Daily Times

Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar, referring to Pervez Khattak's "heatedargument" with Prime Minister Imran Khan, on Saturday said that " Pervez Khattakis our elder, the party respects him and he has every right to speak", a private TVchannel reported.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, he said that he had neither spoken toKhattak nor had any argument with him and that the senior leader had never eventaken his name.Khattak had raised the issue of gas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Prime MinisterImran Khan, upon which the prime minister asked me to give a briefing, which Idid, Azhar explained.

He added that the prime minister told Khattak that using dataprovided by the energy minister, a decision would be made in the national interest.Azhar told the media that PTI follows democratic traditions, not just in theparliamentary party meetings, but also in cabinet meetings. "We are truly ademocratic party, where everyone is allowed to speak openly," said Azhar, addingthat PTI is not dynastic "where the child of the party leader comes and sits downand people stop breathing," he said.

Hammad Azhar said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led government has introducedbasic reforms in various sectors including in energy during last three years aimedat ensuring sustainable development.

He said our economy was paralyzed after 1960 and gross domestic product (GDP)also could not grow like the other countries. Sometime, our GDP witnessed suddenincrease and in next increase faced recession, he added.Earlier, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) fixed the market exchange rate on thedirection of Finance Minister resulting increase in debts and pressure on foreigncurrency reserves, he said.

He said now rates were fixed as per market based exchange. The custom policywas also separated from Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Tax, he added.Now, the commerce ministry fixed it which also help improvement in rawmaterials, he said. He said it would also help promote industries in the country. The minister said that the country’s exports would be brought at $ 30 billion thisyear while Rs 6000 billion tax collection would be collected during the said periodwhich would be a record.He said the entire world has praised Pakistan for compliance of 26 points out of 27given by Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

He said new power plants were set up in past without assessing the old powerplants established by Independent Power Producers (IPPs). The governmentrenegotiated with IPPs which would bring improvement in the power sector, headded. He said the government for the first time approved Indicative Generation CapacityExpansion Plan (IGCEP) model in the country under which in future powerprojects would be set up purely in opening competitive bidding as per therequirement.

The minister said in past, focus was given only to generation of electricity while noattention was paid to power distribution in the country. In past, our system couldnot transmit around 20,000 MW while 24,700 MW electricity was transmittedduring the last year, he said. Hammad said system could easily transmit 30,000 MW by 2023.

The governmenthas completed 4000 MW HVDC transmission line project which was only presentin the papers, he added.He said 2nd phase of Neelum Jhelum transmission line project has also beencompleted yesterday which would supply electricity from Neelum Jhelum andKarot Hydrpower Projects to Sialkot and Gujrnawala districts.The minister said yesterday, the National Assembly passed a legislation regardingSBP autonomy which was highly politicized by the opposition.

In all developedcountries, their State Banks were independent, he added.He said the federal government would own the entire assets of SBP while theappointment and removal of SBP governor, deputy governor and board of directorswas also under the domain of the Central government.

The legislation would freethe SBP from politicized decisions, he added.He said the government successfully dismantled cartelization in agriculture andenhance wheat support price to facilitate the farmers. The farmers were gettingrates of Rs 250-300 per maund for their sugar cane, he added. Regarding fuel cost adjustment, the minister said the past government installedpower projects based on imported fuel including LNG and Coal which resulted invariation of fuel cost prices.