Cabinet asks Centre to have mercy on Sindh, end power outages

The Sindh cabinet on Monday expressed serious concerns over prolonged electricity outages in the province, urging the federal government to have mercy on the people and stop power cuts in the sweltering weather.

Separately, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah wrote another letter to the prime minister, asking him to direct the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and the K-Electric (KE) to immediately resolve their issues in public interest and provide immediate relief the residents and industry of Karachi, where power outages have turned into a grave crisis.

He said in his demi-official letter that it was continuation with his earlier letter of March 30 on the same matter. He stated that in order to resolve matters between the KE and the SSGC and to find ways to mitigate the ongoing electricity problem in Karachi, he had convened a meeting on April 7, which was attended by the managements and board members of both the entities. The managements of the companies were cognizant of the situation and presented their positions on the issue, he said.

The chief minister told the prime minister that the SSGC, in public interest, offered to increase the gas supply through a gas management plan provided the KE paid a security deposit, resolve outstanding payment issues and sign a GSA. The KE on the other hand committed to provide security deposit and showed readiness to sign a GSA on mutually agreed terms, he added.

According to the letter, thee SSGC held a board meeting on April 8, which reportedly approved a supply of 120 mmcfd of natural gas to the KE upon furnishing a Rs6 billion security deposit that was equivalent to three months’ average bill of 150 mmcfd of gas and signing of mutually agreed terms of reference for the appointment of an independent chartered accountant firm.

The KE, however, maintains that the payment of markup/late payment surcharge to the SSGC is a complex matter as it, in turn, involves the recovery of outstanding electricity dues from the federal government (tariff differential subsidy) and other strategic bulk consumers, it said.

Shah further said that although both utilities had shown flexibility for the resolution of issues, excessive electricity outages still persisted and Karachi had not yet received any relief, the residents of the metropolis and the local industry were still enduring outages of over 10 hours daily, and a continuous rise in the summer temperature had aggravated the situation, especially when students were appearing in the secondary school board examinations. The possibility of a serious law and order situation could not be ruled out, he said, requesting the prime minister to direct both the companies to immediately resolve their issues in public interest and provide immediate relief to the residents and industry.

He asked that in the meantime, the SSGCL be directed to supply at least 190 mmcfd to the KE for optimal generation of electricity, and a committee be constituted comprising representatives of the federal and provincial governments, the SSGC and te KE to sort out the outstanding payment issues.

New EDMM okayed

The cabinet meeting, held under the chairmanship of the chief minister at the New Sindh Secretariat, approved a new External Debt Management Manual (EDMM). Shah, who also holds the portfolio of the finance department, said the objective of the manual was to describe the policies and procedures governing external debt management by the government.

He added that it should be used for day-to-day management of external debt activities “where appropriate, diagrams and flow charts are used to facilitate users’ understanding of the process and workflow”.

SKAA budget

The cabinet also approved a Rs555.166 million budget for the Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority (SKAA) for 2017-18.

The budget includes Rs200 million for a government grant, and Rs355.166 million will from the SKAA’s own resources. In the budget, 22 posts from BPS-1 to BPS-20 have been created and Rs45 million have been allocated for low housing schemes.

To a question about expenditures, the chief minister was told that Rs325.166 million would be spent on salaries, Rs109 million on non-development expenditures and Rs121 million would be the development expenditures of the authority.

There are 1,409 katchi abadis, of them 1,251 have been regularised. Senior Minister Nisar Khuhro pointed out that an old katchi abadi in Larkana inaugurated by Shaheed Bhutto had not been regularised so far. On this, the chief minister directed Special Assistant for Katchi Abadis Murtaza Baloch to visit the scheme and regularise it at the earliest.

Universities bill draft

The cabinet also took up the Sindh Universities and Institutes Law (Amendment) Bill 2018 passed by the Sindh Assembly and referred back by the governor for reconsideration. The cabinet expressed reservations over the language the governor had used in his observations for referring it back to the assembly.

It was pointed out that the conduct of the governor could not be discussed in the assembly, and since the chief minister was an elected representative and answerable to the assembly, he had been given the powers to appoint vice chancellors through a search committee. The meeting was told that a proper procedure had been worked out in the draft bill to remove a vice chancellor in case of serious allegations proved through an inquiry committee. The cabinet approved the draft referred back to the Sindh Assembly for reconsideration, added some other recommendations and directed the secretary of the universities and boards to get it vetted from the law department.