Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said Sunday that the price of gas has gone up in the international market, however, Qatar offered low-price gas to Pakistan during the recent visit of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, ARY News reported.
Ahsan Iqbal gave a new logic to the menace of loadshedding, saying that the unusually hot weather was the cause of power outages as the demand for electricity went up.
He said that the prime minister summoned a session to discuss a strategy to end loadshedding. He said that the nation should know about the closure of power plants that have the capacity of generating 3,500 megawatts of electricity.
Iqbal said that the country does not possess sufficient stock of gas to run the power plants. He criticised the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and said that the Imran Khan-led government had not purchased the LNG on time, whereas, the past ruler did not leave a single penny in the national exchequer.
The prices of petroleum products, gas and edible oil have risen due to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, he added.
The federal minister alleged that the Imran Khan-led government had rejected the offer made by Qatar for the provision of gas at lower rates but he rejected it to make his own commission. He added that Qatar once again offered cheap gas to Pakistan during the army chief’s visit.
