Asif for revealing power theft details in NA

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Thursday said he was ready to present details of power theft in the House with particular reference to regions and feeders.

Replying to a points raised by the opposition members from Sindh, the minister said, even millions of rupees against SCARP tube wells were payable against the consumers.

He asked the members to mention about their feeders and he will explain to the House the amount of power pilferage and recovery of dues.

"I shall reveal names of all those involved in power theft, if members would have no objection."

He said the federal government takes care of consumers at all DISCOs and feeders but unfortunately line losses and power theft is the main hurdle in addressing the issue of circular debt.

Khawaja Asif said it was unfair to demand that uninterrupted power is supplied to all areas regardless of losses and power theft. "If there are more power losses, there will be more load-shedding."

He said it is national issue and the Water and Power Ministry desires cooperation of all members to ensure proper recovery of dues from their respective areas and feeders.

PPP members Abdul Sattar Bachani, Syed Naveed Qamar and Nawab Yousaf Talpur had claimed that power outage duration had increased to more than 12 and 15 hours in different areas. The members stated that regular consumers should not be penalized for power theft by a few as they proposed to disconnect power connection of those who were involved in this practice rather than suspending power supply to whole of locality.

Earlier, the Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali suggested to member to visit their respective areas and update on load shedding, power theft and recoveries. "It cannot be possible that the areas where power theft ratio is much more than other areas, can be provided power for the same duration as it was being done for the areas with hundred percent recovery."

He complained of non-cooperation of provincial departments for taking action against power theft as he mentioned that 45 complaints were lodged with the police against power pilferage and only 17 FIRs were registered and nobody was arrested.

He said even in some cases the whole village is provided electricity from a connection of school or mosque and in such cases when the connection is discontinued, an objection is raised that power of whole of village is disconnected. "Therefore, the Ministry is compelled for such actions as neither it receives dues nor people stop power pilferage. In this scenario, we are only left with the option of load-shedding or in worst situation to disconnect connections."