Amid long hours of power outages and heatwave in the country, Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Malik has vowed to overcome the issue of load-shedding by mid July.
Speaking during a television interview with journalist Shahzeb Khanzada, Musadik said that he will request Finance Minister Miftah Ismail to release more funds for K-Electric [KE].
The electricity shortfall in Pakistan has increased from 4,000 megawatts to 6,000 megawatts, leading to 12-14 hours of load-shedding in parts of Karachi and other major cities.
Citing reasons for this increased shortfall, Musadik said the water level in the dams has fallen very low. He also said that the coal price hike, and the international Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) shortage were also affecting energy production in Pakistan.
“Only 5,000 megawatts of electricity is being generated instead of 9,500 MW,” he said.
Previously on Tuesday, a protest in Karachi regarding the persistent load-shedding turned violent as police and protestors clashed with each other.
A policeman and several civilians were injured in violent clashes between law enforcement agencies and protestors who had taken to the street against persistent load-shedding in Karachi’s Mauripur area.
Meanwhile, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon had previously been critical of K-Electric, saying that it only made money from the city.
“KE is a profitable company that makes money from the city but the issues it faces are not new. It [KE] should invest on its system but it doesn’t and is up to making money only,” he said.
He added that people in interior Sindh were undergoing ‘mental torture’ due to 18 hours of load-shedding.
Following his statements, KE issued a statement saying, “Due to the rise in temperature, the power demand has also surged, because of which the power shortfall, which used to be 250 to 300 MW on an average, has risen to an average of 400 to 500 MW.”
