LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Saturday inaugurated the fully Operational Combined Cycle of 1180MW gas-fired Bhikki Power Plant in Sheikhupura.

The plant’s CoD (Commercial Operation Date) was due in December, last year. But it missed the deadline three times or so due to different issues identified during various tests, including vibration issue, in one of the three turbines.

“National Accountability Bureau (NAB) must take action against corruption. But if it doesn’t appreciate those performing well, it may lead to demoralising the good officers,” the CM said at the inaugural ceremony. “It’s a great moment today as Bhikki Power Plant is now fully operational and in a record time,” he added.

Criticising both the rivals Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the PPP, the CM said the “sit-in mob” destructed the country’s economy and did nothing even in their own provinces (KP and Sindh).

“PTI-led government hardly became able to add only 80MW to the national grid. Similarly, the Sindh government did nothing in this sector,” he deplored.

The CM said the projects, including Bhikki power plant and Haveli Bahadur Shah were initiated in 2016 and both had started generation. Haveli Bahadur Shah, Bhikki and Balloki are the plants having accumulative generation capacity of 3,600MW. “We have used our own resources in Punjab to produce electricity. This electricity is now connected to the national grid. I congratulate everyone who worked tirelessly day and night on building Bhikki Plant,” he added.

The CM claimed that the PML-N government had fulfilled its promise of ending loadshedding by adding 10,000MW to the national grid. “After working tirelessly, there is no loadshedding during Ramazan this year,” he claimed.

Earlier, addressing district and divisional coordinators of the party in another event, the CM said the general elections were nearing and all office-bearers of the PML-N should continue working with dedication and hard work, because politics was an obligation and “we can win blessings of this world and hereafter through politics”.

“The PML-N government has done extraordinary works during the last five years and the five-year term of the party is representative of transparency, honesty, speed, and dedication,” he said.

He said unprecedented results had been achieved under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif and the history would remember the period as the “golden era” in terms of transparency.

He said accountability should be done across the board, because “selected” accountability could not move Pakistan forward.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2018