Water and Power Minister Khurram Dastgir on Sunday said the government was not considering an immediate hike in electricity prices despite the hike in petrol and diesel prices.
He was speaking at a function held at the Peshawar Local Government Area to connect privately generated electricity to the Pesco system in Upper Chitral.
He said that legal hurdles have been removed to incorporate the power of Pakhtunkhwa Power Development Organization (PEDO) in the national grid and said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had spoken to Governor of Khyber Province, Pakhtunkhwa Ghulam Ali and clarified the issue.
Speaking at the event, WAPDA officials explained that Upper Chitral has a population of 475,600 and needs only 8 MW of electricity and the PEDO project provides 6 MW.
Energy Ministry Khurram Daastgir said that more money is needed to solve the electricity problem.
The Minister of Finance, Mr Ishaq Dar, recently announced that he will raise the price of petrol and diesel by 35 dollars per liter.
The finance minister said the price of kerosene and diesel has been increased by $18 per liter.
After the increase today, the price of petrol has increased by $249.80 per liter and the price of diesel by $262.80 per liter. Kerosene costs $189.83 per liter and light diesel costs $187 per liter for consumers.
