KE denies causing deaths in recent heatwave

Karachi
The K-Electric protested its innocent before the Sindh High Court on Friday, saying that it could not be blamed for the deaths of over 1,000 citizens in the recent heatwave in Karachi as it did its utmost to ensure the provision of electricity in the city.
The court was hearing a petition seeking the constitution of a judicial commission to fix responsibility for negligence on the part of the federal and provincial authorities over the deaths of 1,000 people in the unprecedented heatwave.
Shahzad Roy and representatives of social welfare organisations submitted in the petition that apart from more than 1,000 deaths, around 40,000 fell sick due to heatstroke as temperatures soared to 45 degrees Celsius. However, they said, the federal and provincial governments failed to understand the seriousness of climate change despite several climate change warnings.
They further said the federal and provincial governments did not declare a state of emergency in the heatwave-hit areas until June 23 when more than 426 persons had died in Karachi. They said the power utility of the city also failed to provide an uninterrupted power supply that could have minimised the suffering of citizens.
Filing comments on the petition, the KE submitted that there was no communication by any government authority or the department giving any forewarning about the extent of the heat wave. Besides, it said, the majority of those who passed away were homeless people.
The power utility said it had neither been shown nor established that there was a direct correlation between the loadshedding and the deaths. “Had this been the case, in those areas (such as Sibi and Larkana) where the loadshedding regimes are much higher (in some areas 18 hours) and the temperature reached 49 degrees Centigrade there would have been more deaths, which is clearly not the case,” it stated, adding that there was no correlation between the deaths caused by the heatwave and the alleged lack of electricity/loadshedding.
The KE insisted that the management of the power utility reduced loadshedding during the peak of the heatwave from the beginning of the holy month of Ramazan, while the maximum loadshedding prior to the month was 7.5 hours (in some areas). This was reduced to 4 to 4.5 hours.
The power utility claimed that 143 hospitals were exempted from loadshedding throughout the city, adding that in many areas the health facilities had been granted rebate on their electricity bills from 50 percent to 100 percent since 2014 as part of its CSR policy for supporting community health and public welfare.
It was submitted that due to the investment made by the KE and the other improvements about 60 of the city was free/exempt from loadshedding, while for the remaining 40 percent, ordinarily there were three different loadshedding regimes of three hours, six hours and 7.5 hours.
The KE said the process of loadshedding was linked to external elements, such as discrimination and an inadequate supply of natural gas to it by the Sui Southern Gas Company and the ever-present circular debt that was confining and limiting its working capital and liquidity position.
It stated that the SSGC must supply a total of 276 million cubic feet of gas per day to run its existing plants as well as about 130 MMCFD for its state-of-the-art gas turbine plant of 560 megawatts in Bin Qasim.
It denied that there was any discrimination against the petitioners or any segment of society as the same policy of segmented loadshedding was being practised in other parts of the country, including Lahore.
A division bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi adjourned the hearing for August 10 for want of time. The court the KE to submit comments on an application seeking an injunction for the power utility to not apply the practice of collective punishment to the residents of any area of the city from where they received complaints of power theft.
The court also issued notices to the ministry of water and power, the KE and other respondents on an application filed by more rights activists and organisations seeking permission to join proceedings over the heat wave deaths.