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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Interior minister tells KE to activate all its power generation plants at once

By M. Waqar Bhatti
April 24, 2018

Blaming the K-Electric for the prevailing power crisis in Karachi, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has asked the utility service to immediately make all its generation plants functional, saying that Prime Minster Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has intervened in the row between the KE and the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) to facilitate the people of the metropolitan city.

Talking to the media after inaugurating the seven-storey building of the Dow Dental College at the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), Iqbal said the federal government is playing its role in mediating between the KE and the SSGC, adding that after the premier’s intervention, the power utility service should immediately start its closed generation plants to end the prevailing electricity crisis in the city.

He maintained that “a few decisions” cannot derail the country from its path towards prosperity, and claimed that the country is moving in a positive direction despite the recent ups and downs.

Terming the ongoing political turmoil “T20 and T10 matches”, he said sit-ins, protests and decisions such as sending a sitting PM home are pushing Pakistan towards political instability, and suggested that economic prosperity can only be achieved when all the institutions unanimously decide they will not take the country towards anarchy.

Earlier, addressing the inaugural ceremony of the Dow Dental College building, Iqbal said Pakistan’s economy took off twice in the 1960’s and the 1990’s, but due to the 1965 war and the 1971 debacle as well as the 1990’s when four successive governments were sent home, the country’s economy suffered badly, leaving us behind India and even Bangladesh.

“Chinese investment of $46 billion is the third and perhaps the last chance for Pakistan. If we lose this chance, we shall never be able to recover from our economic crisis,” he warned. He said that even international monetary organisations are calling Pakistan an emerging economy that will be among the 20 best performing economies by 2030.

Iqbal said the new building of the Dow Dental College is a gift from the federal government to the people and students of Karachi, and claimed that if his party is re-elected in the general elections scheduled to be held later this year, they will transform the metropolis into a modern city on the pattern of Lahore.

He claimed that their government has added 11,400 megawatts of power to the national grid during the past five years, saying that their government has produced more electricity in the past five years than the entire time since the creation of Pakistan.

Urging the Dow University’s students to work hard and concentrate on their studies, he said the 640-million-rupee building of the Dow Dental College is a gift from the taxpayers of Pakistan to them, and it has the most advanced teaching facilities that are available anywhere in the world.

“I urge the faculty and varsity administration to transform this college into an institution where students from the Middle East and the Far East would wish to study,” he added.

“The money spent on the completion of this building and on your education is a loan from the people of Pakistan. I urge you to help the poor when you start seeing patients after completing your education. I urge you to visit the rural areas of Pakistan where people have never even heard of dental treatment.”

DUHS Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Saeed Quraishy thanked the Higher Education Commission for providing the funds for the construction of the Dow Dental College building, adding that it is perhaps one of the few projects that were completed a year earlier than planned.

He said the new building will not only improve the educational facilities for the students of the Dow University but also help ease the sufferings of patients, as one of its floors has been reserved for conducting advanced research in the field of dentistry and oral health sciences.

A day earlier Dr Farooq Sattar had 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, 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 KE and the 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.