LAHORE: Secretary General Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Liaqat Baloch has said that JI will hold countrywide protests against loadshedding on Friday (April 28) and stage sit-ins in front of the offices of power distribution companies in major cities.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Liaqat Baloch told that the JI central executive at its meeting has decided to start a full scale campaign against loadshedding and to free the masses from the present ruling junta.
He said that the JI chief Sirajul Haq will address a big public meeting at Malakand on Friday at which he would give a line of action against the government.
Baloch added that the country is facing serious energy crisis due to the incompetence of the rulers. In fact, the nation’s future has been darkened by the political, social and economic disparities and the corruption of leaders. The urban areas are bearing load shedding up to sixteen hours a day while the rural areas have to face the problem for up to twenty hours per day. He said that the minister for water and power had admitted that the energy crisis could not be overcome even during the coming years.
He further pointed out that the shortfall of electricity during 2013 was around 5,000 megawatts which has now increased to 6,000 megawatts. The rulers are making claims that they would add 35,000 megawatts electricity to the system this year, while in fact the government has already missed the opportunities of power generation during its tenure.
He went on to add that the government is looting the masses through overbilling and the money received from the payment of electricity bills is not being paid to the power companies.
He told that the electricity being purchased is valued around Rs 1.36 billion, whereas the government pays Rs 4.5 billion to the power companies. This implies a loss of Rs 3 billion per day.
Baloch emphasised that the government is simply raising false slogans.
He said that the cost of the Neelum Jhelum project has risen to more than Rs 520 billion, whereas billions of rupees have been squandered in the Nandipur power project.
He continued while saying that around 900 factories in Karachi are closed due to energy shortage while production in more than 500 industrial units has been stopped in Faisalabad.
He said that around one lac workers have been rendered jobless in Gujrat, Gujranwala, and other industrial towns. And the capitalists are transferring their wealth abroad.