ISLAMABAD, July 4: Chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Benazir Bhutto has expressed concern over the power crisis in Karachi and said that it has paralysed the metropolis’ civic, commercial and industrial life.

In a statement, issued by Ms Bhutto in London and released by the party here on Tuesday, the PPP chairperson condemned the government’s apathy towards the electricity situation in Karachi and called for remedial measures on war footing.

Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto recalled that the PPP government had solved the power problem through independent power projects but vested interests tried to scandalise it for their own political ends. She said while Karachi sizzled and industrial and commercial activities had almost come to a halt, the government was wasting national resources and dithering on plans to set up new power plants.

She said it was wrong to complain of lack of financial resources for setting up new power plants. “It is only a question of understanding the problem and of prioritisation,” she said.

Ms Bhutto was of the view that there was no need to spend billions on building the new army general headquarters (GHQ) in Islamabad or on purchasing VVIP aircraft or on expensive limousines for generals and ministers when the wheels of industry had come to a grinding halt and people were scorched out of their homes on to the streets by incessant power breakdowns.

The former prime minister demanded that parliament be given the breakdown of costs involved on these and other unnecessary projects and how much the generation of additional few thousand megawatts of power would cost, adding: “Let the people of Pakistan decide what came first and what came later.”