According to a Business Recorder news item "Power evacuation projects: Govt likely to spend Rs 770bn" carried by the newspaper recently, the government is to spend Rs 770 billion on 57 projects for evacuation of power from different projects in Punjab, Sindh, KPK, Balochistan and AJK, in addition to investment of $1.5 billion on expansion and augmentation of power system.
The report also stated that Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) has also been given a clear picture of transmission projects as the Prime Minister's office has strictly directed the Ministry of Water and Power to look into removal of all constraints when additional load will be provided to them after addition of 10,000MW of electricity before summer of 2018.
The principal reason behind Pakistan People's Party's defeat in the 2013 general election was protracted power shortages in the country, particularly in Punjab. The PML-N, which was also ruling that province, grabbed this opportunity with both hands. There is no doubt about the fact that the PML-N government has made some achievements, however modest, in relation to the formidable challenge of load-shedding in the country. Its overall performance, however, is far from satisfactory as power outages are still the norm rather than the exception across country.