Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says more time required to pull country out of present situation

ISLAMABAD, Dec 27 (SABAH): Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday that more time was required to pull the country out of the quagmire.

Addressing a solarization conference, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said under the plan, all the federal government ministries, departments, authorities, and their offshoots in the provinces would immediately shift to solar energy.

Underscoring further details, the prime minister said that the procedures for conversion of solar power should be fast-tracked as they had set April 2023 as the timeline for the implementation of this plan.

Shehbaz Sharif said it would be a model for the rest of the provincial governments, as the federal government would not make additional expenditures over the solarization process.

He said also urged all the relevant authorities and stakeholders to complete the required process by the end of April next year and meet the timeline that had been set. “Consider it our political, social, national, and religious duty to implement it as soon as possible,” Sharif opined.

Sharif said with these urgent measures, they would be able to generate 300 MW to 500 MW of cheap power, thus reducing the import bill worth billions of dollars each year.  Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif assured that the whole process would be conducted through transparent bidding via a third party.

He also urged the provincial chief ministers to emulate the federal government’s pattern and introduce solar systems in their respective provinces, and he assured them of the federal government’s complete assistance in this regard.

“It is the only option for our survival as a nation,” Sharif added. Sharif went on to say the process for the generation of 10,000 MW of solar power in the country had already commenced and that such a conversation in the federal government buildings would be the first phase.