Islamabad, April 15 : Non-availability of required volume of fuel to power houses coupled with technical faults owing to non-maintenance of some power plants are the main reasons for forced outages of 7,140 MWs across Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was informed. He was made aware of it at a Power Division briefing here on Thursday. Sharif asked for action to end loadshedding at the earliest as he took note “of the incompetence and bad governance of the last regime”, The News International quoted a top official at the meeting as saying. “For God’s sake, take care of them,” he said, adding that the situation was unbearable. “Out of the non-functional power houses, some plants having 5,741 MW of generation capacity can be made functional with an immediate effect,” the official told TheNews. Sharif was told the Power Division could not timely replace kits or tools in power plants for lack of funds, rendering them non-functional, some of them for the last one year. The meeting was also told that nine power plants had been non-functional since December 2021, because of non-payment of their dues, making them unable to purchase fuel required to generate electricity. Among the 18 power plants, Port Qasim, Guddu, Muzaffargarh, KAPCO and Jamshoro, are currently not producing electricity. The meeting was told that as many as nine power houses of 3,535 MW were currently non-functional because of non-availability of fuel. Sharif also chaired a meeting that decided urgent measures on an emergency basis to achieve economic stability of the country. The meeting here on Thursday was also attended by former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal, Miftah Ismail, Marriyum Aurangzeb. The prime minister asked his economic team to take all-out measures. He called for urgent measures to overcome rising inflation. The Finance Ministry gave a briefing to the prime minister who expressed concerns over the worrisome economic indicators. Sharing pictures on Twitter, Marriyum Aurangzeb said Sharif has directed running a free-of-cost metro bus service during Ramazan. ING