Khan seeks roadmap to resolve gas crisis

Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the authorities to prepare a roadmap to steer the country out of gas crisis.
Addressing a seminar on Natural Gas Supply in Islamabad yesterday, he pointed out that indigenous gas reserves are depleting and the country was now importing gas.
The prime minister said there is a big difference in the price of domestic and imported gas. This is resulting in the increase of circular debt in the gas sector, he added.
He pointed out that 27% of the country’s households has access to piped gas whilst the remaining rely on the LPG cylinders which is four times more expensive than the piped gas.
The prime minister stressed the subsidy should be designed in such a manner so as to help the poor.
Khan regretted that no long term planning was done in the past to cope with the energy crisis. He said no effort were made to exploit the hydro potential of the country to produce cheap electricity.
“We are grateful to the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) for renegotiating the contracts with the government,” the prime minister said.
He added the government will apprise the nation next week about the savings to be accrued from the renewal of contracts that will help reduce burden on the people.
Later, the premier said the information technology sector in the country holds tremendous potential for investment, revenue generation and economic development.
He was speaking to a delegation of technology giant Huawei, led by its global senior vice president, Hou Tao in Islamabad.
The prime minister assured the Huawei delegation of full support from the government towards implementation of information and communication technology solutions in Pakistan.
He emphasised that IT solutions in government operations ensure transparency, speed of delivery and good-governance.