Energy minister asks Nepra to rescind KE’s licence

Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh has said that the Sindh government is ready to assume the control of three power supply companies of the province, namely the K-Electric (KE), the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco), and the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco), if the federal government “is unable to manage the institutions of the energy sector in the country”.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the minister said the federal government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was doing “sheer injustice with the people of Karachi by subjecting them to a worsening power crisis”.

Criticising the protest sit-in of the Sindh Assembly’s members belonging to the PTI outside the KE’s head office, he said the three power supply companies in the province were under the control of the federal government.

He said the protesting PTI lawmakers were in a state of confusion as the PM had been incapable of resolving the issue of the K-Electric. The minister said “the inefficient federal government of PTI” had also raised the billing tariff of the KE which would put an additional financial burden on the residents of Karachi to the tune of Rs108 billion.

He said they demanded of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to serve a show-cause notice to the KE and initiate the proceedings to rescind the power utility’s license.

The minister said he had sent letters to the Nepra chairman and the federal energy minister, requesting them to send a fact-finding team of Nepra to probe into the affairs of the KE. He said the KE had failed to do the investment required for the upgradation of its system. He alleged that the KE had been doing injustice with the people of Karachi with the connivance of the federal government.

He said the power division of the federal government was fully responsible for the deepening power crisis in different cities of the province, including Karachi. He said they had warned the KE that it could face serious punitive action if it had failed to overcome the lingering power crisis in the city.

He said “the sheer bad governance of the PTI’s government” was behind the worsening power crisis in Karachi. He said the Sindh government would represent the people of Karachi whenever any public hearing was conducted against “the sheer bad performance of the KE”.

Shaikh lamented that the KE had not yet paid compensation to the heirs of the persons who had died due from electrocution in Karachi during the last year. He lamented that the federal government had not been using its authority to act against “the privatised power utility of Karachi”.