Major investors involved in electricity theft: Shehbaz

DI KHAN: Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that an increase in electricity rates was a condition set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and issues related to electricity transmission are due to the worn-out power lines, with major investors being involved in electricity theft.

Addressing a ceremony to lay the foundation stone of development projects in Dera Ismail Khan, the prime minister said that electricity theft causes a loss of up to Rs4 billion.

He said that God forbid, if the country had defaulted, there would have been a stain on my forehead until doomsday.

The prime minister stated that within 15 to 16 months of taking power, “we faced the most difficult challenges in history. When I assumed power, I knew that the conditions were very difficult, but I had no idea how devastating they were.”

He said that “when I assumed power, the worst flood in history occurred, and we spent Rs100 billion to deal with the disaster, but we still couldn’t fulfill the rights of the flood victims due to a severe shortage of resources.”

Shahbaz Sharif said that “I have not faced such challenges in my political career before. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the Pakistan People’s Party, and Nawaz Sharif were troubled by the burden of inflation on the people and they used to ask me what will happen.

He further said that “my response was and will remain that the Niazi government did not spare the state to shine its politics, while our coalition government decided to sacrifice politics but save the state.”