The Council of Common Interests on Wednesday decided to constitute a committee to address the complaints of the provinces regarding uneven loadshedding in the country and given the task to complete its recommendations within a week.
A CCI meeting, held here at Prime Minister Secretariat under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, decided that the committee headed by Minister for Water and Power will include Chief Secretary and a technical member from each province.
The terms of the reference of the committee include recommendation of a mechanism to ensure equitable distribution of available electricity and measures for recovery of power dues.
The Prime Minister directed the committee to put up its recommendations within one week.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, the Prime Minister recalled that the present energy crisis was due to the failure of previous government, which did not add a single MW of generation capacity to the system.
He said despite constraints the present government was successful in adding 3300 MW to the national grid.
The members of Council of Common Interest discussed the issue of energy threadbare and discussed various aspects and complexities.
The meeting also approved the Petroleum Policy (exploration and production) 2012 proposed by The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural resources.
An issue pertaining to the salaries of employees of Population Welfare devolved to provinces after the 18th Amendment was also discussed. It was decided that the federal secretaries Planning and Finance along with representatives of provincial governments would work out modalities to resolve the financial issues.
The Prime Minister appreciated the understanding and flexibility shown by the chief ministers in resolving to devise a mechanism for equitable distribution of electricity in the country.
He said that the government was able to arrive at the 7th National Finance Award, which would go a long way in strengthening the federation. He expressed the confidence that the energy challenge would also be resolved in the same spirit.
The Council of Common Interests passed unanimously a resolution proposed by Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Shraif stating that “the meeting of Council of Common Interests expresses concern over the situation arising out of the shortage of electricity and consequent loadshedding in the country and believes that efforts be made to resolve this crises in an effective and result oriented manner”.
The CCI through this resolution decided that in order to strengthen the federation and promote solidarity among the people of the country, a system for equitable distribution of electricity be devised in light of the decisions taken during the energy conferences held in Islamabad and Lahore.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Communication Dr Arbab Alamgir Khan, Minister for Science and Technology Mir Changez Khan Jamali, Minister for IPC Mir Hazar Bijarani, Punjab Chief Minister Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti, Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani, Minister for Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Minister for Defence Syed Naveed Qamar, Advisor to PM on Petroleum Dr. Asim Hussain, secretaries Cabinet, Finance, Petroleum and Natural Resources, Water and Power, Railways, Religious Affairs, EAD, IPC, Planning and Development, chief secretaries Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, and other senior government officials.

Source: APP