Lawmakers from both the major political parties in the Parliament, Monday, indulged in unjustified blame game tantamount to rumpus in the House over the ongoing power outrage.
Opposition blamed government for discriminating among provinces on power distribution whereas treasury side alleged provincial government of Punjab for spending billions of rupees of national exchequer on irrelevant projects rather than power generating plants.
Opposition also accused of government and its organizations of lake of efficiency in including fuel pending surcharge in the electricity bills of five months altogether in one month and government promised to collect normal power bills sans fuel surcharges.
Moreover, opposition also demanded well coordinated inquiry into incident of Fakhira Yunus and government side assured to carry out impartial inquiry into the heinous crime.
At the both Houses of the Parliament resumed proceedings after several days’ interval, while responding to observations and insertions of Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhy Nisar Ali Khan, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah inserted that Provincial Government of Punjab spent billions of rupees of national exchequer on projects of trifle importance rather than focusing on power generating projects.
He went on saying that Punjab Government could have produced at least 2000 megawatt of power by taking a little bit interest in last four years as provincial governments under 18th constitutional amendment were authorized to install power generating projects.
Shah further said that all four provinces were facing power load shedding but violence was only in the Punjab province, so Punjab government should have brought the law and order conditions under control.
Shah also added that Punjab government was defaulter of Rs 120 billions and it had spent funds on lavish projects of Sasti Rotti and others.
His insertions sparked loud protest from members of opposition PML-N who stood up chanting slogans like “Bijli Chor”, “(Power Thief) and others. Abid Sher Ali, Tehmina Daultana, Shakil Awan and others were leading vocalists in this saga as the House experienced severe rumpus.
As the Speaker gave floor to the Leader of the Opposition in Senate Ishaq Dar, a PPP member Akhundzada Chitan to respond to slogans from PML-N members during speech of Khurshid Shah, stood of on his seat and started speaking loudly.
He refused to sit and being silent saying that he would not let Ishaq Dar to speak as his leader was not allowed to address the House. At this Shakil Awan and other PML-N lawmakers also started making hue and cry. However, in accordance with the instructions issued by the Speaker Dr. Fehmida Mirza, both Khurshid Shah and Ishaq Dar after strenuous efforts managed normalize their party members.
While responding to observations of Khurshid Shah,Ishaq Dar said that instead of giving a policy statement to address the issues raised by Ch. Nisar Ali Khan government indulged blame- game which should have refrained.
He also said that Minister should have given a schedule for ending the power load shedding and should have not blamed Punjab government for not paying proper heed towards public issues.
He also highlighted that government should have not discriminated provinces on electricity distribution as why power load shedding was adversely targeting Punjab province alone. Dar asked Federal Minister for Water and Power to announce withdrawal of fuel surcharge on electricity bills to sooth people.
Giving his policy statement Federal Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar said that there was no discrimination among provinces on power distribution.
He also offered to hand power distribution to opposition saying that current power generation was 9500 megawatts and it was being distributed among provinces on parity basis.
While admitting involvement of WAPDA staff and others in power theft, he said that costumers paying electricity bills regularly should not be burdened with the non paid amounts who did not pay their bills well in time.
Minister also said that NEPRA included fuel surcharges on electricity bills altogether which had been lying pending for last five months, however, while endorsing the proposal of Ishaq Dar, he said consumers should deposit electricity bills sans fuel surcharge and surcharge would collected after reaching any mechanism in this regard.
He also offered unconditional cooperation with opposition to devise of a standard mechanism for ending power load shedding saying that it would be reduced from 40 to 20% by 2013.
Speaking on his turn, PML-N legislator Ahsan Iqbal alleged the Federal Government and its organizations for erecting hurdles in the way of power related projects of the Punjab Government saying that federal government’s departments did not grant permission to Punjab government to produce power.