariff to solve it now ?
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Jun 23, 2015 08:07am
Mr. Zarari, you and musharaf are the once who should be blamed for this power shortage.... musharraf still controlled the economy and left $16.8 B in reserves but he never got a chance to see on this power issue,other wise he would have done some thing. What did you do... inflation hit all time high and you increased the pays by 50% because it didn't come out of your pocket. You are very lucky because most of the people are illiterate and no one questions you about your wrong deeds... well you never try to do any progress.... you are far away from doing any thing wrong... i do not favor any political party.. these are just my viewpoints.
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Jun 23, 2015 08:11am
One wonders who is responsible to solve problems for basic necessities, such as supply of electricity and clean water? Sind provincial government of federal government in Islamabad. Some say this blame game between very rich and powerful people will continue and general public would keep suffering as usual. Over 400 people died in Karachi, desperate people protesting on street, but no action plan in place to generate more MW electricity towards resolution of the problem. Is it democracy or 'Jamhoori Badshahat'??
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Jun 23, 2015 08:29am
Somebody please ask him how many letters did he write to Mr. Raja Parvez Ashraf and Mr. Yusuf Raza Gilani?
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Jun 23, 2015 08:30am
Thanks for waking up Zardari sahib. You ruled for 5 years, what exactly did you do to provide ample electricity to Sindh or any where else. Writing letters is probably easier then doing something of substance other then looting. Your incompetence and ignorance makes me sick.
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Jun 23, 2015 08:51am
Mr.Zardari, what you did about electricity during your tenure as a President. There is no difference between PPP and PML(N). You are both completely failure.
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Jun 23, 2015 08:55am
As a nation, we are not ready to take our own individual responsibility, we did not pay electricity bill we cannot close markets at 9 PM but we expect everything from the state to do. We are fail nation not a fail state.
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Jun 23, 2015 09:11am
I think we should eliminate dependency on Oil and Gas and go back to old days. Candles instead of light bulbs, Charkha instead of factories and good old fashioned steam locomotives. For local transportation use Horse Buggies instead of automobiles. Cleaning after horses will create many jobs.
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Jun 23, 2015 09:11am
Electricity shortage in Pakistan is not a new phenomena. Why did he and his party never fixed this problem during five year rikey?
We all know the answer. This is just lip service. He cares about as much about the sufferings of poor man, as much as he is willing to admit his own failures!!!
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Jun 23, 2015 09:24am
You can buy it from India, India has surplus power.
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Jun 23, 2015 09:27am
Blind leading a blind !
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Jun 23, 2015 09:36am
Once a famous party and working according to the wishes of the people can only be seen in Sindh now,this man for his personal interests has left nothing to be called a leader now. This kleptocracy has nothing to do with welfare of common masses, shame on our billionaire leaders who can not provide basics.
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Jun 23, 2015 09:48am
Electricity crises are not only in Sindh but also in rest of the three provinces...Karachi in terms of population is a big and most of the population is living in very congested atmosphere....the federal govt. working with provincial govts should take substantial initiatives to resolve the burning issue and provide relief to the masses of Pakistan.
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Jun 23, 2015 09:56am
By writing your letter, you sir have done a great job indeed. Now you can sit and relax. What would Sind do without such visionary politicians?
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Jun 23, 2015 10:06am
Maybe worship the nuclear bombs to resolve electricity crisis
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Jun 23, 2015 10:18am
What PPP govt did during their tenure on this count??? And what PPP govt doing since 2008 in Sindh, except spending public money on launching of Bilawal Zardari via public meeting in Karachi, a more big question mark ???????????
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Jun 23, 2015 10:22am
Its easy to criticize and give orders. As former head of the state, he should know that electricity shortage can't be resolved in 1-2 years because it takes few years to build new electric plants. The second issue which has become a culture to steal electricity from the main lines. The govt. can't provide free electricity to every citizen and it has to import oil to generate electricity. The government has to crack down on electric theft and put new laws /enforcement procedures in place to curb this problem.If it was up to the PM , he could have solved the problem in a year. We should give credit to PML-N for making sincere efforts to build new plants and there are many power plants in the pipeline, so we have to be patient a few years more. . The problem of shortage becomes acute when there is a heat wave, and the demand for electricity goes up dramatically.
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Jun 23, 2015 10:23am
Be that as it may .. we can keep blaming till the end of time. For once focus on solutions. There are many simple implementations of distributed 1-5MW electric plants, with close-to-zero emissions, and so can be sited in populated areas without fear of pollution. The cost is about US$1-3/ w; likely much less with local and Chinese equipment. A large 500MW plant costs about $750M-1000M+, where funding and siting etc are much more of a problem. The wide usage of UPSs [instead of generators] means that the load is even higher during normal times as people recharge batteries. The ONLY viable solution is to 'ration' usage when power is available, and to do quick and modular generation as soon as possible.
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Jun 23, 2015 10:45am
Why it happened: 1-Lack of interest in hydel power by the past governments, no big dams including Kala Bagh 2- Focus on thermal and IPPs during PPP govt for commission and kickbacks 3-Theft of electricity in vast areas of the country by mighty and mafias and in collaboration with WAPDA officials 4- Mismanagement/corruption in WAPDA, incompetence and political influence 5- The nation not taught how to save energy.
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Jun 23, 2015 11:11am
Sir! The Honble P.M is doing a lot. You can see and match the figures of your tenure. May aak your C.M to follow rhe foot steps of C.M Punjab shall have a mich better results then on going follpw on
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Jun 23, 2015 11:17am
Sending a letter. No kidding!!!! Mr. Zardari is serious about solving the problem. But wait, he was the president for 5 years. Pakistani politicians are not serious people and they do not have any shame.
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Jun 23, 2015 11:17am
Mr zardari, what did you do about electricity when you were in power. NOTHING.
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Jun 23, 2015 11:37am
Zardari asks PM to resolve electricity crisis in Sindh....Did you solve the problem while you were in power.... No... the energy crisis are two decades old..he has beeen the part of the problem and now he is seeking the solution... Too many problem-solving sessions become battlegrounds where decisions are made based on power rather than intelligence.
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Jun 23, 2015 11:56am
What he did in 5 years ruling.
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Jun 23, 2015 12:13pm
The last long ruling non-civilian dictator having godly power over the land and Nation of Pakistan could have addressed this long going electricity problem by building new dams and applying other effective recourse. But with his corrupt and callous coteries and allies only aggravated the power crisis manifolds. Then came this man who is blaming Federal Govt who during his 5 years long rule only multiplied all the evils and hardships of the Nation more especially of power crisis. The PML(N) 2 brothers now ruling the federation exploiting the long power crisis of the Nation solemnly promised more than 100 times during their election campaign to get the Nation rid of this problem within 2 years? This proved to be their major winning factor. Instead giving the Nation any relief they have further aggravated the suffering of the people with killing long hours load shedding even in the hospitals. This shows the shameless n remorseless character of the rulers, dictator or civilian?
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Jun 23, 2015 12:15pm
Well , what you were doing when in power for five years Mr Zardari? having said the present government should take this situation seriously and make the crisis of energy shortage issue as a number one priority to resolve.
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Jun 23, 2015 12:48pm
What did him and his goverent do to solve the power crisis when he was in power? Now he has the guts to ask the current government to solve the power crisis.
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Jun 23, 2015 01:44pm
Letter from Ex-President to incumbent PM to solve electricity crises in Sindh province is nothing more than a joke
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Jun 23, 2015 03:00pm
Zardari was President of the country for full five years but did not do anything to solve Sind's problems. Even could not find BB's killers. Now he asks others to find solution to problems in the only Province ruled by PPP. He should feel ashamed.
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