Karachi electricity crisis: JI to besiege CM House on April 20, observe strike on 27th

KARACHI: Commenting on the ongoing electricity crisis in Karachi, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Senator Sirajul Haq said on Saturday that the federal and provincial governments were treating the financial hub of the country as a “conquered territory” and its people as “slaves”.

Addressing a news conference at his party’s city headquarters, Idara Noor-e-Haq, he said people in the city were deprived of even safe drinking water and electricity, whereas the rulers were enjoying lavish lifestyles.

Criticising K-Electric (KE), the sole privately-owned power distributor in the city, he announced that the JI would besiege the Chief Minister House on April 20 and then a week later on April 27 would observe a strike to press the government to make efforts to resolve the issues faced by the public.

“Karachi faces a plethora of problems due to the incompetence of the government,” he said.

Mentioning the prolonged power loadshedding in the city amid the rising temperature, the JI leader said that people were regularly paying bills, yet they were not at ease.

He said it was not the public’s fault that the KE was not receiving natural gas to run some of its plants. He added that it was the responsibility of the KE and the government to make arrangements to keep the power plants running.

Haq noted that his party had already taken up issues faced by Karachi with the Supreme Court and other forums, and hoped that they would listen to them. He maintained that the KE and the government were in a nexus to make money while leaving the people at the mercy of power outages.

The KE has accused the Sui Southern Gas Company of reducing the supply of gas to its power plants, saying that it can generate more electricity if it is supplied with the required gas.