Lyari residents besiege KE office as utility denies allegations

Karachi 

Hours after K-Electric (KE), the city’s sole power utility, issued a statement on Monday denying reports of increased loadshedding in the metropolis, irate residents of Lyari laid siege to the KE headquarters in DHA in protest against continued power outages in their locality.

The protest was organised after a week-long deadline, issued by Lyari’s local leaders on May 17, ended yesterday with no significant improvement in the locality’s power supply scenario. The protesters included women, children and the elderly and there were reports that an aged man had also suffered a heatstroke during the demonstration.

With law enforcement personnel on the scene to control any potential violence, the demonstrators eventually dispersed with no untoward incident reported. However, the protest led to massive traffic jams near Punjab Chowrangi and nearby areas as it coincided with the evening rush hour time.

A week ago, the recently-elected municipal leadership of Lyari, which includes members of different political parties, had announced their protest plan at a joint press conference where they lashed out at the power utility for trampling upon the basic human rights of Lyari's residents by subjecting them to power cuts in sweltering temperatures. 

The representatives had alleged that KE was carrying out extended power shutdowns in the name of maintenance of distribution and transmission systems, which they termed a ‘false justification’.

KE, they had demanded, should at once end power cuts during the night time in the area, and also stop sending bogus bills, which were causing serious economic hardships for consumers. As per the Lyari representatives, almost 70 to 80 percent of the consumers in Lyari were paying their electricity bills regularly and on time, but were still facing a power nightmare. 

Yesterday’s protest was the latest in a line of events against KE as a day earlier, on Sunday, various civil society organisations had come together for a press conference where they called for legal action against the power utility. 

The civil society leaders had demanded that the Sindh government should immediately take action against the KE for resorting to extended durations of unannounced loadshedding in the metropolis, in contravention of directives from the Sindh High Court (SHC) and National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra).

It was said that, as temperatures were rising with the onset of summers, KE had started extending the duration of loadshedding and power breakdowns were also becoming increasingly frequent. The speakers had highlighted that in some areas, power was not available for days at end, as just this past week, residents of Baba and Bhit islands were protesting in the city over not having electricity for seven days, while a suburban areas of Karachi such as Ibrahim Hyderi, Gadap Town and Memon Goth were also among the worst-hit areas. 

KE responds

In response to Sunday’s press conference, KE issued a statement in which it maintained that the utility had not increased loadshedding duration in the city, and the process was being managed as per the announced schedule. 

KE also claimed that there was no unannounced loadshedding in any part of the city and localised faults pertaining to a particular area or maintenance, should not be associated with loadshedding hours. 

As for the power issues affecting the Baba and Bhit Islands, the power utility said these should not be confused with loadshedding as the power supply to the islands was disconnected after repeated reminders to residents regarding clearance of long outstanding bills, amounting to Rs190 million.  The statement further said that power supply to the islands was restored after negotiations with senior representatives of communities. 

Similarly, the KE statement read that the Sabzi Mandi area had an outstanding amount of more than Rs550 million, and their connection was restored only after an undertaking regarding payments was signed by the respective authorities. 

Additionally, the statement continued, organisations such as the KWSB still owe KE an amount to the tune of over Rs36 billion but, despite these longstanding dues, continuous defaults and electricity theft, KE was trying its best to serve the customers of Karachi without any discrimination. 

The communiqué concluded with KE appealing to the civil society not to condone defaulters, stating that the success of KE’s drive against defaulters and electricity theft was closely linked to sincere cooperation from all stakeholders.