Load-shedding to be reduced to 3.5 hours from today: Shahid Khaqan
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that the duration of load shedding in the country will be reduced to three and a half hours from today (Tuesday).
Minister of State for Petroleum Musaddiq Malik, Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan and Minister for Information and Broadcasting Maryam Aurangzeb were also present in the press conference along with PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that the demand for electricity has exceeded 25,000 MW during the heat wave in the country.
“When we came to power, coal, diesel, LNG and furnace oil could generate 17,000 to 18,000 megawatts of electricity for power plants. In the last three weeks, we have increased it to 21,” he said.
He said that other sectors of the economy, namely, fertilizer manufacturers, export industries also started supplying gas.
The former prime minister said that the government and the cabinet also apologized to the people for the load shedding but also asked for some time to resolve these issues.
He said that at present there is a shortage of 4000 MW, therefore load shedding has to be increased for more than 4 hours.
“The Prime Minister of Pakistan has decided to reduce this load shedding from tomorrow to three and a half hours.” Khaqan added.
The PML-N leader said that in the next phase, when coal comes from import, the load shedding will be reduced to less than 3 hours from June 16, while from June 30, the load shedding will be around one and a half hours.
