Pakistan will come out of controversial Independent Power Producers (IPPs) agreements by 2024-32. Federal Minister for Water and Power, Liaquat Ali Jatoi informed this to the National Assembly here on Monday in his written reply during the question hour.
He said that average life of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with all IPPs is 30 years and their expiry date ranges between 2024-32.
The contract conditions are governed by PPA, he said, and informed the House that the construction of new hydel power stations is the only strategy to minimise the impact of the IPPs.
Giving details of the total production of electricity, he said the government has generated 67626.466 MKWH electricity both hydel and thermal in 2003-04.
Jatoi said that the annual net energy generation was 27386.193 MKWH in 2003-04 from hydel and 40240.273 MKWH from thermal sources.
To a question, Parliamentary Secretary for Water & Power Shahzadi Omer Tiwana informed the National Assembly that the government is not supplying free of cost electricity to any customer.
However, she said that the government has given various concessions to mosques and other places of worship.
Responding to a query of Dr Atta-ur-Rehman, the parliamentary secretary said that a classification code has been allotted for mosques in order to exclude the TV license fee from their energy bills.
Meanwhile, Federal minister for industries and production informed the National Assembly that a new industrial policy would be announced on January 1, 2005.
To a query of MNA Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali, parliamentary secretary for education, Deewan Hussain Jaffar said that the Education ministry has received foreign assistance of Rs 564.132 million during the last four years.
According to details, Rs 170.703 million were received in 2000-01, Rs 118.238 million in 2001-02, Rs 94.162 million in 2002-03 and Rs 181.425 million were received in 2003-04.
To a supplementary question, Deewan Jaffar said that there is no foreign pressure on the government regarding changes in the curriculum.
Speaking on the occasion, Federal Education Minister, Lt General Javed Ashraf Qazi (Retd) said that there are presently 13277 institutions for adult education in the country. The government has planned to open 41540 adult literacy centres upto year 2007.
Responding to another question, he categorically rejected that the government wants to launch any military campaign to enhance literacy. "I had only given a reference of Sri Lanka where military was used to enhance literacy," he clarified.