• ‘Relief plan’ announced by Nawaz Sharif will be funded by cutting development expenses
• PML-N chief blames Imran for inflation, economic mismanagement; PM Shehbaz hails ‘historic package’

LAHORE: After months of public outcry and opposition’s criticism over rising electricity prices, the Punjab government announced on Friday that customers using up to 500 units will get a subsidy of Rs14 per unit in August and September.

The move, largely seen as an attempt to placate PML-N’s vote bank in Punjab, was announced by the party’s president, Nawaz Sharif.

Sitting beside his daughter, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, at the press conference, the PML-N leader said he was “pained” to see people struggling to pay exorbitant electricity bills before announcing the ‘relief plan’ which is expected to cost Rs45 billion.

“The Punjab government will provide a relief of Rs 14 per unit in electricity bills up to 500 units for August and September,” he said.

The relief plan will be funded by cutting expenditures from other government sectors, including development schemes, Mr Sharif explained.

“The govt has cut expenditure in various sectors, reduced development funds and diverted the money for this relief [programme],” Mr Sharif said as he patted his daughter on the back in appreciation.

He neither named the sectors that would face a cut in their expenditure nor explained which development schemes would be scaled back to make room for this subsidy.

He, however, added that the relief “won’t stop here” and that the Punjab government will soon announce a solar panel scheme to further reduce electricity bills.

That scheme will cost Rs700bn, he claimed.

The PML-N president asked the other provinces to follow suit to provide relief to people.

PM Shehbaz Sharif welcomed the historic package for electricity consumers, announced by his brother and niece. “The decision to reduce electricity rates… is a notable example of a people-centric initiative by Nawaz Sharif and the Punjab chief minister,” he said in a statement, recalling the federal government had also announced relief for consumers using up to 200 units per month.

‘Blame it on Imran’

Mr Sharif also exonerated the incumbent federal government of all blame for high electricity prices and inflation.

“It was the PTI government that caused inflation and price hike,” he said, and claimed when he was in power in 2017, the average electricity bill received by poor people was Rs1,600.

The same person now received a bill of Rs18,000, he said. “The electricity [tariff] in my government was Rs14 per unit.”

He also touched upon his ouster as prime minister in 2017 and once again asked the reasons for that move.

“I again ask today why I was ousted from power in 2017 by the Supreme Court for not taking a salary from my son’s firm. The country was wronged by this decision, which made the lives of the masses miserable,” he said and lamented that Pakistan’s progress had been “repeatedly disrupted” through “conspiracies against him”.

The former premier also recalled how his government had successfully managed the economy, reducing interest rates to 5.25 per cent and maintaining a stable dollar rate at around Rs104.

“I would like to ask who is responsible for the current economic situation and the people’s misery,” he asked rhetorically before quickly pinning the blame on PTI’s founder, Imran Khan.

The elder Sharif lamented that the current government was “chained by the IMF” and blamed the previous PTI administration for economic mismanagement which forced the country to seek a bailout from the global lender.

PTI’s reaction

Reacting to Mr Sharif’s claim that the PTI was responsible for inflation, the party’s senior leader, Hammad Azhar, listed the achievements of his party’s government in which he was also a federal minister.

“It was Imran Khan’s tenure in which electricity per unit was Rs16, and it shot up to Rs70 during Shehbaz Sharif led successive governments in the last two years.”

He also claimed that during Mr Sharif’s term as the prime minister from 2013 to 2017, exports didn’t increase “for the first time in Pakistan’s history”.

Mr Azhar also reminded the elder Sharif that his party had “lost the February 2024 elections” and stole PTI’s mandate “through conspiracy”.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2024