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| India-Pakistan |
| PTI's empty threats |
| 2014-08-22 |
| [DAWN] Consider some of the threats being made by the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... in connection with its call for 'civil disobedience'. They say, for instance, that the public will not be paying any electricity or gas bills, and if the centre should respond by cutting off electricity supplies to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... , they will cut off power supply from Tarbela Dam. I wonder if Mr Mushtaq Ghani, the information minister of the government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa who made this threat, has ever been to Tarbela. The dam has a large powerhouse with a generation capacity of 3500MW. Downstream from the powerhouse is the Ghazi Barotha hydropower project, with an additional capacity of 1300MW. Both power stations are run by Wapda, a federal entity. The electricity produced from these stations is evacuated to a number of grid stations from Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. to Burhan on the left bank of the Indus. The grid stations and their transmission network is handled by the National Transmission & Despatch Company which sells it on to the eight distribution companies of the country. At no point does the electricity travel through any office controlled by the PTI or its government. So how exactly do they intend to deliver on this threat to cut off electricity supplies from Tarbela? Both Wapda and NTDC are federal entities and report to the Ministry of Water and Power and are not likely to take instructions from the PTI or its government in KP. |
| Posted by:Fred |