ISLAMABAD: The government came under fire in the Senate on Friday following disclosure that electricity worth about Rs90 billion had either been stolen or wasted over the past five years.

According to information provided to the house by the Ministry of Water and Power, Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) tops the list of distribution companies incurring pilferage and line losses, with its losses being as high as Rs59.49bn. The Hyderabad Electricity Supply Company (Hesco) sustained losses to the tune of Rs16.17bn during the period and the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco), which was established in 2010, suffered a loss of Rs7.47bn in just two years.

The Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco) suffered a loss of Rs2.36bn, the Faisalabad Electricity Supply Company (Fesco) Rs606 million, Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) Rs363.67m, Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (Iesco) Rs286.8m, and Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco) Rs92.4m.

The Senate was informed that at present the total power generation capacity of the country stood at 8,504MW.

During the question hour, Minister of State for Water and Power Tasneem Ahmad Qureshi said that power generation from hydel sector was 2,837MW and thermal 5,052MW while the nuclear power generation capacity was 615MW.

He said that till Feb 20 this year the total power demand was 11,451MW, resulting in a shortfall of 2,947MW.

Answering a question, the PM’s Adviser for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Dr Asim Hussain, said the duration of CNG stations’ closure in Punjab was longer than other provinces because of greater consumption of the fuel there. He said that due to a meagre demand there was no gas load management plan for Balochistan.

The Sindh and Peshawar high courts had directed the federal government to adhere to the provisions of Article 158 of the Constitution, therefore, gas load management was mainly restricted to Punjab and to some extent Sindh as per demand and supply position, he added.