President Asif Ali Zardari held a high level meeting with Minister for Water & Power Syed Naveed Qamar and Finance Minister Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, to discuss the issue of loadshedding in the country. — File Photo by Reuters

ISLAMABAD: A high level meeting was held at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Monday with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani in chair to review the current situation regarding electricity shortages in the country.

Finance Minister Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Federal Minister for Water & Power Syed Naveed Qamar, Petroleum Minister Dr. Asim Hussain, Secretary to the President Malik Asif Hayat, Spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar and Finance Secretary Wajid Rana were also present.

Briefing about the meeting, Spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar said that Syed Naveed Qamar, Federal Minister for Water & Power, briefed the meeting about the daily generation situation since the last meeting with the president that was held on 10th May 2012.

He also gave a briefing on various steps that have being taken to eliminate unscheduled loadshedding.

Federal Minister for Petroleum & Natural Resources Dr. Asim Hussain, briefed the meeting about availability of furnace oil and gas to power plants and the problems being encountered.

Finance Minister Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh gave a briefing on the issue of circular debt.

Zardari emphasised upon the need for enhanced coordination between various concerned departments so as to reduce electricity shortfall and to overcome unscheduled loadshedding that was causing great inconvenience to the people.