The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and Federal Ministry of Water and Power have agreed to form a high level joint committee for chalking out a strategy to address the issues of power outages and other WAPDA and PESCO related problems. The committee will devise such an efficient and sustainable system which could considerably reduce the power load shedding in the province by utilizing the full share of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in total electricity production.
The committee will also formulate a plan for controlling electricity stealing with help and assistance of the provincial government and also recommend measures for timely completion of WAPDA schemes, establishment of new grid stations and early repairs of faulty power transformers. The committee will comprised of the provincial ministers for Energy and Information Technology, Minister of State for Water and Power, KP Secretary Energy, Managing Director PEPCO, another high ranking officer of WAPDA and two senior retired officers of WAPDA.
The consensus was evolved at a high level meeting of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and Federal Ministry of Water and Power. The meeting was held at CM Secretariat, Peshawar, Monday, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak in the chair. Minister of State for Water and power, Abid Sher Ali, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Energy, Atif Khan, Minister Information Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, Minister for information Technology, Shahram Khan Tarakai, Chief Secretary, Amjad Ali Khan, ACS, Dr Hamad Agha, Secretary Energy Ali Raza Bhutta, Managing Director, PEPCO, Umer Rasul, CEO PESCO, Syed Fazal, and other concerned officers also attended the meeting.
During the meeting both sides discussed the issue of the power outages and other electricity related problems in the province. The Chief Minister highlighted the problems being faced by the people of the province due to unprecedented power load shedding and urged the federal government to ensure provision of full share of the total power production to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of Pakistan. The meeting took several important decisions for addressing these issues and the provincial government assured its full co-operation in this respect. Discussing payment of outstanding dues to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on account of net hydel profit and the arrears thereof, it was decided that a Memorandum of Understanding in this regard would be finalised in Islamabad next Thursday in presence of the federal and KP government representatives.
Welcoming the KP government proposals for overcoming the power crisis, Minister of State, Abid Sher Ali appreciated the efforts of the Chief Minister in this regard. Admitting existence of corrupt elements in WAPDA, he assured that his ministry would implement the power distribution and anti-theft system in letter and spirit once it was devised by the joint committee. He also assured to complete the grid stations of Nowshera and Mardan regions within one year.
Chief Minister Pervez Khattak stressed for providing 13.5 percent share in total electricity generation and assured full co-operation of the provincial government for eliminating the power stealing. He, however, urged WAPDA to show seriousness for resolving this issue. He was of the view that both sides should amicably try to address the issue instead of levelling allegations on each other adding that the provincial government was ready to cooperate with Wapda wholeheartedly.
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