ISLAMABAD: Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif said that his priority was to reduce the load shedding hours in order to make them 'bearable' and ensure equalise load shedding across the country.

Speaking to media persons at his ministry in Islamabad, the minister said that he would not give any deadline to end load shedding but eventually he did.

“I will not say it will take days, weeks or months to end load shedding but I can say that it will take a year at least. There is a supply-demand gap, as well as power theft and lots of corruption which needs to be eradicated," Khawaja Asif told the media.

Pakistanis have been suffering the worst power outages in history with the urban areas facing 12-16 hours of power cuts, while the rural areas are facing over 16 hours of load shedding on a daily basis.

Eliminating the load shedding had become one of the prominent issues that dominated this year’s election campaigns and all political parties promised to end the power outages if elected.

But Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif – whose Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) emerged victorious in May 11 elections – has said that he would make every effort to end load-shedding but it would take time.