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LAHORE: The PML-N leadership has warned the federal government that if effective steps are not taken within a day or two to ease the ongoing electricity crisis in Punjab, the party’s activists and supporters will march on the Presidency.
“The electricity crisis has deepened in the province and if the federal government does not solve the problem immediately we will march on the Presidency,” senior PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar said on Sunday.
Talking to reporters at the residence of Liaquat Baloch of Jamaat-i-Islami, the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly said his party would demand an explanation over the matter on the floor of the house.
Mr Nisar advised Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to be careful when making remarks about President Asif Ali Zardari. Mr Sharif’s recent remarks about the president were criticised by many politicians and analysts.
On his part, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif echoed Mr Nisar’s sentiments on the power crisis in the province.
“We will join the public protest in a few days if the situation does not improve. The industrialists, agriculturists, exporters and labourers are all suffering in Punjab owing to the worst outage,” Mr Sharif said to reporters after chairing a meeting at his residence in Raiwind.
The PML-N chief expressed surprise over Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s recent statement in which the premier had said that Mr Sharif should have congratulated the PPP for completing four years of its tenure. “There is not a single achievement for which it should be congratulated,” the former prime minister said.
“Shall I congratulate Gilani sahib for loadshedding, corruption, confrontation with the Supreme Court, or decline in exports? What did the people get in these four years of bad governance?”
Commenting on the PML-N’s plan to launch protests against loadshedding, Fauzia Wahab of the PPP said the federal government could not be held solely responsible for the crisis. “After the NFC Award this is very much a provincial subject.
“Instead of passing on the buck to the federal government, the PML-N should devote its energies to initiating and launching power projects,” said the PPP leader.
