Electricity crisis to be overcome in two days, KE assures governor Imran Ismail

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail described the ongoing prolonged load-shedding and frequent power failures as sheer injustice with the people of Karachi as K-Electric Chief Executive Officer Moonis Abdullah Alvi at the Governor House on Friday.

Expressing deep resentment, the governor said the people of Karachi were suffering hours-long unannounced load-shedding without any valid reason. He asked the power utility chief to give relief to the people of Karachi by resolving the power crisis at the earliest.

He said the persistence of such a worsening power supply situation in Karachi was highly worrisome when the federal government had ensured additional gas supply to the KE for power generation.

He said the federal government was under obligation to provide 650megawatts of electric supply to the KE. The governor said the federal government was willing to give additional 500 MWs electricity for the people of Karachi, but the system of the KE could not handle the additional power supply from the national grid owing to a lack of investment in its transmission system.

He said the power utility would be supplied with additional furnace oil from the Hubco power plant. The KE CEO said on the occasion that two independent power units of Tapal and Gul Ahmed in Karachi were shut down owing to the shortage of furnace oil. He said the KE after getting additional furnace oil from the federal government would be in a better position to overcome the power crisis in Karachi.

He said the situation of load-shedding in Karachi would improve in the next 24 hours, while the persisting power crisis would be overcome in the next 48 hours.

Pakistan quarters

The Sindh governor chaired a meeting on the issue of the federally-owned residential estate Pakistan Quarters in Karachi.

The meeting was attended by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf legislators in the Sindh Assembly Firdous Shamim Naqvi, Jamal Siddiqui and Aziz GG. The Sindh governor said the issue of Pakistan Quarters would soon be resolved as for the purpose a state-of-the-art plan was being prepared to resolve this problem on a permanent basis.

The governor said he would talk to the prime minister so the Pakistan Quarters could be included in the Neya Pakistan Housing Scheme. He said the modern methods of town planning would be utilised to rebuild the Pakistan Quarters.