ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has given a call for countrywide protest against electricity loadshedding on Tuesday.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Mr Khan asked caretaker Prime Minister retired Justice Nasirul Mulk to inform the nation about circular debt and power crisis he had inherited from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government.

However, Mr Khan will not take part in any demonstration to be organised by the PTI workers as he will leave for Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to perform Umra and return next day, said the party’s spokesman Fawad Chaudhry.

He said demonstrations would be staged at the union council level and led by the PTI’s former members of National Assembly and provincial assemblies.

The previous PML-N government had claimed that it had overcome electricity crisis in the country and had almost ended loadshedding.

It is learnt that former minister for power Awais Leghari had feared, before the end of the PML-N government, that loadshedding would intensify during caretaker set-up.

The PML-N government completed its five-year term on May 31 and handed over power to the interim set up for conducting general elections scheduled to be held on July 25.

In his statement, Imran Khan expressed concern over intensifying loadshedding in the country, particularly during Ramazan, and said that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had done nothing to address electricity crisis. “Nawaz Sharif and his government had wasted five years by deceiving the nation, instead of reducing loadshedding,” he said.

The PTI chief urged the caretaker prime minister to immediately take remedial measures to provide relief to the people. “The caretaker prime minister should inform the nation about the current situation of electricity generation and demand and details of circular debts,” he added.

“The nation must be aware of the facts about the PML-N government’s tall claims of overcoming of loadshedding and those who are responsible for the present crisis,” he said.

The PTI chairman stressed the need for proper planning for self-sufficiency in electricity by switching over to hydle and other cheaper modes of power generation from costly modes of generation.

He urged the interim government to take measures to provide maximum quantum of electricity to the people of the country.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2018