Summary Opposition leader Khurshid Shah and PTI leader Asad Umar scathingly criticized govt
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Opposition lambasted the federal government for electricity outages in Karachi and blamed federation for being responsible for deaths due to intense heatwaves on Wednesday.
Opposition leader Khurshid Shah said that the federal government is responsible for the deaths in Karachi due to intense heatwave and thus the leaders should apologise.
He said that Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali is a “kid” and he can say whatever he wants, they would not take offense.
Shah said that the government should not cripple Pakistan by “breaking its legs”. The opposition leader lashed out at the government in the session.
While giving a rebuttal, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said that Sindh government is responsible for the deaths. He said that the opposition must not give Constitution and federation references to blame the federal government.
Shah said that people are dying of load-shedding in hot weather while the ministers have opened their books and are giving figures. He said that countries are not strengthened by blame games.
He turned to Asif and asked him to name the people who are involved in electricity theft. Shah said that the government had told earlier that K-Electric could produce electricity from furnace oil. The government said that the country has a resource of at least 24,000 MW, he added.
Asad Umar said the Minister claimed that Karachi is not their mandate and people in Karachi say “they (government) should have some shame.”
He said: “End this culture of cronyism where you are filling your relatives and cronies in power sector. Bring professionals.”
Asad Umar said power projects worth billions of rupees remain idle in the hand of incompetent cronies. The fault of this lies with the Prime Minister.
“We have already 700 bodies in our hand; mostly poor who died of chronic heat wave,” the PTI MNA remarked.
He said it is responsibility of the federal government to stop power theft from any feeder across the country.
Nandipur project s original cost was Rs23 billion; it eventually cost Rs57 billion and ran only 3 days, he told the House.
The lawmaker asked: “Does the federal government remember Karachiites only when it has to collect taxes.”
