LAHORE, April 10: The Punjab government has started preparing for a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) expected to be held on April 23 to raise the issue of power loadshedding which it fears may spark riots and sabotage coming elections.

According to official sources on Wednesday, provincial home and energy secretaries had been asked to prepare the Punjab’s stance on the impact of the enhanced power cuts, especially on the smooth conduct of general elections, so that caretaker Chief Minister Najam Sethi could present it in the CCI meeting.

The sources said the secretaries were deputed following a cabinet decision on Tuesday with regard to raising the issue with the federal government.

The cabinet was alarmed at the sporadic protests against prolonged loadshedding in different cities of Punjab and was informed by the authorities concerned that these could spread and intensify if frequency and duration of power cuts was not reduced soon.

The sources said the cabinet felt that protests could turn violent if the power loadshedding was not controlled because it was badly affecting life and business in the length and breadth of the province. The outages are also disrupting water supply even in Lahore and to immediately tackle the shortage the chief minister had ordered on Tuesday to run tube-wells on diesel generators, issuing funds for the fuel.

They said the energy secretary had been asked to calculate the existing power generation and the actual demand. Also he had been asked to asses how much supply would help avert agitation in the province.

The home secretary, they said, was expected to prepare a report on the protests, their potential and likely impact on the election process.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that the notification appointing Wapda chairman as the power sector coordinator had been withdrawn. By doing so, the federal water and power division had directly assumed the responsibility of dealing with the power issue.

The sources said the actual issue was that the PSO and the gas companies were not giving gas and furnace oil to the power producing units because of non-clearance of their arrears amounting to billions of rupees. The government was required to pay Rs55 billion only to the gas companies.