ISLAMABAD: The opposition Pakistan Peoples Party has decided to take up the issue of the power crisis in the country, particularly Sindh, in the National Assembly.

According to a spokesman for the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah, five MNAs from the party submitted on Wednesday a `calling attention notice’ to the NA secretariat, drawing the attention of the minister for water and power “to the massive unscheduled loadshedding of up to 18 hours in various parts of the country, especially in Sindh”.

The notice has been moved by Imran Zafar Laghari, Shazia Marri, Nafeesa Shah, Aijaz Jakhrani and Abdul Sattar.

According to the notice, prolonged loadshedding has made people’s lives miserable and is adversely affecting domestic and industrial activities.

It regrets that people have been forced to “live without gas, petrol and electricity” and alleges that the government’s “visionless” policies and actions have pushed the country into a whirlpool of crisis.

Meanwhile, Khurshid Shah in a statement asked the government to immediately convene a session of the National Assembly so that the house could take stock of the situation and suggest measures for improving it.

Opposition parties have already submitted a requisition notice to the NA secretariat to discuss recent petrol crisis.

Mr Shah said the government had failed to live up to the expectations of people as it was unable to provide basic necessities to masses.

He said the government did not move even an inch to take remedial measures to avert electricity shortage crisis despite a timely warning from him.

He said the entire country had plunged into darkness because of the government’s “negligence and inefficiency” and warned that “this style of government functioning is weakening democracy and the state”.

PPP, he said, would never compromise on people’s rights, democracy and the state.

He said there was a general perception among people at the time of the 2013 elections that taking advantage of their experience, Nawaz Sharif and his cabinet would run the country in a better way. But this has proved to be a myth.

The opposition leader said he would remind the government in the next session of the assembly of the tall promises it had made with people. “Then people will decide if there is any single promise fulfilled by the PML-N after coming to power.”

He asked the government to tell the people truth and alleged that it always tried to hide its faults under the web of lies.

He said the crises of petrol, gas and electricity had cast a negative impact on the national economy and that would also affect people by and large in the coming days.

During the petrol crisis, he added, the country bore the loss of about Rs10 billion a day and now the electricity crisis would double the loss.

Published in Dawn January 29th, 2015

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