Provincial Spokesman of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Member of the Provincial Assembly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ikhtiar Wali on Sunday said that the poor policies of Imran Khan have plunged the country into energy and gas crisis. Talking to APP, he said that work on Mohmand dam with capacity of 800MW and Diamir Bhasha dams with 4500MW capacity was unnecessarily delayed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government that resulted an increase in the demand-supply gap of electricity today.
He said had Diamir Bhasha and Mohmand dams been constructed in the past, Pakistan would have achieved 50,000MW electricity. Wali alleged that over 100 mini macro hydel power stations constructed by PTI led government with help of NGOs in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were either destroyed or damaged by the recent floods due to improper selection of sites and planning. “We have inherited a weak economy while the energy import bill has exorbitantly touched $ 27 billion due to poor energy policies of Imran Khan government.”
Wali said the country’s energy import bill would not have increased to $ 27 billion dollars today, had the PTI government not wasted time on negative politicking and character assassination of the opposition leaders rather focused on construction of new dams and developing alternate energy resources. He said energy shortfall was one of the major challenges, currently being confronted by the coalition government and we need inexpensive electricity and gas to cater shortfall during the winter season.
In Chitral, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Swat, Malakand, Bajaur, Mohmand, Abbottabad, Batagram, Manshera, Buner, Torghar, and Shangla districts, he said the temperature had dropped to a great extent especially at night due to which people mostly rely on electrical and LPG appliances for preparation of indoor meal and keeping their rooms warm for children and senior citizens. Besides Peshawar and Nowshera’s rural areas, the Dir Upper’s Tormang, Paindakhel and Karo Dara, DI Khan, Bannu, Tank, merged districts, Batagram, Lakki Marwat and Chitral were facing over 10 hours of power outage which adversely affecting domestic, commercial and industrial consumers. He said that National Water Policy (NWP) 2018 has revealed that Pakistan was heading towards a situation of water shortage due to lack of dams, which may lead to food insecurity for all living creatures in next few years if not addressed on priority basis in the wake of climate change challenges.