Give Karachi control over its water, power: Sattar

Dr Farooq Sattar has demanded that the control of Karachi’s water and power should be handed over to the city’s people because they have had enough of being subjected to “injustices”.

“We pay the most taxes in the country – 60 to 70 per cent – and even then it is us who have to protest for our due rights,” said the chief of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) PIB Colony faction.

Addressing his group’s protest demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club on Sunday, Sattar lamented over the worsening situation of utilities in the metropolis. He said that unless people show their “current” to those responsible for providing them the utilities, nothing can be gained.

Making a jibe at his political rivals who have been protesting over the same issue, he said people will not be flattered by their false claims again.

Particularly mentioning the name of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Shahbaz Sharif, he said people will not believe the Punjab chief minister because, he claimed, his party, being in power in the Centre, is among those responsible for the situation that the city faces now.

Sharif visited Karachi on Sunday and held meetings with leaders of the Awami National Party and the MQM-P’s Bahadurabad faction. He also spoke to the PML-N’s gatherings in different parts of the city and vowed that if his party came into power again, it will make the city a better place to live.

Sattar said that in the tussle between the K-Electric and the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), the public is suffering because of the power outages as well as the lack of water supply because of them. “The public has nothing to do with this, so why are they being mistreated?”

He remarked that rather than making excuses, the KE should resolve the issue even if it has to make a cut in its profits. “People want their water and power.”

He said that if the issues are not addressed within 72 hours by the stakeholders, including the federal and Sindh governments, his faction will take to the streets across the province in protest. He warned that if people were to decide on starting a lack of cooperation campaign, the federal and provincial governments will not be able to run their day-to-day affairs.

The PIB chief said people own these institutions because they pay them through their bills and taxes, so they should listen to their problems and redress the balance.

He announced that his faction will stage more protest demonstrations in front of the KE’s and the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board’s (KWSB) offices as well as the Chief Minister House if they do not put matters right.

On Friday the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami had staged separate protest demonstrations against the same issues and asked Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar to intervene.

Addressing a news conference outside his residence on Saturday, Sattar had said he does not think that the K-IV Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme will be completed even by 2019 because of the alleged incompetency of the authorities handling the project.

He said the KWSB cannot even control its own supply valves and pumping stations, as most areas of the city have dried up, adding that Baldia Town in District West has not received water for the past three months.

“The population is increasing while there is no addition to the water supply,” he said, referring to the dramatic swelling of the city, both horizontally and vertically, in the past decade. “It seems that no planning is carried out in the city.”

Sattar said the government’s silence on these issues implies its enmity with Karachi because, he added, the city that pays the most taxes in the country is left without care. “The government has failed to ensure fair distribution of water and power.”

He censured the KE, the city’s sole power supplier, saying that the company has doubled its profits to Rs70 billion since 2016-17 but failed to ensure uninterrupted power supply.

He said the city’s people are suffering from electricity outages amid rising temperatures despite paying hefty bills and taxes. “For decades every government has claimed that they will end load-shedding, but in vain.”

On the subject of Sharif’s visit to Karachi, Sattar had said the PML-N is isolating itself due to its approach in the current political scenario. He said his meeting with Sharif during the latter’s previous visit this month was not satisfactory.

Protesting outside the KE head office in Gizri on Friday, PSP chief Mustafa Kamal had 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 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.”

In the JI’s separate sit-in outside the press club, the party’s city chief accused former Sindh governor Ishratul Ebad and Kamal for the situation that the KE has brought the people of the city to.

The JI chief 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.