Ghani warns of violent reaction to hours-long power outages over billing issues

Sindh Labour and Huaman Resources Minister Saeed Ghani has warned that power consumers would show a violent reaction in Karachi if entire localities were deprived of electricity for a prolonged period of time on account of non-payment of power bills.

He issued the warning on Tuesday while chairing a meeting along with Karachi Commissioner Muhammad Iqbal Memon on Tuesday to sort out the electricity outage and water shortage issues in areas in his constituency PS-104 in District East. The meeting was attended by senior K-Electric officials and newly elected local government representatives of the area.

Ghani mentioned that the K-Electric lacked the lawful authority to shut down the electric supply for a prolonged duration to such consumers who had been duly paying their electricity bills.

He said the KE was under an obligation to take the due lawful punitive action against a consumer who hadn’t been paying his electricity bill or was involved in power theft. but the same drive should not be extended to an entire locality. He said the water pumping stations in an affected locality shouldn’t be deprived of electricity; otherwise, the resultant water shortage would worsen the sufferings of residents of the area.

Ghani said that K-Electric was under an obligation to take needful steps to provide due relief to its consumers and that should also help it in increasing its revenue. The commissioner said that FIRs and other punitive actions could be taken against a non-paying consumer or anyone involved in electricity theft, but the power supply to an entire neighbourhood shouldn’t be shut down as part of the KE campaign against the non-paying customers. He asked the KE to immediately set up special camps in the area to provide due relief to the power consumers.