PSP, JI protest against power outages, ask CJP to intervene

Protesting outside the K-Electric head office in Gizri on Thursday, Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chief Mustafa Kamal claimed that an artificial power crisis has been created in Karachi at a time when the sole electricity supplier of the city is being sold to a Chinese company.

Kamal claimed that the facts are straight, that the KE and the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) colluded to fabricate a power crisis apparently to sell the former to the Shanghai Electric Power Company at a lower rate, an estimated $1.77 billion (approximately Rs205 billion).

The former city mayor said an investigating team of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority has found that though the gas supply from the SSGC was curtailed to an extent, the KE was responsible for running its power generation plants in Korangi and Bin Qasim on alternative fuels.

On the subject of the tussle between the two utility suppliers over the issue of dues, he said: “They waited for the summer to approach, so that when the people in the city start dying of heat, their claim will carry weight. The month of Ramazan is just around the corner, and the mercury is rising every day.”

Kamal said that in the city of more than 25 million, hardly one per cent of the people can afford to run their homes on generators.

Due to the excessive load-shedding, even the business community is unable to run their affairs and has announced that it will close markets in protest, he added.

“The livelihood of over 1.5 million is in jeopardy,” he said, adding that had it been a real issue, people could have demonstrated patience. But it is not, he said, and the PSP will hold a similar protest against the SSGC in the coming week.

He criticised Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah over his letters to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on the power issue of the city. He jibed that Murad could not phone Abbasi. The PSP chief said the Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government is involved in this alleged crime, adding that despite generating Rs32 billion in revenue from the city on an annual basis and making profits, the KE has neither upgraded its system to add more power to the supply nor cleared its dues.

He urged the Chinese company against taking over the KE because it is an allegedly disputed company. He said that the PSP would not let the takeover happen, adding that nowhere in the world things happen like they do here.

During the protest demonstration that was participated in by PSP leaders and workers, an 11-point resolution was presented that demanded legal action against the KE and the SSGC for creating this “artificial” crisis, making the power company return the Rs200 billion that it allegedly accumulated through illegal means from the city’s people. KE Chief Marketing & Communication Officer Fakhar Ahmed told Kamal during the protest that his company is in talks with the gas firm and they hope of steering out of the crisis soon.

Jamaat-e-Islami staged a separate sit-in outside the Karachi Press Club, where JI Karachi chief Sirajul Haq accused former Sindh governor Ishratul Ebad and Kamal for the situation that the KE has brought the people of the city to.

Haq jibed that Kamal was involved in the power company’s privatisation and today he is protesting against it. The general elections are approaching and that is why some political parties involved in wrongdoings have taken to the streets on the pretext of demanding people’s rights, he added.

He said the JI did not stage their protest outside the CM House as planned earlier because the chief executive had requested them to give him time to resolve the matter. If things do not change, the JI will call for a strike on April 27, he added.