NEPRA to hold public hearing on Karachi loadshedding on July 10

Regulator said it will hold a public hearing via zoom due to the coronavirus pandemic on July 10

By Web Desk
July 07, 2020
Regulator said it will hold a public hearing via zoom due to the coronavirus pandemic on July 10. Photo: File

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has decided to hold a public hearing on July 10 regarding the ongoing loadshedding crisis in Karachi.

The regulator will hold a public hearing via Zoom due to the coronavirus pandemic. Citizens can witness the hearings by writing an email to the NEPRA registrar, after which they will be provided a password.

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The regulator stated that extreme loadshedding has been causing a lot of difficulties for Karachiites.

The announcement by the regulator comes as Karachiites face prolonged power outages since the start of the summer.

According to Geo News, Surjani Town, Gadap, Gharo, Kathor areas of Karachi’s electricity is yet to be restored. While certain areas of Defence also faced power outages due o the rain.

Electricity in Karachi’s Lines Area has also been without electricity since the last 14 hours.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the K-Electric has stated that the company is working to restore electricity in the affected areas. The spokesperson stated that they are facing difficulties due to the rainwater accumulated in certain areas of the city.

On the other hand, the Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf (PTI) have already set up a protest camp outside the office of the against the K-Electric office to show their anger against the power supply company for prolonged load-shedding and overbilling.

On the first day of the protest on Monday, MNAs Aftab Siddiqui, Aslam Khan, Aftab Jahangir, Nusrat Wahid and MPAs Haleem Adil Sheikh, Jamal Siddiqui, Dr Saeed Afridi, Raja Azhar, Karim Bux Gabol, Ali Aziz G.G, Rabistan Khan, Shahnawaz Jadoon and others were in attendance.

They shouted slogans against “the exploitation of power consumers of Karachi by the KE and showed their displeasure against the cruel monopoly of the KE over the power sector of the megacity of Karachi”, said a party statement.

The protesters expressed their anger against the power utility for “turning the city of lights into a city of darkness” and criticised the power company’s management for becoming a source of misery for Karachiites.

Meanwhile, Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh on Monday also said that the Sindh government is ready to assume the control of three power supply companies of the province, namely the K-Electric (KE), the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco), and the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco), if the federal government was unable to manage the institutions of the energy sector in the country.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the minister said the federal government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was doing “sheer injustice with the people of Karachi by subjecting them to a worsening power crisis”.

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