Load shedding will be phased out every month: Prime Minister

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mian Nawaz Sharif Thursday said that overpowering the crippling energy crisis was his government's topmost priority, Geo News reported.

“The load shedding will be phased out every month starting very soon. Hopefully, down the line, neither the (electric) fans will stop throwing air nor the (factories) chimneys spewing smoke”, said he presiding over an Energy Conference at State Guest House here.

Addressing the participants he said that government would spin into action from Friday to resolve the circular debt issue.

"The government has planned to gradually retire the power sector's huge circular debt to streamline the electricity generation chain that would bring the loadshedding under control. A strategy to break the vicious cycle of circular debt once and for all will be put into action by tomorrow”, said Sharif.

The energy sector is one of the major priorities of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, which would take all the stakeholders on board to overcome the shortfall, he maintained.

He called for getting rid of incompetent officials as well as useless machines to put the country on road to speedy development for bringing Pakistan at par with the developed nations.

"The malfunctioning hardware as well as the incompetent operators at different power plants will be replaced, adding lists of all those who had so far been found sleeping on their jobs are already on the concerned authorities tables", the PM said.

The government was bent on ensuring a marked reduction in load shedding for domestic as well as commercial consumers especially industries, said Nawaz Sharif.

The Prime Minister also directed the concerned departments to switch on all those power plants, which were lying idle owing to non-supply of fuel and follow a uniform policy for the distribution of gas and power.

During the moot he was given a detailed briefing on the energy situation in the country.

Nawaz also directed the authorities for taking stringent measures for stopping electricity pilferage.

The newly-elected Punjab Chief Minister Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, Ishaq Dar, MNAs Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, MPA Rana Muhammad Afzal, former caretaker federal minister Dr Musadiq Malik, Shaukat Tareen, Salman Shahbaz Sharif, Mian Muhammad Mansha and energy experts also attended the meeting.