JHANG: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Saturday that the government had successfully accomplished the mission of ending load-shedding in Pakistan. Addressing the groundbreaking ceremony of 1,263-megawatt Punjab Power Plant in Haveli Bahadur Shah in Jhang district, the prime minister said currently there was no load-shedding in the country except in the areas where the cases of power theft were being reported. Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Minister for Power Awais Khan Leghari and Minister of State for Power Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali accompanied the prime minister as they unveiled the plaque to launch work on the project that would be completed in two phases. Ambassadors of China and Germany also attended the ceremony. The first phase of the LNG-fuelled project would complete in 14 months and generate 810MW electricity, while after completion of the second phase in 26 months, the power production would reach a total of 1,263MW. The prime minister said that the power project initiated by the Pakistan People’s Party government could not produce a single kilowatt of electricity even after 30 months rather indebted the country by Rs 80 billion. “The incumbent government executed four projects in 20 months to contribute around 3,600MW of electricity to the national grid,” he added. He praised the Punjab chief minister for overseeing the execution of four liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plants, saying that the country could never have overcome load-shedding in the absence of those plants. The prime minister said it was only the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government that not only launched the development projects but also ensured their completion. Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif severely criticised Asif Ali Zardari and Imran Khan during the foundation stone lying ceremony in Jhang. He criticised Asif Ali Zardari for mega corruption cases and Imran Khan for his lies. The chief minister also spoke in German and thanked the German ambassador. “Load-shedding in the country has been eliminated due to untiring and round-the-clock efforts of the PML-N government. Industries, farms, schools, hospitals, offices and houses are getting electricity due to the completion of the power projects. We have eliminated load-shedding once and for all, and it will not return to the country again. The PML-N government had installed 3,600MW gas powered project. Now the Punjab government is installing new gas-based project of 1,263MW. This project is being installed at the Rs10 billion less than other projects,” he said. He said the Chinese president had signed agreements in 2015 in Islamabad and after the finalization of these agreements the great journey of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor started. “In 2015, a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy had held under then prime minister Nawaz Sharif in which a proposal was given to install 3,600MW power project based on gas, but that proposal had been opposed by cabinet members, bureaucracy, and every person present in the meeting as everybody had the opinion that Pakistan should not make its own investment in the presence of CPEC, but my lone voice had been in the favour of the investment,” he said. Published in Daily Times, December 10th 2017.