MQM-P slams PPP for ‘writing off Rs31bn owed by KE during its rule’

Expressing their concerns over an agreement between the K-Electric and the Pakistan People Party’s government inked in 2009, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement- Pakistan leaders on Sunday said the ruling party in Sindh had “committed atrocities against Karachi's residents by writing off billions of rupees owed by the power utility”.

Khwaja Izharul Hasan, MQM-P lawmaker and member coordination committee, said the amended 2009 agreement allowed for Rs31 billion in arrears to be written off as government losses.

“Why did the PPP government favour the KE by writing off billions of rupees instead of directing the company to improve the power distribution in the city,” Hasan asked. On one the one hand, KE was looting Karachi residents and, on the other hand, the PPP leadership was waiving off their arrears worth billions of rupees, he said. The MQM-P leader accused the PPP of “always backing the anti-people KE administration”.

On July 7, the MQM-P organised a sit-in outside the parliament in Islamabad against prolonged load-shedding and overbilling in Karachi and demanded of the federal government to end the utility’s monopoly on power generation, transmission and distribution.

They said the K-Electric and the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) had added to miseries of the citizens amid the coronavirus pandemic by repeatedly suspending power supply for several hours.

Agreement

Meanwhile, Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Sheikh told a section of the media that the said agreement was from 2005 and 2009. “But since then the minister has changed as has the KE board,” he said.

He said he convened meetings with the KE’s management and invited the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) and the federal government to make coordinated efforts to resolve the problems.

The minister said the agreement must be examined properly and “they must check how much development KE has done and how much it has improved its system under the

agreement”.