ISLAMABAD, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said that instead of politicking, the provincial governments should follow the Punjab government’s course of providing relief to electricity consumers, scraping a chunk from the trillions of rupees transferred to them under the National Finance Commission.
The prime minister, chairing the meeting of the federal cabinet, said that the Punjab government had spared Rs 45 billion out of its own development budget to provide Rs14 per unit relief to the electricity consumers, utilising 200 to 500 units for a two-month period.
“This is the right of the people. The federal government has zero contribution to this relief package… Other provinces should also do the same. If the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government wants to give such relief to the people, we will be happy. But politicking should be avoided and facts should not be distorted,” the prime minister commented.
Rubbishing the criticism by a KP government representative alleging any discrimination by the federal government, he explained that it had nothing to do with that package.
He told the cabinet members that almost 60% of the NFC funds went to the provinces. The federal government had to face immense challenges in the form of the payment of loans and interests on foreign-funded projects that benefited the whole of the country.
He told the meeting that the federal government had also allocated Rs50 billion to provide a three-month relief to domestic consumers using up to 200 units of electricity which constituted around 86% of the total domestic consumers.
Besides, he said, in partnership with the Balochistan government, 28,000 tube wells would be solarised in the province costing Rs 70 billion, out of which Rs 55 billion would be borne by the federal government. This would benefit 28,000 farmers besides addressing the issue of power theft, he added.
The prime minister said that the federal government, in consultation with the provincial governments, was working on long-term measures to stabilise the economy and boost the country’s trade and exports.
He said the federal government would take all such measures after taking the IMF on board, unlike the PTI’s “irrational” step of violating the agreement which had taken the country to the brink of default.
Highlighting the outcome of the government’s economic policies, Prime Minister Shehbaz told the meeting that inflation had been reduced from 38% to 11.5% but more efforts were yet needed to improve further the situation. He also emphasised the efforts to meet the revenue target of Rs13.5 trillion and overcome the losses of the power sector.
The prime minister drew the cabinet’s attention to the deaths and destruction caused by the heavy rains and consequent flash floods in parts of the country and lauded the efforts of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), in collaboration with the provinces and PDMAs.
The cabinet also offered Fateha for the people who lost their lives in the rain and flood-related incidents and also the soldiers who sacrificed their lives in different incidents of terrorism.
