Wapda staffers’ reservationsto be removed before privatisation: Abid Sher Says staffers misguided over privatisation; closed powerhouses to be run on LNGFrom Our CorrespondentMULTAN: State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali has said that there will be six-hour loadshedding in cities and eight-hour loadshedding in rural areas in summer
By our correspondents
March 10, 2015
Wapda staffers’ reservations to be removed before privatisation: Abid Sher Says staffers misguided over privatisation; closed powerhouses to be run on LNG From Our Correspondent MULTAN: State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali has said that there will be six-hour loadshedding in cities and eight-hour loadshedding in rural areas in summer as the government is taking steps to generate more electricity. Talking to newsmen at the Multan Arts Council on Monday, he said that 1,500 megawatt would be added to the system till May to overcome the shortfall. He said that the LNG import would begin from March 31 to run the closed powerhouses, including the Piran Gaib powerhouse. The state minister said that action would be taken against the XEN and SE concerned on failing to replace a transformer in 24 hours on public complaints. To a question regarding warning of the Wapda Hydroelectric Labour Union to suspend power supply across the country from March 25, the minister said that no one could switch off electricity. He said that the protection of Wapda employees was a priority. The Wapda employees, who were on strike, had been misguided about the privatisation, he said, adding that their reservations would be removed before the privatisation. He said that the government was working on Diamer-Bhasha Dam, Terbela Extension Project and Dasu Dam. To another question, the minister said that the federal government was making efforts to curb price hike and black marketing, but it was the provincial matter and Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif was working on the issue. The state minister rejected any sort of horse-trading in the Senate polls. He said that the PML-N government led by PM Nawaz Sharif was discouraging confrontation in politics. He said that the PML-N gave a free hand to the PTI government in the KP. Meanwhile, widow Nasim Bibi came from Wazirabad and tried to meet the state minister to lodge her complaint but the security personnel kept her away. She told journalists that her husband Sarfraz Ahmad had died on duty in 1997 but her son Nadeem Ahmad was not recruited in his place. She demanded job for her son.
