Daily Times

Sindh Energy Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah Friday said that the Karachi-Electric (KE) had agreed in a meeting to restore electricity according to the new bills by ignoring the pending dues owed by customers using up to 200 units so as to provide maximum relief to consumers who use less units.

The government appreciates this initiative of K-Electric and has expressed hope that K-Electric can restore its reputation among the public through good conduct and consumer-friendly measures to provide relief to the public and people should also trust the electricity company. Ensure timely payment of bills. A meeting of parliamentary leaders and assembly members of all parties was held in the Sindh Assembly under the chairmanship of Provincial Minister of Energy and Planning Development Sindh Syed Nasir Hussain Shah.

Provincial Minister Local Government Saeed Ghani, MNA Nabeel Gabol, MPA Yousuf Baloch, Asif Khan, Najam Mirza, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Ali Khurshedi, Muhammad Farooq of Jamaat-e-Islami, President of People’s Party District South Khalil Hot, K-Electric CEO Munis Ali, CDO Sadia Dada, Consultant KE Shizi Hussain, Regional Head Sheikh Humayun, Farah Naz, Nand Lal Sharma, Energy Ministry Consultant Hasan Raza and others were present. In the meeting, the increasing load shedding in Karachi, non-payment by K-Electric and several days of shutdown of PMTs in various areas were discussed. MPA Nabil Gabol and MPA Yousuf Baloch, contrary to the promise of the K Electric K-Electric once again registered its strong protest against 12 to 16 hours load shedding in Lyari and 8 hours continuous load shedding from 5 pm to 1 pm.

He said that it is not known what agenda the electric administration is working on that has created a situation of conflict between Baloch populated areas and Sindh and Kuchchi community areas in Lyari. He said that even the officers of K Electric are refusing to listen to the elected representatives or meet them. MQM’s opposition leader in Sindh Assembly, Ali Sohri and Jamaat-e-Islami’s parliamentary leader Mohammad Farooq also criticized the anti-people attitude of K Electric administration and said that electricity at that time is no less than a punishment for the people of this city. Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani said that K Electric does not have any system and that is the reason why it is putting bill payers and non-bill payers in the same row. He said that this attitude of the K Electric administration, we will pay the fine to Nepra, but cannot give relief to the people, it is not acceptable in any case.

Addressing CEO K Electric, he said that your behavior is against the constitution and we cannot tolerate such behavior in any way. He added that if people attack your office in an area, then you reduce the load shedding in that area. He said that K Electric should not talk about the concern of human lives in the concern of increasing its financial resources. He said that I am the Minister of Local Government and the Water Board is under my management, even there we do not shut off their water if people do not pay their bills. He said that electricity is not a luxury of people but a necessity and its non-availability can worsen the situation. CEO K-Electric Munis Ali said that currently 70 percent of the areas in the city with 1650 feeders do not have load shedding.

He added that zero load shedding is being done in areas where there is a reduction in recovery from zero to 20% and in areas where there is a reduction in recovery up to 35%, load shedding is being done for 6 hours and in areas with more than that, there is load shedding for 10 hours. He said that till now Rs.70 billion of electricity is owed to the public. We just want people to pay their recent bills as well, then we will be in a position to end load shedding. In the meeting, K Electric was also demanded to declare the examination centers as prohibited from load shedding in the inter exams. In the meeting, an assurance was also given for early payment of expenses on the part of the government in order not to load-shedding all the water pumping stations in Karachi.