Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira said on Friday the comments published in section of press on World Bank report on power crisis in Pakistan were misleading as the report was related to 2002-07,a time period before coming into power of the present democratic regime.
In a statement issued here, he said that the report was a draft one and so far the government viewpoint has not been taken on the report.Commenting on the report the Minister said the parts of the report about shortage of power, elimination of load-shedding, future Wapda projects and the policy to meet country energy needs are related to 2007.
Further commenting on the 2007 WB report, he said that the mention of Minister of Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf tantamounts to twisting the facts. The minister said that it was a well-known fact that in 2008,when the present government came into power, the country was facing worst power crisis.
Qamar Zaman Kaira said that the PPP and its allied government launched several short-term and long-term projects to overcome the power shortage. He said that in short span of time several projects in private power production, public power production and public-private partnership projects were launched on war footing and most of them are near completion.
The minister clarified that technical fault in Mangla power house caused an additional shortfall of 1100 mega watts which was being repaired and by July 25 the fault in Mangla power house would be rectified completely. He stressed that the promise made by the Ministry of Water and Power about ending load-shedding by year's end is based on facts and it is not a figment of imagination.