The KE journey

This refers to the article ‘The KE journey’ (July 19) by Dr Farrukh Saleem. The writer has given the history of K-Electric and its predecessor KESC, from 1913 to date, while his concluding paragraph narrates the shocking tale thus: “This is one of Pakistan’s most profitable business models. Fund election campaigns of political leaders. Buy the regulator. When the political leaders come to power you take hundreds of billions in subsidies. Force SSGC to give you free gas. Force NTDC to give you free electricity (your company sells the same and makes additional billions). Then you laugh all the way to the bank”. If true, this makes a very sad reading and reflects adversely on our rulers.

In order to solve the Karachi electricity problem, various suggestions have been made, like nationalizing K-Electric, splitting it into three sections to create competition or even separating power generation from transmission. However, the writer has claimed that in 2016, China’s state-owned Shanghai Electric Power Company had expressed interest in acquiring shares in K-Electric in a $1.77 billion deal. And all considered, I think this would be about the best option. Being an old-established company, it would be in no hurry to earn immediate and excessive returns for its shareholders and would have the experience and resources to rehabilitate the whole system to meet the city's present as well as future energy requirements.

S R H Hashmi

Karachi