Hammad Azhar says new bill will detach SBP from politics

ISLAMABAD – January 15 (ONLINE): Federal Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar has said that the new bill will purge the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) of politics.

Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Hammad said that the government will have the power to remove the SBP governor and others. “The economy suffered a loss due to fraud in the exchange rate,” he added.

He said that during the meeting, Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak had talked about provision of the gas supply in his constituency.

The minister said that the prime minister had convinced the allies over the gas crisis. “The gas reserves are decreasing nine percent annually.

Gas will be imported to fulfill domestic needs. The prices will be increased gradually,” he added.

He said that the country’s exports would be brought at US$30 billion this year. “The world has praised Pakistan for compliance of 26 points out of 27 given by Financial Action Task Force (FATF). New power plants were set up in past without assessing the old power plants established by Independent Power Producers (IPPs). The government renegotiated with IPPs which would bring improvement in the power sector,” he added.

Hammad Azhar said that the system could easily transmit 30,000 MW by 2023. The government has completed 4000 MW HVDC transmission line project which was only present in the papers, he added.

Regarding fuel cost adjustment, the minister said the past government installed power projects based on imported fuel including LNG and Coal which resulted in variation of fuel cost prices. “Had the past government gives priority to build dams today we have not suffer,” he added.

Hammad said that the incumbent government has declared this decade as “decades of dams” and 10 mega dams were being set up in the country.

Under, the plan, 70-80 per cent electricity would be generated through local resources including hydel, coal, and Renewable by 2030, he added.
He said 5 GDP growth would be achieved this year while the foreign remittances would be around $ 30 billion which would be a record.

Replying to a question, he said Pervaiz Khattak has raised the issue before the Prime Minister that there was ban in new gas connection in his constituency. He said PTI was a democracy party and every member has right to speak in the party’s meeting.