Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) on Tuesday switched off electricity of Pak Secretariat for several hours for not paying outstanding bills of Rs 173 million. However, electricity was restored after Capital Development Authority (CDA) handed over a cheque of Rs 173 million to Iesco mentioning payment date of September 4, 2012.
Minister for Water and Power, Ahmad Mukhtar who left his office when dark prevailed in the entire Block 'A' of Pak Secretariat including his office after electricity disconnection. Most of the officials of all ministries came out from their offices accusing CDA for not paying bills in time to Iesco. Taking to media, Minister for Water and Power said that the government has decided to disconnect electricity of all defaulters including private and public sector without any discrimination. "Whoever will not pay bill including ISI, electricity will be disconnected," he added.
In reply to a question, Minister said it was token 'switch off' and if bill is not cleared this practice will be repeated on Wednesday (today). An official spokesman has sent SMS to media saying that Iesco has terminated electricity connection of all public offices including Block A for not paying bills of Rs 1.7 billion. The office of Minister for Water and Power is also situated in Block A.
However, CDA has paid only Rs 173 million for the Pak Secretariat. Connections of other defaulter public sector offices are still off. Answering to another question, Ahamd Mukhtar said, the accusations by Chief Minister, Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif are factually incorrect It is pertinent to mention here that Discos have been directed to recover outstanding amount of Rs 300 billion from defaulters.