Daily Times

LAHORE: It seems that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will not let the government to take a sigh of relief as the party has decided to hold a protest against prolonged power outages.

“The party will hold a protest camp on The Mall against power load shedding in front of the Punjab Assembly in the next couple of days,” said Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Mehmoodur Rasheed on Tuesday.

Earlier, the PTI had planned to lodge a protest against the government inside the assembly building but now the party has decided to change the venue of holding a protest to seek more and more participation of party workers and the general public.

“Both the federal government and the provincial government have failed to control the load shedding of electricity in big cities, leave alone the rural areas where situation is getting worst day by day,” said the opposition leader while talking to the media at his chamber.

He said that power infrastructure was in a shambles while the Sharif government was busy in construing road, metro bus services and bridges.

He slammed the energy policies of the incumbent government, saying that Sharif brothers had vowed to put an end to power crisis six months after assuming the office but had failed to control prolonged power outages even after the passage of four years.

He said that government had made a plan to start some rental power projects to deal with the prevalent energy crisis in the country but the opposition would not allow them to do so, as it would enhance per unit cost of electricity.

He said that the PTI would strongly oppose any such move by holding a protest campaign countrywide, especially in Punjab.

To a question about the legal notice sent to party chief Imran Khan by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif over Rs 10 billion bribe offer, the opposition leader said, “It is strange that a person who has failed to keep his promises is challenging a trustworthy politician.”

The chief minister Monday sent a defamation notice to Imran Khan asking him to apologise for accusing his brother and prime minister of the country, Nawaz Sharif, of offering him Rs 10 billion in bribe against keeping mum on Panama case.

“Since the last week of April 2017, you [Imran] have been uttering/spreading and resorting to the publication and circulation, directly and/or by way of innuendos, maliciously false, baseless and unfounded statements and representations against my client to the effect that he had offered you a sum of Rs10 billion in lieu of your withdrawing/backing off from the Panamagate case,” the notice reads.

It added, “If within 14 days of the receipt of the legal notice, Imran doesn’t tender a proper apology to Shahbaz and get the same published through print and electronic media in the same manner and with the same prominence as the publication of the defamatory statement and representation, a legal action will be taken against him for recovery of Rs 10 billion as damages under the ordinance on account of defamation committed by the PTI chief.”