Month: April 2022

PRIME MINISTER Shehbaz Sharif must have felt stuck between a rock and a hard place after Ogra recommended a massive increase in the prices of petroleum products for recovering the full import cost and exchange rate losses from consumers. According to the estimates of the oil and gas regulator, the government is required to raise petrol prices by Rs21.30 a litre and diesel by above Rs83 a litre in order to recover the full costs from today. In case it also wants to recover the sales tax and the petroleum…

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The Power Division on Thursday informed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that there was currently no shortage of electricity in the country and power plants were closed because they either did not have fuel or faced technical difficulties. The Power Division blamed the “incompetence” of the previous PTI regime for the problems faced by the sector. PM Shehbaz was further informed that 18 power plants in the country were not functioning for the last one year because of being closed or having developed technical faults. The Power Division added that these…

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The Lahore Electric Supply Company’s demand and supply stood around 4,300MW and 3,760MW (on an average), respectively, creating a shortfall of around 550MW and forcing the company to observe loadshedding of two to four hours in urban and about eight hours in rural areas. “On Saturday, the peak hours’ demand and supply touched a figure of 4,295MW and 3,760MW, causing a shortfall of 535MW. However, in Lahore (except the areas falling under service jurisdiction of high loss feeders) no loadshedding is being observed,” an official source in Lesco told Dawn…

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Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday urged the authorities to expedite the Diamer Bhasha Dam project and have it completed by 2026 instead of its currently scheduled time of 2029. The newly elected prime minister issued the instructions during his visit to the site to inspect the project’s pace of work and activities. He was accompanied by other PML-N leaders, including Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Marriyum Aurangzeb and Khawaja Asif. PM Shehbaz was briefed by Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Chairman retired Lt General Muzammil Hussain. He was informed of…

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