US President Donald Trump claimed late on Sunday night that negotiators would head to Pakistan for a fresh round of talks amid continued clashes with Iran. The two countries had held rare direct talks in Islamabad earlier this month but failed to resolve the two-month-long war that has left thousands dead across the Middle East. Pakistan has emerged as a key mediator between the US and Iran — even as the cash strapped nation battles blackouts and a fuel shortage.
According to a recent Dawn report, the country is now facing “ six to seven hours of load management” due to a sudden surge in demand amid the global LPG crisis and lower water discharges for irrigation. The figure is almost three times higher than the public commitment made by the Pakistan government and reports indicate that central Punjab and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces were the worst-hit. The details were shared by Power Minister Awais Leghari on Thursday, who added that the administration was making all efforts to minimise both outages and potential tariff increases arising from the use of expensive alternative fuels.
A separate report by Arab News quoted the government as saying on Friday that it had reduced the duration of power outages to 2.5 hours by increasing hydropower generation by 128% to 4,100 MW. But the LPG shortage remains acute —
“The country is short of 400 mmcfd LNG. Pakistan’s immediate need is four LNG cargoes…The power division has sent us demand for 5 cargos in April while we are supplying only one that too from local fields,” an energy ministry official told Arab News on Saturday.