Islamabad, June 9 (Representative) Pakistan’s federal government was asked by the Lahore High Court on Thursday to give its reply on two separate petitions pertaining to loadshedding and inflation, Dawn reported. The continuing power cuts across the country in the summer heat has made life miserable for the people of Pakistan and caused severe damage to businesses as well.The two petitions were filed by the Judicial Activism Panel, one on loadshedding and the other on inflation; both of which were taken up by Justice Shahid Karim on Thursday. These petitions were filed even as reports came in that Pakistan as a whole is facing an energy shortfall of nearly 7,000MW.Former prime minister and PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, had on Monday, had said that loadshedding would be reduced to three-and-a-half hours by Tuesday, with the promise to further reduce the duration to under three hours by June 16. “By June 30, it will be less than two hours,” he had said.
The lawyer for the petitioner also urged the court to “ask the government what has to be done about inflation” which has been caused by multiple factors, some international and some local.Following that, Justice Karim summoned replies from the federal government on power cuts and the Punjab government on inflation and adjourned the hearing for two weeks. According to reports, loadshedding in Lahore had worsened of late, with people continuing to suffer from power outages reportedly for six to eight hours everyday.Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had presided over a meeting to discuss the issue of loadshedding and directed the relevant authorities to come up with an ‘emergency plan’ aimed at curtailing this problem. On Tuesday, the government announced several measures to conserve electricity. Among the more significant measures finalised were that foreign trips for officials would be sharply curtailed, fuel quotas for government employees would be cut by 40 per cent and Saturday as a holiday for government employees would be restored.
The prime minister had also formed a committee to ascertain the merits and demerits of offices introducing a work-from-home policy for Fridays.A day ago, a proposal to shut down markets at 8:30pm in an effort to conserve energy also came under discussion during a meeting of the freshly reconstituted National Economic Council (NEC), along with curtailing holding of marriage functions beyond 10 pm. Power Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan later said that the PM Sharif had also sought the cooperation of chief ministers of all four provinces on the measures under consideration, who in turn will come up with their own measures regarding conservation, including early closer of markets The minister had also said the government was considering the provision of five kilo-watt solar packages on instalments to all consumers receiving their salaries through cheques.