No power at KMC building even after three days

No operations could be carried out at the office of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) on Monday as the power supply to the KMC Building was not restored even after the passage of three days after Friday when the K-Electric (KE) disconnected power supply to the corporation on account of outstanding dues.

The ongoing dispute between the KMC and the KE also turned ugly on Monday as their staffers engaged in brawls at two different locations of the city. In the Qayyumabad area, a fight ensued between the KMC and the KE’s employees when the KMC anti-encroachment staff tried to stop KE officials from laying cables under a road, saying that it was not legal.

According to KMC Anti-Encroachment Director Muhammad Musarrat, security guards of the power utility pushed a driver of the KMC from his bulldozer which caused a hip fracture to him. The injured driver was shifted to a hospital and an FIR of the incident was registered at the Korangi police station.

In the other incident, staffers of the KMC tried to dismantle cabins of the KE constructed on footpaths at Power House Chowrangi in North Karachi after which security guards of the power utility alleged pelted the municipality’s employees with stones, resulting in a fracture in a KMC employee’s leg.

According to Musarrat, the KMC staff had been carrying out a routine anti-encroachment operation in the area on directives of the Supreme Court (SC). A statement issued by the KMC said Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar conducted his important meetings on a balcony of the old KMC building. Due to the power cut, no computer of the corporation could be operated and the pensions of 22,000 retired employees of the KMC could not be transferred.

No arrangements for power supply have been made at the KMC Building since Friday when the KE disconnected its power supply due to outstanding bills. The standby generators of the corporation are out of order while one of its big generators is with the Karachi Development Authority’s (KDA) finance department. Despite multiple requests, the KDA, according to the mayor, has not handed the generator over to the KMC.

Apparently in an act of revenge, the KMC destroyed the power utility’s illegal structures in different areas of the city on Friday and Saturday as part of their anti-encroachment drive. According to Akhtar, the KMC had to pay Rs580 million to the KE but due to its financial crisis, the SC had directed the Sindh government to pay the dues to the power utility.

When The News asked the mayor what options the KMC had to resolve the problem of power disconnection, he replied that he was going to write to the president and the prime minister about the issue. He said he had already informed the special assistant to prime minister on political affairs, Naeem ul Haq, about it.

He added that resorting to protest was another option he had and he would soon adopt that strategy. Meanwhile, the KE in a press statement strongly condemned damage to its property by the KMC and called it a violation of the law. “As per the orders of [the] honourable high court dated July 01, 2019, no action can be taken without serving two-day prior notice,” the power utility’s statement read.

The KE maintained that it had served several notices to the municipality for the payments of monthly electricity bills before it disconnected their power supply. The power utility, however, did not comment on the brawls between its guards and KMC employees that allegedly resulted in injuries to the latter.