Govt cognizant of problems being faced by masses: PM

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has said the incumbent government is fully cognizant of the problems being faced by the people and making sincere efforts to provide relief to them. Addressing the federal cabinet meeting in Islamabad today, he said the government has taken a number of short and medium terms initiatives for resolution of problems particularly to deal with energy crisis and hefty electricity bills. He said the government will not succumb to any political pressure in making its sincere efforts to provide relief to the people. The Prime Minister said it is agenda of the allied parties to give relief to the masses and provide them inexpensive electricity. Elaborating relief measures, he said the government provided fifty billion rupees as subsidy for three months electricity bills to the protected electricity consumers, using up to two hundred units. The Prime Minister said the Federal government also launched a mega project costing 70 billion rupees in Balochistan to covert tube wells to solar energy. He said the contribution of the Federal government in this project would be fifty five billion rupees. The Prime Minister said a massive campaign was launched during caretaker government tenure to prevent electricity theft. He thanked Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir for his overwhelming support in making this campaign successful. Shehbaz Sharif said the issue of electricity should not be politicized saying using electricity issue for political gains is disgrace to the masses. He urged all the political parties to join hands with the government in addressing the issue. He directed the Ministers and government officials to apprise the public about the steps taken by successive PML-N governments to overcome load-shedding in the country. The Prime Minister said efforts are underway to resolve issues with Independent Power Producers. He said a mechanism is also being evolved to deal with the IPPs which are under the government's control. The Prime Minister reiterated that whole o f the government approach is need of the hour to bring the country out of prevailing challenges and move forward. Source: Radio Pakistan