MQM-P demands KE introduce prepaid power connections in Karachi

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has urged the K-Electric (KE) to introduce the option of prepaid electricity connections for its customers so that its billing mechanism was free of discrepancies and reflected the actual power consumption by the consumers in the city.

This point was included in the charter of demands presented by the MQM-P to the KE on Thursday.

The charter of demands was presented after a large number of activists and supporters of the party held a protest demonstration outside the KE head office in Gizri. The participants of the demonstration displayed placards and banners to denounce excessive load-shedding by the power utility in several parts of the city in summer.

The MQM-P through its charter of demands also urged the KE to immediately do away with its current power load-shedding regime in the city, which, the party said, had gravely penalised a large number of honest consumers who regularly paid their bills.

The MQM-P’s charter of demands also called for standardisation of the fuel adjustment charges received by the KE, greater reliance on renewable energy sources, and doing away with outdated conventional power production units that largely relied on imported fossil fuels.

Speaking to the demonstrators, MQM-P senior leader Dr Farooq Sattar urged other private power sector companies to come forward and roll out their services in Karachi to end the KE’s monopoly continuing at the cost of the power consumers in the city.

He raised the demand of his party to end excessive taxes added to the electricity bills. He lamented that certain areas in Karachi had been suffering power load-shedding lasting up to 12 to 18 hours which was simply intolerable for its residents. He said the KE should stop sending inflated power bills to the power consumers in the city.

Dr Sattar also urged the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority not to extend the validity period of the outdated KE’s generation units at the Bin Qasim power plant that produced expensive electricity for the consumers in the city.

He said the power utility should no longer rely on natural gas or imported coal for expensive power production when the indigenous energy resource of Thar coal was abundantly available for power production.