Punjab power tariff cut sparks debate

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: An exchange of remarks took place on the social media platform X between Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan leader Mustafa Kamal on Saturday after the announcement made by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif the other day to subsidise the electricity cost for consumers in Punjab. The two politicians exchanged remarks following a press conference addressed by the MQMP leader on Saturday, demanding that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announce a reduction in electricity tariff by Rs18 to Rs20 per unit for consumers in the entire country.

The Punjab CM in her tweet informed the MQM leader that her government hadn’t provided this relief to people of her province free of charge as it paid for this facility. She said her government spared Rs45 billion out of its budget to give this relief. “I will be pleased if you talk to the Sindh government to extend the same relief to its people,” she said.

In response, Mustafa thanked Maryam for her valuable advice. He said there would have been no need for his party to visit Lahore and announce unconditional support for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz four months before the 2024 general elections had the Sindh government treated his party with good manners in the last 15 years. He mentioned that the MQMP till the present day adhered to its decision of extending unilateral support to the PMLN. He said he, in his latest press conference, didn’t make any request to the Punjab government. Instead, he made a request to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. He urged the PM to show mercy to Sindh and particularly Karachi whose residents should get equal rights. He said the PM’s attention was drawn to this matter multiple times in his meetings with him in the past several months. The PM in his meetings had promised to extend relief to Sindh, particularly to the residents of Karachi, Hyderabad and other parts of urban Sindh.

Earlier, in the day, addressing a press conference, Mustafa demanded that Shehbaz Sharif immediately announce cut in electricity prices in the country by Rs18 to Rs20 per unit. He said the sense of deprivation among the residents of urban Sindh in particular and that of the rest of Pakistan in general had further intensified following a press conference by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif who announced subsidized rates of electricity for powers consumers in Punjab only.

“Instead of Nawaz Sharif, the press conference should have been addressed by PM Shehbaz to announce a reduction in electricity rates by Rs18 to Rs20 per unit for the entire country,” he said and hoped that the PM would soon address a press conference to make such an announcement. He said the MQMP’s demand for reduction in electricity rates was for the entire country and not just for Karachi despite the fact that taxes collected from Sindh’s capital accounted for up to 65 to 70 per cent of the national revenue pool. He said the MQMP neither blocked any road nor staged any protest to highlight the electricity issue and instead, it met the PM, relevant ministers and officials to brief them about problems in Pakistan’s energy sector. The MQMP in these meetings presented workable solutions for the energy sector issues and raised the problem of hefty payments to independent power producers.

Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said the Punjab government announced the relief under pressure created by the JI with the help of people and continuous activism. He said people in Punjab would be provided a relief of Rs28 per unit in two months. The issue needs to be addressed on a permanent basis.

He was addressing a press conference at the Idara Noor-e-Haq, the JI Karachi headquarters.

Hafiz Naeem made it clear that the relief should be provided to people across the country. If Punjab can announce the relief, so can other provinces. The government would have 36 more days to implement an agreement made with the JI in letter and spirit to provide across-the-board relief to the nation. He said the JI would hold a strike in collaboration with traders on August 28 against high electricity bills and inflation.

Talking about the Sindh province, he said the province’s budget was of three trillion, with inclusion of Rs1,885 billion or almost 62 per cent by the federal government. Against this backdrop, the Pakistan Peoples Party government in Sindh can easily spare a few billion to provide relief to the masses. He reminded the PPP government in Sindh about the promise regarding 100 units free electricity its leadership made during electioneering. He said all so-called political parties had been partners in crime. No political party highlighted the issue of capacity charges because they were hand in glove.

He highlighted another scam in the name of capacity payment for the Matiari-Lahore power transmission line. He said Rs1,450 billion were paid despite the fact that the project used only 37 per cent of its capacity. Lambasting Shehbaz Sharif, he said not even a single segment of the society was happy with the policies of the government. The premier, he said, himself was confessing in one of his speeches that his policies were ruining businesses in Pakistan. He quoted the premier as saying that expensive electricity had pushed Pakistani producers out of the competitive market. Why didn’t the prime minister take some drastic steps to address the crises, instead of talking rubbish?

In response to a question, Kamal demanded that the government ensure uninterrupted internet services as the reported experiments in connection with the internet firewall had ruined the market for information technology-based freelancers. The three billion IT exports industry was on the verge of collapse, he said.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came together to criticise the Punjab government’s plan to provide relief to power consumers for two months by terming it a move taken merely for optics.

PPP leader Murtaza Wahab, speaking on Geo News programme Naya Pakistan, said that every government has prioritised relief to the masses but that should be granted on a long-term basis. Commenting on the Punjab government’s power relief plan, he said the provincial government would bear financial expense of Rs45 billion while the relief would only last for only two months. Wahab blamed the PMLN government for signing contracts with independent power producers (IPPs) in haste. He was of the view that the government was responsible for providing long-term relief instead of such moves taken merely for optics. Wahab added: “Provincial card should not be played on electricity-related issues.” The Karachi mayor, whose party is a coalition partner of the ruling PMLN in the Centre, invited the federal government to formulate long-term plans with the PPP to provide relief to the masses. In the same programme, Adviser on Finance to the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muzammil Aslam also criticised Punjab’s two-month power subsidy announcement, saying that it would be tantamount to wasting public resources in the name of relief. He claimed that unsustainable power projects were launched in Punjab — the most populous province of Pakistan — which generate electricity at the cost of Rs75 per unit via imported furnace oil. On the other hand, Sindh and KP were generating low-cost electricity. He further claimed that the cost of per unit electricity generation would be Rs8 through the new power projects in KP. Aslam said the KP government also allocated Rs20 billion for its solarisation project and was providing solar systems to each family at the cost of Rs200,000.