Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub said Wednesday the PTI government had been working to resolve Karachi's power issues and slammed the PPP and PML-N for not resolving them in their respective tenures.
Addressing the National Assembly, he said: "Why did you not make a common delivery point for K-Electric, both parties — PPP and PML-N — have remained in power," adding that it was in PTI's government that it took place.
"KE has been provided with an additional 100mmcfd gas. We have given residual fuel oil (RFO) to them on loan so that their power plants may run," he said, adding that an additional 100MW electricity was also given to the power utility.
Ayub said that Karachi was the heart of the country and that it needed to run, therefore, the cabinet has approved that KE will have to build two common delivery points and two 500KVA grids so that they don't have to face such an issue after 2022.
"The opposition has the right to address the issues of their respective constituencies here, but it should be based on facts — not point-scoring.
Talking about the infrastructure of Sindh, he said that members from the treasury bench, including, Federal Minister Ali Zaidi were raising their voice over the clogging of sewers in Karachi and bringing it to the provincial government's attention.
"This is the responsibility of the PPP to get them cleaned. Our allies from MQM-P and Fehmida Mirza of Grand Democratic Alliance have raised similar problems multiple times. COVID-19 medicines are being recovered from graveyards in Sindh. Why isn't the government taking action against it," he said.
Ayub urged them [opposition parties] to put aside politics and deliver to the people.
PML-N's stalwart Ahsan Iqbal, while raising Karachi's issues on the floor of the house, demanded that the metropolis' problems should be reviewed immediately and a committee be formed to resolve them.
Meanwhile, a PTI member, Faheem Khan said that KE had become a "bully" and that action should be taken against the power utility.
"The PPP made an agreement with them and people are being punished for it," he added.
Refuting claims that the PPP had struck a deal with the power utility, senior party leader Syed Naveed Qamar said that the company was privatised in Shaukat Aziz's tenure.
"We are with you on the issue of K-Electric," assured Qamar, adding that steps were needed to be taken against it.
Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said that since the day KE had come into being, problems had begun.
"This house is the representative of 220 million people [...] The people expect us to solve their problems."
