Govt firm on solving power crisis: PM Meets Turkish company team;

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday said that Pakistan was facing a severe shortage of electricity but the government was determined to overcome this crisis. He said this while talking to a Turkish delegation led by Orguz Carmikli, Vice Chairman of the leading Turkish company, NUROL Group, at the PM House.The premier said, “Pakistan offers a host of areas for investment with ideal economic returns for foreign investors.” He said that Pakistan’s priority sectors for investment included hydel and coal power plants, the Karachi-Lahore Motorway and infrastructure development, and NUROL must benefit from the huge business and investment opportunities. He further said that Pakistan was facing power shortages and the present government was dedicated to overcome it by exploiting innovative and cheap energy resources. “The Pakistan Power Park at Gaddani offers a golden opportunity to invest in coal-based power plants,” he added. Orguz Carmikli expressed his company’s readiness to invest in the Gaddani Power Park, Bhasha and Bonji dams and the Karachi-Lahore Motorway. He was pleased to know that the federal government would provide sovereign guarantees for the construction of these projects. He further said that he was satisfied with Pakistan’s legal framework for foreign investment. The premier noted that utilising NUROL’s expertise in infrastructure development, the company might construct motorways on a BOT basis. He further said that the company must benefit from Pakistan’s potential market of over 180 million people. The PM had already met Orguz Carmikli during his recent visit to Turkey. The company is focused on the construction of motorways, dams and hydro-electric power plants and has recently constructed the Gebze-Izmir Motorway, including the world’s third largest Izmat Bay suspension bridge at a cost of $9.5 billion. Earlier, the PM felicitated the newly-elected MLAs of the Gilgit Baltistan Assembly, Haji Fida Muhammad Nashad and Sultan Ali, on their election to the provincial legislature from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) platform. It is pertinent to mention that by-elections for two vacated seats of the Gilgit Baltistan Assembly were held on October 6, 2013 in which PML-N candidates managed to win both seats.The PM expressed the hope that the newly-elected MLAs would live up to the trust people have reposed in them.