ISLAMABAD, June 17: People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MNA Syed Naveed Qamar has criticized the government for allocating Rs64 billion subsidy for Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC).
Talking to reporters here on Monday, Naveed Qamar said Wapda, which was being run most of the time by army generals, had become an inefficient organization.
He said out of the past 28 years, Wapda had been run by army generals in 22 years. When asked as to why the PPP government did not change Gen Zahid Akbar as Wapda chief during its own tenure, the MNA said Gen Zahid was appointed by Gen Ziaul Haq for a period of five years with legal protection. Therefore, he said, the PPP could do nothing.
He demanded that Wapda should not be made an “army retirement house” and it be run on professional lines. He accused the government of failing to check corruption and line losses in Wapda. The MNA regretted that the people of Pakistan were being “asked to pay the price for army generals’ corruption”.
Mr Qamar said Rs20 billion was allocated as subsidy for Wapda in the last year’s budget, but it suffered a loss of Rs49 billion. He said it was wrongly projected that the electricity prices were on the rise due to the IPPs. He said Wapda was generating 77 per cent electricity through its own resources and getting only 23 per cent from the IPPs.
Moreover, he claimed, the price of electricity being generated by the IPPs had come down to Rs2.80 paisa per unit, but Wapda was charging about Rs5 per unit from domestic and Rs10 per unit from commercial consumers. In this way, Wapda should earn huge profit instead of running into losses, he added.
Criticizing the government for passing the budget in “haste”, he said, “it seemed that the government was in a hurry fearing that opposition might come back to the House”. He said with the boycott of budget process by the opposition, it was free to announce any relief for the people. “However, it has failed to do so”, he said.
He also criticized the increase in the prices of petroleum products and termed it the first mini-budget only one week after the presentation of the federal budget. He said there was no increase in the prices of POL products in the international market which warranted the government to raise prices in the country.