Pakistani government to privatize power plants and companies

The Pakistani government has decided to privatize the generation and distribution companies and power plants as per new policy being prepared to meet terms of lending agencies, said the Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Mohammad Asif. While addressing a press conference along with the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pervez Khattak the Minister told that a final draft of policy would be shaped in 5 to 10 days. He further said, "We are moving very carefully on energy policy. We are entering into an agreement with the International Monetary Fund. The World Bank is going to provide financing for projects under the energy policy. So support of these two would depend on energy policy and hence it requires utmost care. Otherwise, there is no delay." The minister informed that a payment of USD 0.35 billion has been made to the power sector to clear circular debt and process to make more payments has been started. He also defended the increase in cost of the Nandipur power project from USD 0.21 billion to USD 0.57 billion that has drawn the attention of the apex court by saying, We have justifications for the cost escalation but there is no question of corruption because the money has not been spent yet." The federal government would strive to resolve the issue of load shedding while the provincial government would help in recovering electricity dues, he further added.