Emphasized on saving electricity but no one bothered, says disgruntled Asif

ISLAMABAD -  Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif said on Saturday that he emphasized on saving electricity to reduce loadshedding in the country but his suggestion fell on deaf ears.

In an interview to BBC, the minister admitted that the government focused more on inauguration of new power plants and to apprise people about these.

“I emphasized on saving electricity but nobody cared. We (ruling party) want public to know regularly that a new plant is being inaugurated”, minister added.

Khawaja Asif expressed that the major reason behind power cuts was loss of electricity.

“Around 3000 MW to 4000 MW of electricity would be saved if public uses electricity in a rightful manner instead of squandering it. Unfortunately, no attention is paid to this issue,” asserted Asif.

The legislator vowed to put an end to the loadshedding in the country however said that  it would continue in areas with reports of electricity-theft.

To a question regarding debt recoveries, Asif responded that ministry had collected Rs27 billion from Sindh whereas there existed no issue with Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) in this regard.

“However, issue of debt recovery exists with Balochistan,” he added.

The PML-N stalwart claimed that ruling party had paid Rs480 billion in terms of circular debts as it assumed office but it had soared to Rs360 billion once again.

It bears mentioning that the federal government had announced zero loadshedding during Sehar and Iftar timings for the holy month starting Sunday.