SIALKOT: Federal Minister for Water and Power, Khwaja Muhammad Asif Sunday pledged that the electricity tariff would not be raised for the people belonging to low-income brackets.

Talking to Geo News here, Khwaja Asif said efforts were afoot for outsourcing the management of power grids and feeders to private organization. This step will help minimize the power theft, he argued.

He said as of now electricity worth Rs140 to 200 billion was being stolen across the country.

The Federal Minister asserted that a decision will to be made whether we want to pile up another circular debt of Rs500 billion in the next year or try to avert such a situation.

APP adds: Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif said the government had tightened noose around the electricity thieves across the country.

He said that the PML-N had given up practice of taking loans from the international donors, saying that it would be an unwise decision to borrow money for debt servicing. He claimed the PML-N government had reduced the duration of power load-shedding in the country despite the ongoing unavoidable circumstances.

He said that technical issues in national grid system were also the main reason behind the ongoing loadshedding of electricity in the country, saying only the PML-N had the capability to get the nation rid of prolonged and unbearable energy crisis.

Replying to a question, the minister pointed out that the electricity system was badly damaged in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province due to the alleged slackness of the previous governments.

Khawaja Asif vowed to make Pakistan a loadshedding free country within a stipulated period of three years, adding the PML-N government had taken the issue of energy crisis as a challenge and the government was heading towards right direction. He said the PML-N government's effective anti-load shedding strategy was meeting success, as the government was committed to give maximum relief to the people.

He urged the masses to give up the unnecessary use of the electricity and lend a sharing hand of cooperation to the government for ending the power load shedding.