Islamabad : Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif has announced a reduction in electricity prices for domestic consumers by Rs 7.41 per unit, the price of electricity for domestic consumers has become Rs 38.37 per unit, the Prime Minister says that I am going to present an Eid gift, the Army Chief and the Pakistan Army have also played a leading role in this historic initiative.
“Especially thanks to Army Chief General Asim Munir” that there were some ‘no-go areas’ where we were prohibited from going, the Army Chief resolved the issues related to them. If we do not uproot the problems that pushed us towards poverty in 77 years, this relief and the future relief will become meaningless.
I thank President Asif Zardari, all allies and each and every member of the government machinery, whose hard work enabled us to make this announcement today. Shahbaz Sharif said that we are grateful to Allah Almighty today that the promise of Mian Nawaz Sharif has been fulfilled, in which we had said in our manifesto that if the PML-N is given a chance, the economic situation will gradually improve, and electricity prices will be reduced.
Similarly, after the announcement of a reduction of Rs 7.59 per unit for industrial consumers, electricity per unit for industrial consumers has become Rs 40.60. Addressing a ceremony held in Islamabad to announce the electricity price reduction package, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that now all consumers will be provided electricity at an average of Rs 34.37 per unit, the discos will have to be privatized, we will work harder for some time and then come back and make electricity cheaper, our industrialists should work day and night, the government will serve you, I am the Chief Executive Officer of all of you, not the Prime Minister, we will take Pakistan towards self-reliance through continuous hard work.
Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated the participants of the ceremony on Eid and said that electricity prices are a big obstacle in industrial and agricultural development, we are all responsible for the past, but what happened is done, now there are definitely difficulties ahead, but now we have to run fast for the blessings that Allah has bestowed in one year through hard work.
The Prime Minister said The IMF initially refused to reduce electricity prices. I myself spoke to the IMF chief. We are not making electricity cheaper, but are transferring the relief from the reduction in the prices of petroleum products to the price of electricity. We have restored the lost trust with the IMF. He said that when we took over the government, the sword of default, that is, bankruptcy, was hanging over Pakistan’s head and the businessmen and the nation in general were rightly afraid of how the situation would turn out. Believe me, the IMF was not ready to listen.
He said that in the initial days of the government, there was no foreign exchange to open LCs of the business community. The country’s opponents were going crazy with joy. They had become convinced that Pakistan could not be saved from default now. They were convinced just as if no one could save someone if they died. If Pakistan defaulted now, this group had crossed all limits for this purpose.
This same group itself broke the agreement made with the IMF. The Prime Minister said that the efforts that were being made to save Pakistan from default, letters were written to the IMF to end them, a heinous role was played against the country, Pakistan’s interests were sacrificed for its own politics, and the state was in a situation that perhaps has never happened in 77 years.
The Prime Minister recited a poem that said, “What happens if the plaintiff wants a million bad things; only what God approves happens.” The Prime Minister said that I say that Allah Almighty accepted our hard work and saved Pakistan from default. For this purpose, the sacrifices made and the suffering endured by the entire nation, business community and poor people are valuable. Shahbaz Sharif said that for this purpose, the efforts of each individual have been accepted in the court of Allah.
Today, we are at a point of economic stability, where we may have to work harder than before. This journey may be more difficult than before. The Pakistani nation has made many sacrifices. There was a time when a pensioner paid the electricity bill and did not know where to get the children’s medicines. It was a time when after paying the electricity bill, the house was in a state of helplessness. The Prime Minister said that shopkeepers, investors, industrialists were being forced to close their businesses, wondering how they would sell such expensive goods.
Smoke stopped coming out of the chimneys of industries. Millions of people became unemployed. The sacrifices of these millions of workers should not be forgotten. The Prime Minister said that Nawaz Sharif had promised that inflation would be brought down to single digits in 2026, and today it is 2025, inflation has come down to single digits, which was at 38 percent in 2024, today it is only at one and a half percent, although single digit can also mean 9 percent.
The prices of petroleum products have been reduced by Rs 38 in a year, the interest rate has been halved during this period, which has definitely improved the business of the business community, industrialists can also say better. Shahbaz Sharif said that no subsidy can be given while the IMF program is in place, Rs 800 billion is being sunk annually in the form of subsidies to state-owned enterprises (SEOs), and The Prime Minister said that through transparent privatization, we will get rid of the burden of these problems. Let us all come together and decide. Until this 800 billion comes to the treasury, we should not sit quietly. We only need to make decisions and have the willpower. A businessman told me that we write to every government that fake seed companies are eating billions, no one listens.
When I asked, he said , the bureaucracy, I was told that it was like this, it was like that, but everything happened in a week. Those companies are gone. Now the time has passed for someone to waste the nation’s time. Such a person has no business in the government, even if it is me. This year, foreign remittances increased by 30 percent. We will keep this target at 35 percent for next year. Because if this increase occurs, we will take less debt.
This is the way to reduce your dependence on debt and increase your income. Allah has bestowed mountains of minerals on this country, we should take advantage of them, similarly, if we work hard in agriculture, we can save billions of dollars, billions of dollars are spent on cotton imports alone. The Prime Minister said that all the classes present here are ambassadors of Pakistan, Allah has given us this opportunity again that Pakistan has become stable, if we work hard with unwavering determination, we will reach the same place again, which our ancestors had dreamed of, millions of people sacrificed their lives during migration, we have to fulfill their dream. The Prime Minister said that discussions were held with the IPPs last year, that you people have earned up to 200 percent, now let the nation also get relief, as a result of this discussion, the IPPs will no longer have to pay the dues of Rs 3,696 billion, a circular debt of Rs 2,393 billion has also been arranged, after 5 years this debt will never circulate, provided that we change our style and manners. The Prime Minister said that many power plants have not been running for years, but billions of rupees have been paid to them, electricity theft and the cancer of juncos must be uprooted, 9 billion will be obtained from selling closed power plants, while 7 billion were being spent annually on their protection, today the time has come for us to throw all such burdens into the river.
Shahbaz Sharif said that I sincerely assure the business community from Peshawar to Karachi present at the ceremony that we have to empower you, give you options, but when you earn, may Allah grant you a thousand times your current income, but when you earn, tax is also indispensable, if we only continue to earn and do not pay taxes, then how will Pakistan run? Tax cases were pending for years. We requested the Law Minister, Attorney General, Chairman FBR, Chief Justice of Pakistan through determination, and they directed the subordinate judiciary to decide the cases on priority basis according to justice. In one day, the stay order from the Sindh High Court ended, and Rs 23 billion came to the treasury. The Prime Minister said that a contractor of the Orange Line started tampering with the material. When I received the information, I reached there. Those people were making a blatant mistake. If they had not been caught, a major accident would have happened. When we talked to the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan to seize the Rs 90 billion deposit, he was out of Pakistan. However, we called the Deputy Governor.
The bank and the contractor were together. The Deputy Governor told the State Bank that if the money does not come to the Punjab treasury by 12 o’clock, I will give you leave. Instead of 12, the money came to the treasury at 11 o’clock.
Shahbaz Sharif said that when there is a yearning, a determination to do something in the heart, then Allah Almighty blesses and problems are solved. Earlier, while addressing the ceremony, Federal Minister for Energy Sardar Owais Leghari said that I am grateful to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif for giving us full authority and freedom to work. In no way was any recommendation made to any person, but even his relatives and party leaders were not taken into account.
The Federal Minister thanked the Power Division, FBR, secretaries, officers and members of various teams of relevant departments, whose efforts made it possible to reduce electricity prices.