Tuesday, 7 June, 2022 I 7 Dhul-Qadah, 1443 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XII No 338 I 12 Pages I Karachi Edition
Govt vows to brinG down loadsheddinG to 3.5 hours from today g
abbasi promises loadshedding will be reduced to three hours by june 16
islamabad
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staff report
ederal government on monday announced to reduce the loadshedding of electricity from today to three and a half hours, assuring the nation that the loadshedding will further reduce in july as the production of coal plants is increased. Federal ministers of the pakistan muslim league nawaz (pml-n) shahid Khaqan abbasi, Khurram dastgir, marriyum aurangzeb, and others made the announcement at a press conference here on monday. shahid Khaqan abbasi said the
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loadshedding to be reduced to two hours by june-end
loadshedding will be reduced from today to 3 and a half hours and from june 16, it will also be less than 3 hours. he further stated that the government will reduce the loadshedding to one and a half to two hours only from june 30, and will be able to further reduce load shedding in july. abbasi began the press conference by presenting the reasons for the energy shortfall, holding the former government responsible. the country's electricity demand has exceeded 25,000mw during the summer, he said. he highlighted that when the current government assumed charge, the electricity generation capacity was at
17,000mw which was increased to more than 21,000mw over the past three weeks. he went on to say that the government and cabinet were sorry for the current loadshedding but asked for time to resolve the existing issues. "today, we are producing 21,000mw which means we have a shortfall of 4,000mw," he said, adding that this translated into a little more than four hours of loadshedding to fill the supply and demand gap. we have decided that from tomorrow (tuesday) we will reduce loadshedding to three-and-a-half hours, he said, adding that additional money had been paid while oil had also been arranged to ensure this. "we are hopeful that by tomorrow loadshedding will be reduced to 3.5 hours." in the next phase when coal is imported, the duration of loadshedding will further reduce by june 16, he said. "by june 30, the duration will be less than two hours, close to an hour-and-a-half." he expressed the hope that the government would be able to reduce this further during the month of july. the pml-n leader further said that the government was not interested in making excuses and was focused on fixing the issues plaguing the country. he lashed out at the former government for the lies it told regarding establishing power plants, saying that pakistan was unable to fulfil its electricity demand for the summer.
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No plan to freeze foreign currency accounts: assures Miftah islamabad app
the government and state bank of pakistan (sbp) on monday refuted baseless claims circulating on social media regarding Foreign currency accounts, roshan digital accounts and safety deposit lockers. the government of pakistan and the state bank of pakistan assure all account holders maintaining Foreign currency accounts (Fca), roshan digital accounts (rda) and safety deposit lockers in banks in pakistan that their accounts and lockers are completely safe, and that there is no proposal under consideration to put any restriction on them, said finance ministry in a statement. “there is absolutely no plan to freeze foreign currency accounts or roshan digital accounts or take over people private lockers. we have never even contemplated these steps. nor will we ever do it. speculation on social media about this is wrong and coming from biased quarters,” tweeted Finance minister miftah ismail. according to the statement, rumors were circulating on social media that the government or state bank of pakistan is considering freezing or placing
restrictions on withdrawals from Foreign currency accounts, roshan digital accounts and safety deposit lockers. such rumors are absolutely incorrect and baseless, it said and clarified that such a proposal has neither been considered presently nor in the past. moreover, foreign currency accounts including roshan digital accounts are legally protected under the Foreign currency accounts (protection) ordinance 2001, and the government and sbp are committed to protecting all the financial assets in pakistan including the ones mentioned above. the government and sbp are taking all necessary measures to ensure macroeconomic stability in the country. the recent difficult decisions taken by the government, including the reduction of subsidy on petroleum products, will pave the way to reach an agreement with the international monetary Fund (imF) and release of its tranche and financial assistance from other multilateral agencies and friendly countries. “we are confident that these measures will relieve the temporary stress being faced due to elevated global commodity prices and geo political tensions, and eliminate uncertainty in the economy,” the statement added.