Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has directed officials to prepare an emergency plan within the next 24 hours to reduce power load-shedding in the country, according to media reports on Sunday. Load shedding in different parts of the country is creating problems for the citizens – especially for the business community.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Maryam Aurangzeb said Prime Minister Sharif took a detailed review of the situation during a five-hour-long meeting on Saturday where he was briefed about the impediments in providing electricity to domestic and commercial consumers. Sharif tasked a committee of energy, petroleum and finance ministers to present an action plan. He also promised that effective implementation of the plan to gradually reduce load-shedding would be ensured, the state-run APP news agency said.
The meeting, which was attended by federal ministers and high-level officials, discussed hours of load shedding in various parts of the country that citizens are facing with high temperatures, Dawn newspaper reports. The situation of load shedding was reviewed in the meeting and measures were emphasized to reduce the power shortage in the country.
The Prime Minister directed that the plan should ensure a clear reduction in power load-shedding for the people of Pakistan. Defense Minister Khawaja Asif suggested taking advantage of the “365 days of sunshine” and operating the markets during the day, as opposed to the tradition of “opening markets at 1 pm and closing them at 1 pm”.
If markets set the right business hours, except in Karachi, around 3,500 MW of electricity can be saved, the minister said, adding that the country needs to take “difficult decisions” to deal with the shortfall of about 7,000 MW. This came as policy makers sought solutions to conserve energy amid a grave crisis in the country.
The issue of load shedding has also affected the debt-ridden country’s economy in general.
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