ISLAMABAD - A high-level meeting, jointly chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Monday night at Aiwan-e-Sadr, reviewed the current energy situation in the country and evolved a strategy to address the pressing power issues on war footing.Briefing about the meeting, Spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar said it was in continuation of the series of earlier meetings, the president held with the relevant ministries to tackle the power shortage and other energy-related issues in the country.The spokesperson said Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar, the federal minister for water and power, gave a detailed briefing on current power situation in the country. Giving a background of the sudden drop in power generation, he informed the meeting that a total of 18 pylons of high voltage were damaged as a result of windstorm in Muzaffargarh last week that caused a loss of 1,800 MW in the national grid.Mukhtar said 11 pylons had been re-erected, restoring the supply of 1,100MW of power, while the remaining 700 MW of electricity would be restored within the next 24 hours.Dr Asim Hussain, the adviser on petroleum, gave a briefing on the current status regarding supply of furnace oil and gas to the power plants so as to stabilize power generation.The president, while expressing concern over the consistent power shortages and loadshedding in the country in the holy month of Ramazan, directed the relevant ministries and departments to make coordinated and concerted efforts to bring an end to the unscheduled electricity and gas loadshedding in various parts of the country.Zardari directed that the distribution companies must ensure the equitable distribution of electricity and especially to the far flung and the less developed regions of the country. He also called for ensuring transparency in the distribution mechanism of electricity.Mukhtar also briefed the meeting on the efforts made by the recently constituted Load Management Committee to supervise the distribution of electricity through DESCOs and ensuring equitable loadshedding in the country by better management of the available supply of electricity.The spokesperson said the meeting was also briefed on implementation status of the president’s directives, including the setting up of special control room in Ministry of Water and Power for providing complete and updated information about the power generation, supply and distribution and loadshedding.The President also directed that he should be kept updated on regular basis about the energy situation by the relevant authorities.