IPPs issue being used for politics: Tarar

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting, National Heritage and Culture Attaullah Tarar said, as part of the present government’s reform agenda, the process of privatisation of Discos has been started after an amendment to the State Owned Enterprises Act.

Addressing a press conference along with Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Mustafa Kamal here Thursday, the information minister said that he pointed out that inefficiency and corruption of Discos span over several decades. Therefore, he said it was decided to bring competent and professional people from the private sector to run the Discos free from any political interference.

He said a delegation of MQM-Pakistan comprising Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Mustafa Kamal met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and matters related to electricity bills and IPP issue were discussed.

The minister appreciated the MQM for always showing responsibility and constructive approach towards resolving national issues and played a positive role in the reforms agenda. He said that he was grateful to the MQM for raising its voice on this issue.

Attaullah Tarar said that the matter of electricity tariff was the issue of the entire nation and a collective approach was needed to overcome this issue. “When the PMLN government came into power in 2013, it ended 18-hour loadshedding,” the minister said, adding at that time Punjab and federal governments had installed the cheapest power plants.

He said that electricity consumers using 200 units were given a Rs50 billion subsidy for three months and this amount was taken from PSDP budget to provide relief to the electricity consumers in summer, adding that steps were also afoot regarding the cases of over-billing, controlling power theft in collaboration with the provincial governments.

The minister said that the deadline for payment of electricity bills had been extended by 10 days to facilitate the consumers.

The minister maintained that IPPs were not a political issue and discussions were going on over the issue of IPPs.

Thanking the MQM leaders for highlighting this issue of national nature, the minister said that it was the collective duty of all the government allies to give their suggestions and input. Some people wanted to use this issue for political point scoring though they themselves were in power in the past, he expressed.

Replying to other questions, the information minister said that action had been taken against those involved in the wheat import issue.

He said that the digitization process of the Federal Bureau of Revenue was going on with the cooperation of Melinda Gates Foundation, for which the government of Pakistan had not spent a single rupee. He said that due to the government’s efforts, the number of filers was increasing continuously.

The minister opined that if the country had defaulted, there would have been a civil war in the country.

To a question, he said that IPPs issue was not a political issue and could not be resolved through sit-ins and agitation. He asked the leadership of Jamaat-e-Islami to end the protest and sit with the government.