ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Water and Power on Wednesday told the national assembly that industrial sector has been exempted from power outages.

Abid Sher Ali told the house during question hour that six hours load shedding in urban areas and eight hours load shedding in rural areas are being carried out under a uniformed policy.

However, he said load shedding for longer duration is being carried out in areas of high losses feeders.

To a question, he said the government has reduced electricity tariff by five and half rupees per unit during the last few months.

Abid Sher Ali told the House that the government is implementing a five year plan for up gradation and improvement of electric transmission network.

Abid Sher Ali told the House that consensus of provinces is required for implementation of timely closure of shops at 8 p.m., marriage halls at 10 p.m. and restaurants at 11 p.m. He pointed out that the measure will be very beneficial and load shedding can be reduced further.

To a question Minister for Water and Power, Khawaja Muhammad Asif apprised the House that the government is working on micro level, medium level and macro level hydel power projects to overcome energy shortage in the country.

Opposition members of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said that at least 18-20 hours long outages are being carried out in several areas. To which Khawaja Asif retaliated and asked the opposition to name those areas.
He further said that feeders where huge line losses were reported are witnessing long power cuts while those having lesser losses are suffering lesser. Asif said that the government is working on micro and macro level energy projects.