Governor asks KE to restore its credibility by mitigating power woes

Sindh’s governor has urged the K-Electric to take immediate measures to mitigate the woes of the city’s power consumers, thereby restoring the company’s credibility in the eyes of the people.

Chairing a session on the power utility at the Governor House on Wednesday, Mohammad Zubair said people generally tend to cooperate only with institutions of good reputation. Zubair directed KE officials to make its coordination with the public more effective as well as adopt a mechanism that helped bridge the gap between consumers and the company. He said the schedule of load-shedding spells should cause the least misery to consumers.

The governor said the KE should do its best to resolve consumers’ power problems before taking punitive action against them over unpaid bills or electricity thefts. He admitted that the power consumers of the metropolis were relatively much better off than those in other cities such as Lahore or Islamabad where load-shedding spells were longer. But the KE should take more steps to improve the city’s power situation, he said.

Zubair said a consultative session needed to be organised with representatives of political, religious, business, industrial and media organisations for resolving the people’s power complaints and improving the KE’s working.

He said that despite a persisting power crisis, the city’s industrial zones were ensured uninterrupted electricity supply for the sake of the country’s economy, adding that the common man always became the ultimate victim of a poor economy.

He told the meeting that the government had urged the KE to exempt industrial areas from load-shedding and to adopt a proper load-shedding schedule for the areas with the issues of power thefts and unpaid bills.

He stressed that Karachi required uninterrupted electricity because it was the country’s economic and business backbone, which was why the KE had to fulfil its obligations in accordance with its mandate because the utility held complete sway over the electricity affairs of the city.

He said that several energy and power projects initiated by the current federal government would soon be completed, following which the country would not only be able to overcome the power crisis but would also be able to generate electricity in excess to the nation’s requirements.

The session was told that around $34 billion (approximately Rs3.58 trillion) were being spent to complete the power projects that were part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and that an additional 10,400 megawatts of electricity would be added to the national grid by next March.

The participants complained about the KE’s performance as they discussed unannounced load-shedding, power breakdowns, inflated bills and unfriendly behaviour of the utility’s staffers with the people.

KE CEO Tayyab Tareen briefed the meeting on the performance of the electricity supplier. The participants represented different political parties, trade and industrial associations, chambers of commerce and industries, and media organisations of the city.

The session was represented by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Pak Sarzameen Party, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, the Awami National Party, the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, the Sunni Tehreek, the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry, the Karachi Chambers of Commerce & Industry, different industrial zones’ associations, and other relevant traders’ and business persons’ bodies.