Tit for tat: No payment, no supplies: Kh Asif

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Muhammad Asif has said supplies will be terminated if consumers will not pay their electricity and water bills in response to the appeal of PTI Chief Imran Khan for civil disobedience. In a tit for tat, KPK Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani has threatened to disconnect power supply from Tarbela dam.

In an interview, Khawaja Mohammad Asif said free supplies of electricity are out of question.

The minister said the government is ready to hold talks with the marchers but will not compromise on law and the Constitution. He said talks committee will include representatives from different political parties.

Khwaja Asif said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif himself went to Imran Khan’s house to meet him.

Reacting to Khawaja Asif’s comments, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani said that the province will not be paying electricity and gas bills along with federal taxes and if utilities are disconnected to the province, power supply from Tarbela to Punjab will be stopped.

In an interview with a TV channel, Ghani said provincial taxes will be collected as per routine but the public will not be paying any federal taxes along with electricity and gas bills.

He said the civil disobedience movement was against the corrupt and incompetent federal government and not the government managing the province.

Responding to a question, Ghani said that if the centre dared to disconnect power supply to KP, the province will have the right to stop supply from Tarbela which falls within the provincial jurisdiction.

He added that civil disobedience will be practiced countrywide except in KP.

The minister said the KP government has never been implicated in any case of corruption which is why civil obedience will not be practiced in the province.

Ghani said this is a peaceful way to change the government and we want to register our protest without causing any bloodshed.

The minister said the PTI government was not ignorant of its responsibilities, adding that it was aware of the situation in KP.

“We are dealing with both governance of the province as well as our protests effectively,” Ghani said.INP