Awam Pakistan Party holds protest against high power rates

The Awam Pakistan Party on Sunday held a protest outside the K-Electric (KE) Head Office in Gizri against high electricity prices and overbilling.

Awam Pakistan Party leader and former federal finance minister Miftah Ismail addressed the protest stating that if ordinary Pakistanis did not receive free electricity, then no one should. He criticised the KE for overbilling and pointed out that while the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) set the power rates, the KW sought an increase in the rates every 15 days.

He highlighted that electricity rates had increased by 350 per cent since 2015 and accused the government of increasing fake expenses by more than 24 per cent, including increased costs for the Senate, National Assembly, President House, and Prime Minister House.

Ismail also questioned the imposition of income tax when people's incomes had effectively been nullified.

He also mentioned that the Pakistan Peoples Party had promised 300 units of free electricity, stating that if providing free electricity was not feasible, the power rates should at least be fair.

A day earlier on Saturday, Ismail, while addressing a press conference, had urged the government to waive off the advance income tax and sales tax being recovered from domestic consumers as part of their power bills for the next four months in order to phenomenally decrease the electricity rates in the country.