ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, chairing the 7th meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy here at the PM’s House, has said that the government is struggling hard to increase power generation in short span of time and add additional electricity to the national grid by this summer.
Finance Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif, Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Minister of State for Petroleum Jam Kamal, Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali, Adviser to PM on National Security Sartaj Aziz and Special Assistant to PM on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi attended the meeting.
Nawaz Sharif directed the authorities to complete the power projects within a specified time frame and undertake efficient projects to provide electricity to the people at affordable rates.
Reviewing progress on the implementation of the decisions taken at the sixth meeting, the PM said that the government was making all-out efforts to ensure that loadshedding comes to an end during his tenure.
The prime minister was informed that Expressions of Interest have been invited for the construction of 1100-km South-North gas pipeline to be completed in two phases which would reduce cost of transmission of gas leading to decreased cost of electricity production. He underlined the need to improve electricity transmission system to reduce line losses.
The meeting decided that in order to meet severe energy crisis, LNG-fuelled power plants would be installed.
