ISLAMABAD: Despite the finance minister’s caution, the federal cabinet decided on Wednesday to divert all resources to electricity production to keep loadshedding at the minimum level during the summer.

On the insistence of a majority of the ministers, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani put aside the agenda of the cabinet meeting and turned it into a special session on energy shortage.

Most of the cabinet’s members were up in arms over the long hours of loadshedding, saying opposition parties were exploiting the issue with an eye on the general election, a participant of the meeting told Dawn.

On the coalition partners’ demand, the prime minister agreed to constitute a high-powered committee, led by Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh, to monitor production and equitable distribution of electricity. The committee includes Water and Power Minister Naveed Qamar, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, Kashmir Affairs Minister Manzoor Wattoo, the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and the governor of the State Bank.

According to a PPP leader, the president, who chaired a couple of meetings on the energy crisis last week, had asked the government to end loadshedding urgently at all costs.

Briefing reporters, the information minister said there would be no shortage of funds for power generation till June next year.

According to a participant: “There was so much hue and cry in today’s cabinet meeting over loadshedding that the prime minister was left with no choice but to listen to the protesting ministers and turn the sitting into a special meeting on the energy crisis.”

At the outset, ministers started hurling questions at the ministers for power and finance about the status of electricity production, forcing the prime minister to cut short the agenda and allow them to have an exhaustive discussion on the energy crisis, he said.

SHEIKH TAKES THE FLAK: The finance minister was the main target of his cabinet colleagues’ criticism. They blamed him for the delays in release of funds to power generation companies. The power minister was also taken to task for failing to improve governance in his department.

Religious Affairs Minister Khurshid Shah (PPP), Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmad Bilour (ANP) and ministers belonging to the MQM and PML-Q were critical of the handling of the crisis.

“Forget about next elections if you keep providing people an excuse to burn effigies of politicians in protest against 16 to 18 hours of power cuts in the country,” Mr Bilour was quoted as telling the power minister.

Mr Shah admonished the finance minister: “We are not interested in your figures. We just want electricity so that we can visit our constituencies.”

A PML-Q minister chipped in, saying: “At the moment the entire focus of the government should be on electricity if the coalition parties are interested in contesting and winning next elections.”

Prime Minster Gilani also agreed that it was a critical time and the government should do everything possible to improve provision of electricity. Otherwise, people would react during the elections, he warned.

Mr Gilani recalled that his opponent in his constituency in the 2008 elections, Sikandar Bosan, was agriculture minister at that time and he did everything to woo voters with the help of government machinery, “but I believe the flour crisis at the time cost him the election”.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who is known for his novel ideas, suggested printing of more currency notes to end circular debt and other liabilities affecting the energy sector.

His proposal was immediately shot down by the finance minister.

Mr Sheikh tried to calm down his irritated colleagues, but said his team was facing difficulties in preparing next year’s budget.

He said the government had to be very careful in dealing with its finances.

The minister said there had been no reduction in line losses and the departments concerned had failed to curb illegal connections.

“If anybody believes only money can solve the electricity crisis, he is absolutely mistaken. We have to put all departments concerned in order and the finance ministry just cannot afford to foot unaccounted bills of billions of rupees.”

At the press briefing, Mr Kaira said the finance minister had assured the cabinet that all financial resources would be utilised, till the next budget, for the generation of energy.

He said a monitoring control room would be set up for round-the-clock surveillance of the energy situation and one member of the cabinet committee would sit there to monitor the situation.

The cabinet decided that theft and recovery issues in Wapda would be dealt with strictly and all steps, including legislation, would be taken to ensure compliance.