Govt plans to furnish unpaid electricity bills, power theft proof

ISLAMABAD – The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led government is planning to furnish details of unpaid electricity bills and power pilferage occurrences in constituencies mainly belonging to opposition lawmakers if the opposition kept on championing the power outages issue in the National Assembly in the future.

Government and opposition lawmakers recently locked horns in both houses of Parliament over the issue of prolonged power outages and electricity theft.

In the last sitting of the National Assembly, opposition lawmakers strongly criticised the PML-N government for ‘failing’ to control load-shedding in different parts of the country mainly in rural areas.

The government side has chalked out a strategy to counter the opposition criticism in and outside the Parliament by sharing the breakup of unpaid bills and electricity theft cases in constituencies mainly belonging to opposition lawmakers.

The government side has planned to share the details of unpaid bills of opposition lawmakers in the house to give a ‘tit-for-tat’ response to the opposition criticism, parliamentary sources told The Nation.

“The electricity pilferage details in constituencies of some main lawmakers have been compiled to present it on ‘appropriate time’,” the sources said.

The sources said that power ministry officials may soon be asked to prepare a detailed list of the power pilferage in different constituencies mainly belonging to opposition legislators while making a comparison between the total duration of the power cuts and the power theft occurrences.

Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Asif, on the last day of 42nd NA session, also lightly threatened the opposition to furnish details of ‘unpaid bills’ of some lawmakers.

Opposition leader in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah, in the last NA session, suggested the government share the detail of the load-shedding duration and other related matters in the house.

Talking to The Nation, PTI’s Ayesha Gulallai said that the federal government has failed to control the load-shedding issue. “People are compelled to raise their voices and stage protests…but the government is putting a deaf ear on it,” she said while referring to a recent protest in Peshawar over power outages and inflated bills.

She had also raised her voice in the National Assembly on the issue.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement even asked Khwaja Asif to tender resignation if he could not rein in K-electric.

Opposition lawmakers had demanded Khwaja Asif to apologise over his remarks against the people of KP and the PTI MNA, but he refused to take his words back.

The government will soon summon the National Assembly session to fulfil the constitutional obligation to complete 130 days in one parliamentary year.

The last National Assembly session was prorogued on May 18.

The government in the current parliamentary year will hardly be able to steer clear of violating the constitutional obligation.

The constitution makes it obligatory for the 342-seat lower house of parliament to be in session for a total of at least 130 days in each parliamentary year. The present house has still to meet for a couple of days.

The constitution, in clause (2) of its article 54, says “the National Assembly shall meet for not less than 130 working days in each year” — the “working days” included any day of a joint sitting of the two houses of parliament and up to two days of adjournment, such as a weekend recess.

Source: The Nation