Updated on
Summary
President Asif Ali Zardari Thursday asked the private power producers to complete the projects assigned to them expeditiously so as to end load shedding by December this year as has been committed by the government with the people. The Presidents plea came during a meeting today in the Presidency with more than a dozen power producers alongwith the Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and Secretaries of relevant ministries dealing with power, finance and petroleum issues. Briefing the media persons about the meeting Spokesperson to the President former Senator Farhatullah Babar said that all of the power producers assured the President that their projects would come on line as per contractual obligations before the end of the year. Some producers claimed that their projects would be completed several weeks, even months, ahead of the schedule. The rental power plants which are expected to be commissioned by the end of the year are based mostly on gas and furnace oil. Farhatullah Babar said that on the presentation by a private power producer the President directed the Petroleum Secretary to furnish a report on 16 gas fields in Sindh reportedly abandoned by the OGDC as depleted and of no use. The President also announced to designate Ambassador at Large Khalil Ahmad as the point person to address security issues raised by the power producers due to which foreign manpower was reluctant to work. The President asked the power producers to contact the Ambassador at Large for addressing issues relating to foreign manpower. The President said he will undertake a periodic review of the power sector to ensure that bottlenecks if any were removed and the projected plants came on line as scheduled to end the load shedding. The President also called for a separate meeting on utilization of indigenous coal for power production. The meeting will be held shortly, Farhatullah Babar said.
