The Minister for Water and Power, Pervez Ashraf, has criticised people staging protest demonstration against hike in power tariff and said that the protest was unjustified as the government has suspended the increase till the decision of the review committee.
Addressing a news conference here on Sunday, he said that the government had not passed on the burden of line losses to consumers. "The government pays for Pepco''s line losses," he added.
He said: "Despite government decision to review the 31 percent increase in power tariff, some vested interests are tempting the people to protests and demonstrations. This is quite unfortunate," he said. The minister appealed to the people to remain calm. He asked the people to shun protest calls as the vested interests were working to destabilise the government.
Asharaf said that the present government was vigorously pursuing some projects. "On completion of these projects, the electricity load-shedding will end by December 2009," he said.
He accused the previous government of working mainly on paper as far as the establishment of new power plants and constructing new dams was concerned. "The people should cooperate with the government in the supreme national interest as there cannot be a quick fix to the problem. We inherited this problem from the Musharraf-led government, and it will take some to be resolved," he added.
He said that power consumers in NWFP were also entitled to pay 60 percent of electricity bills, which have already been issued. The Frontier government had challenged the increase, but it has been suspended. Therefore, the consumers must pay their bills now, he added.
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