The PML (Q) on Friday rejected the government viewpoint that it has inherited ills from the previous government, as the former ruling party accused that power generation has depleted by 2600 MW due to mismanagement of the present government.
"The power generation recorded at 13800 MW on June 5, 2007. On June 5, 2008, this is not more than 11200 MW," said former minister of state Engineer Amir Muqam at a press conference along with opposition leader in the Senate Kamil Ali Agha. They rejected the rumours about the resignation of president Pervez Musharraf. "He (Musharraf) is president for five years. He is not fleeing the country," Muqam responded to a question.
The two PML (Q) leaders claimed their government added 2207 MW power to the national grid during their five-year rule and 4837 MW planned to be generated is still in the pipeline. "To say that we did nothing is totally wrong," said Muqam, who is also the PML (Q) NWFP president.
Muqam said that agreements signed by the PPP government with IPPs for power generation in 1994 were the worst thing ever happened in the country's history. These agreements were largely responsible for the country's failure to have exploited the power generation from other cheaper sources, said the minister who remained sketchy on a question of non-payment to the private companies for power generation during the last some months of the previous government.
He said that 1450 MW Ghazi Barotha project, 58 MW Jiagran project in AJK and 17 MW Satpara dam were commissioned during the rule of the previous government. We added 385 MW from thermal sources and 300 MW from nuclear to the national grid, he added.
He said that three projects of accumulative capacity of 600 MW in Batagram, and Kohistan were delayed due to severe earthquake of 2005. These projects are likely to be commissioned in 2009, he said.
Apart from this, we signed 20 agreements with IPPs for 4837 MW power generation. These agreements will now help the new government, he said. Kamil Ali Agha accused that the present government had no time to solve the problems of the people. "The government blames us for its lack of commitment to solve the people's problem," he said.