Governor Imran Ismail berates KE for failing to keep promise to end power cuts

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail has expressed his serious displeasure at the K-Electric’s failure to live up to its commitment made with him on June 26 that the unannounced power loadshedding in Karachi would end in the next 48 hours.

He expressed his annoyance to this effect as he chaired a top-level meeting at the Governor House on Friday on the lingering electricity crisis in the city. The meeting was attended by lawmakers and leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan and the Grand Democratic Alliance. The meeting was also attended by CEO K-Electric Moonis Abdullah Alvi, while Federal Energy Minister Umer Ayub Khan attended the session from Islamabad via video-link.

The K-Electric had held out the assurance on June 26 when the K-Electric met the governor at the Governor House that instances of unannounced power loadshedding in Karachi would come to an end in the next 48 hours.

Chairing the latest meeting, the governor said that K-Electric was under a solemn obligation to provide an uninterrupted power supply to the residents of Karachi, and the government would not tolerate any sort of slackness in this regard.

He said that the KE, while continuing with the practice of unannounced loadshedding in the city, was subjecting the people of Karachi to sheer injustice, and this cruel situation should come to an end.

He said the KE was under an obligation to provide relief to the consumers in the city on an immediate basis. He said persisting power crisis was highly alarming for him given that the federal government had been ensuring an additional gas supply to the K-Electric for power generation from its own units.

Federal Minister for Power and Petroleum Omar Ayub Khan said on the occasion that at present the K-Electric, instead of the usual supply of 650 megawatts of electricity, was being supplied 800MWs from the national grid.

Moreover, the gas supply for the privatised power utility of the city had increased from 190 MMCFD to 250-280 MMCFD, he said. The federal minister said that the KE should readily address the power woes of the residents of Karachi.

Speaking on the occasion, the concerned lawmakers belonging to Karachi demanded that the government should not allow an increase in the billing tariff of the K-Electric till the time the privatised utility didn’t improve its performance.

They said that the K-Electric had been in the habit of overcharging its customers, and for the purpose delaying tactics were deliberately being used to do meter -reading. They said consumers had been facing immense difficulties owing to the issue of inflated power bills.

They said the KE continued with its loadshedding regime even during the days of the lockdown imposed against the spread of the coronavirus when several commercial centres, offices, and markets in the city were not open. The lawmakers said electricity consumers in the city who paid their bills regularly had to face serious hardships owing to sheer inefficiency on the part of the power utility. They said the KE had failed to maintain its power distribution system connected with the residential areas of Karachi.