The duration of loadshedding in the country will be reduced to three-and-a-half hour from Tuesday, PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said in a press conference on Monday.

He said this while addressing a press conference in Lahore flanked by State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik, Minister for Power Khurram Dastagir Khan and Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb.**

Abbasi said that the country’s demand for electricity has exceeded 25,000MW during this summer.

Cities across Pakistan have been plagued with power outages that has resulted in households going without elecrtricity for as high as 12 hours daily. Even in urban centres, the duration of power outages vary. In some parts of Karachi, daily outages of 6-8 hours are commonplace.

“When the current government assumed the charge, the total generation of electricity was just 17,000MW,” he said. It has now increased to more than 21,000MW over the past three weeks.

“We are hopeful that by tomorrow (June 7), the outages will be reduced to 3.5 hours.”

Abbasi said that importing more coal is the next phase of the PML-N government’s plan to address the issue of energy shortfall..

By the end of June, loadshedding will be further reduced to two hours a day, he said.

Over the weekend, Prime Minis­ter Shehbaz Sharif had dire­cted authorities to come up with an “emergency plan” within 24 hours to reduce loadshedding. The meeting came amid reports about hours-long loadshedding in various parts of the country, leaving the people to suffer in high temperatures.

Since then, PML-N ministers have suggested several alternatives including changing business times to make optimal use of daylight and curtail electricity usage.