Rabbani directs Senate body to probe K-Electric power cuts

ISLAMABAD: In what could be seen as a rare move in the parliamentary history, the Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani on Friday wrote to the chairman of the Standing Committee on Water and Power to convene a meeting on power cuts in Karachi by K-Electric.
It is pertinent to mention here that along with the federal government, PPP’s Sindh government is also being blamed for so many deaths in Karachi in less than a week, owing to a heatwave, power outages and shortage of drinking water.The subject of the letter is, ‘unprecedented loss of life caused by the current heatwave coupled with power cuts in Karachi by K-Electric’. The text of the letter follows:
“I could not address you earlier on the issue for the two reasons, namely, that I was performing the responsibilities of Acting President of Pakistan and the Senate Secretariat was examining the issue that whether matters relating to the functioning of K-Electric, mainly in the context of affecting fundamental rights of the public at large, are provincial matters or not,” Rabbani wrote.
He said, “Now, as per the statement of Minister for Water and Power, given on the floor of the National Assembly on June 25, 2015, the federal government is negotiating a new agreement with the K-Electric and the instant agreement will be brought before parliament before finalisation. Furthermore, in a letter addressed to Nepra, the federal government has asked Nepra that as a regulator they should take notice of the issue in Karachi allegedly arising out of K-Electric’s violation of performance standards and licensing conditions.”
Meanwhile, in a letter to K-Electric, on June 25, 2015 the Ministry of Water and Power asked the K-Electric to effectively address the current situation in Karachi that has claimed lives of more than one thousand people. Hence, this exhibit that unprecedented loss of lives caused in Karachi due to power cuts is a matter of national and urgent public importance.
“As, this matter of grave and urgent public importance, is likely to be taken up in the House during the next session commencing from July 06, 2015, therefore, in order to enable the House to have a well informed debate on the matter, it is desirable that a meeting of the Standing Committee on Water and Power, shall be convened at the earliest, but not later than July 05, 2015, to look into the matter. The meeting shall take input from all stakeholders and shall submit a report in this regard before the House during the 117th Session of Senate commencing from July 06, 2015,” he said in the letter.It is pointed out that the Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition have been consulted before writing this letter.