Daily Times

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Thursday directed immediate disciplinary action against the officers involved in electricity theft and its facilitation. He gave these directions while chairing a review meeting on the prevention of electricity theft. The prime minister said those who caused loss of billions of dollars to national exchequer will be punished. The present situation of the economy could not bear the problem of electricity theft, he added. He said a strategy should be formulated at the earliest for decreasing line losses and for upgradation of transmission lines. He said generation companies were a burden on the national exchequer and work should be started on their privatization at the earliest. A report on complete plan for solarization of tubewells in Balochistan should be presented, the prime minister added. During the meeting, it was decided to install smart meters on transformers under the public sector development programme. Feeder monitors would be deployed at the feeders which were causing huge losses. The meeting was briefed that the areas with low rate of electricity theft would have less loadshedding. The prime minister said under the anti-theft campaign, since September 2023, Rs 57 billion were recovered. Under the electricity anti-theft campaign, 45,777 people in Punjab, 1250 in Sindh, 5121 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 181 were arrested in Balochistan. During the campaign, 350 personnel of distribution companies were suspended for their bad performance or abetment. It was told that the task forces set up at district and division levels for stopping theft of electricity would be given part of the recovery amount for their good performance. Federal Minister for Power Awais Ahmed Leghari, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Cheema, Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar, Federal Minister for Industry and Production Rana Tanveer Hussain, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, Federal Minister for Petroleum Musadiq Malik and relevant officers attended the meeting.