TARBELA GHAZI - Minister of State for Water and Power Chaudhary Abid Sher Ali has said that six new grid stations are being set up in Hazara division.
Addressing an open court at WAPDA Rest House in Abbottabad on Wednesday, the state minister said the decision has been taken to address the issue of low voltage and unannounced load shedding in the region. He claimed that the industrial sector is being provided with uninterrupted power supply round the clock.
Abid Sher Ali said that the majority of the developmental projects in Pakistan had been commenced by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Talking to media after addressing an open court at grid station in Abbottabad, Abid Sher Ali asked where is the change in KP? The real change was brought by Nawaz Sharif as the federal government completed 8,500 megawatts electricity projects and 4,000 MW projects are in pipeline, he added.
Referring to load shedding and energy crises in KP, Abid Sher Ali said that the PTI-led provincial government was responsible for load shedding in the province, as it did not provide land for four mega energy projects in the province during last four years, if they had provided us the land then load shedding issue would have resolved in the KP.
The minister disclosed that 220KV Mansehra grid station would also be inaugurated in January and we would also install few more 220KV grid stations in Abbottabad, Lora, Khanpur, and Torghar to cope the low voltage and load shedding issues. Main Transmission line would also be upgraded hundred percent by the end of March 2018, the minister said.
Abid Sher Ali slammed PTI leadership and said that provincial government and their ministers were engaged in looting public money and ignored the masses.
The minister, in his speech, held the KP chief minister and his cabinet responsible for load shedding, adding that the provincial government did not initiate even a single mega project in Hazara division.
He informed the open court attendees that a new grid station of 220KV would be inaugurated in Mansehra this month and the station is being completed with the cost of billions of rupees.
Whereas new grid stations in Burhan, Kohat and Ahmed Zai would also be completed soon.
Sher Ali said that the grid stations of Noshehra and Chakdara could not be constructed due to the inability of the chief minister who could not purchase the land for the projects, despite that we had paid billions of rupees to the KP government.
The federal government had now decided to construct both the grid stations at its own level. The minister also blamed the KP ministers were creating hurdles in the public welfare projects.
He said that if the KP government had no money, it may get Zakat from Shahbaz Sharif.
The state minister said that new transmission lines would have been upgraded till March 31st which will bring improvement in the flow and transmission electricity.
He said that his party was struggling for the merger of Fata in KP for the last two-and-half years and soon Fata would be part of the province.
While criticising PAT chief, Sher Ali said that Maulana Tahir-ul-Qadri was not loyal to the country, adding he gathered donations from foreign and created anxiety in the country. He added that nothing would happen due to his protest.
He said that Sheikh Rasheed had been polishing the shoes of Nawaz Sharif and during the tenure of General (retd) Pervaiz Musharraf, he imported low standard railway engines from China and gave loss of billions to the department but all the departments, including NAB, were silent on that issue.
He mentioned that NAB and other departments had kept their eyes only on Nawaz Sharif.
Abid Sher Ali said that murder of 265 people in Karachi Baldia Factory, the murder of the lawyers on 12th May, dozens of martyrs of Lal Masjid Islamabad and murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti was not visible for anyone.
He said that if Nawaz Sharif permits him he would go to NAB and Supreme Court against them to peruse the matter.
He also said that the people of Chakwal while giving a verdict in the favour of PML-N have proved that Nawaz Sharif was an eligible, honest and a loyal leader of the country.
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PERVAIZ AWAN -