KE restores power at old KMC building after two weeks

The K-Electric (KE) on Thursday restored power supply to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) head office on MA Jinnah Road after a gap of two weeks in compliance with an order of the Supreme Court (SC), which it issued a day earlier.

According to a statement issued by the power utility, the process of restoring power to the rest of the KMC’s offices and parks was under way. The KE said by restoring power to the Old KMC Building, it obeyed the SC which had fixed the next hearing on the case of unpaid power bills of the KMC for July 24.

The power utility said it hoped that the long pending issue of the payment of its outstanding dues would be resolved soon. It added that it maintained its principle stance regarding the payment of outstanding electricity dues by all the defaulter entities.

The KMC owed Rs4.11 billion to the KE, the statement read. It added that the municipality did not comply with an earlier judicial order which directed it to pay its power bills, after which the power utility disconnected the power supply.

On Wednesday, the SC ordered restoration of electricity to the KMC head office and its parks, and directed the Sindh government to submit a proposal with regard to the payment of outstanding electricity dues of the KMC to the KE.

The SC directed the KMC to install separate meters for residential units of its employees working at the parks. KMC’s counsel Sameer Ghazanfar submitted that the corporation was facing a severe shortage of funds and the Sindh government was not issuing grants to it. He said over Rs1.7 billion was to be paid to the KE which had disconnected power supply to the KMC head office and its parks.