Opposition in Senate rejects Nepra inquiry into power outage.

ISLAMABAD -- As barbs flew in the Senate on Friday with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle engaged in war of words, the opposition rejected an inquiry by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) into the recent countrywide power breakdown and called for an impartial inquiry.

'If the appointments in Nepra are made by the federal government then how can they ask the regulator to hold an inquiry against them? We reject this fake inquiry as obviously nothing will come of it and I guarantee that after two-and-a-half years the government will still say that we are in crisis because of the last government,' PPP parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman said.

She asked the government to explain why the power sector is collapsing, why its circular debt has ballooned or why the country's total debt has reached unprecedented proportions.

'No one is credibly answering key questions on what led to the breakdown of our power sector. The blackout we witnessed reminded us of the blackouts in wartime in my childhood. Yet here, Tabahi Sarkar let this situation continue for three days, but we are yet to see a response to this in parliament. Who is going to take the responsibility for this?' she asked.

Government holds previous govts of PML-N and PPP responsible for the state of power sector

Ms Rehman said that due to unprecedented mismanagement the circular debt was rising. 'Power sector is being run on an ad hoc basis. Concerned ministries are busy targeting the opposition instead of doing their jobs... Doing talk shows and selling their false narratives do not equate to running the country.'

She regretted that the entire country was facing an unprecedented gas crisis. Last year Sindh was being blamed but what was the reason now as a pipeline has been installed, she wondered.

The PPP senator also said Federal Bureau of Revenue's collection targets had been altered to appease the International Monetary Fund. 'Loans and debts have increased so much that what two previous governments couldn't manage in their combined tenure, this government has managed to achieve in just two-and-a-half years,' she added.

The government, on the other hand, held the previous PML-N and PPP governments responsible for the state of power sector.

Minister for Energy Omar Ayub chided the opposition for its hue and cry over the power outage, saying it had happened eight times during PML-N's five years in power. They were shedding crocodile tears because they...