Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Thursday lambasted the federal government over excessive load shedding in the province and invited all parties to march to the capital for a sit-in against power outages.

Shah held a media briefing in Karachi and shared that Sehwan is subjected to over 18 hours of load shedding. “I used to get complaints of load shedding when I was the provincial finance minister and it has become the biggest problem of Karachi,” CM shared.

Putting the blame on Sui Southern Gas Company (SSCG), Shah said that the issue lies with SSGC primarily. “We tried to solve the issue by calling up representatives of K-Electric and SSGC. The government holds 73 per cent shares in Sui Southern Gas Company (SSCG) and they have no regard for this issue. The issue is also being dealt with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which claims that the issue was created by both parties as SSGC owes Rs110 billion to K-Electric. All parts of Sindh, including Karachi, have seen a rise in load shedding and the federal government still owns 24 per cent stake in K-Electric. “The Pakistan Muslime League-Nawaz (PML-N) government is doing all this to show its enmity towards Sindh,” Shah said. Sindh has the first right to gas as the province produces 70 per cent of natural gas. “I wrote two letters to the PM detailing the issue of load shedding in Karachi, Naushero Feroz, Sukkur, Salah Pat, Mirpur Khas, Larkana and Bakshapur which are facing power outages up to 16 hours, while Hyderabad is facing 14 hours of load shedding,” he added.

Rural as well as urban areas of Sindh have been subjected to injustice.

“What good will the public get if it stages a protest outside the CM House? I have revealed all affairs pertaining to the issue and I invite all parties to march to Islamabad for a sit-in,” he said. Some people are staging a protest on the shortage of water and electricity. To make the protest meaningful, all parties should march to the PM House and stage a sit-in. Shah added: “The plant we have developed in Nooriabad is producing to its full capacity. We are giving 100MW of its supply to K-Electric, Sindh is producing 900 MW through wind energy.”

Shah maintained that cuts in supply of gas, water and electricity is a constitutional violation and these issues have been raised during meetings of Council of Common Interests (CCI). Shah also expressed his reservations over raids conducted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). “NAB calls for placing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s name on the Exit Control List (ECL) but the federal government refuses to. However, Sharjeel Memon was placed on the ECL despite being abroad.” Earlier today, secretary and minister of the Sindh local government met with the province’s chief minister to discuss a raid conducted by NAB a day earlier at their offices. Ramzan Awan, the local government secretary, and Jam Khan Shoro, the local government minister, met the Sindh CM and informed him of the recent surprise NAB-led raid carried out at the local government offices, according to sources. Shah advised Rizwan Memon, Chief Secretary for Sindh, to gather details on the said raid, and report back in this regard, the sources added.

Published in Daily Times, April 20^th 2018.