ANWAR KHAN

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Tuesday called for a fresh legislation to re-nationalize the K-Electric because of its poor services in the metropolis, saying that power supplier had been fleecing consumers with inflated bills.

The house unanimously voted to opposition leader – MQM’s Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan’s resolution on a private members’ day to reject the K-Electric move seeking the Nepra’s approval for scaling up power tariffs for Karachi consumers.

According to the adopted resolution, Sindh should approach the federal government to bar the Nepra from permitting the K-Electric to increase its tariffs. The legislators from either side of the house were also unanimous that the K-Electric continued with its unannounced power cuts and inflated bills. The K-Electric had badly failed to improve its power generation despite earning billions of rupees annually.

Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan said that the power supplier had been excessively charging consumers despite poor service. He said that there had been three resolutions that the house had already adopted against the K-Electric. He also slammed the Sindh government for not forming a committee despite a pledge to monitor the K-Electric performance. He said that the government had also set aside the adopted resolutions.

The opposition leader said that there had been no heed to the clamor of general public to settle their inflated bills. He said that K-Electric was sending huge bills without any reasons to the power consumers. “The over billing issue straddles from New Karachi to DHA,” he told the house, asking the legislators to strongly come up against the power supplier for its excesses.

He said that the power supplier had been increasing its profits from millions to billions but never improved its services. “It is now said that the K-Electric is now being handed over to a Chinese firm. The Sindh government should intervene,” Izhar said, adding that the K-Electric was ‘patronizing’ illegal connections (kunda system). He said that the Sindh government should take the responsibility to take up the resale of K-Electric to a new company.

PPP’s legislator, Mumtaz Jakhrani supported the resolution and said that the power outage was an issue of the entire province not Karachi’s alone. The issue sprawls from Karachi to Kashmore, he said, adding that people in Jacobabad are facing up to 20 hours load shedding a day. He said that the WAPDA punished the village by taking away the transformer for only 20 consumers not paying the electricity bills.

He also proposed the house to table a resolution to change Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif’s name. “Shahbaz Sharif had claimed that if he had not solved the power crisis, his name should be changed,” he reminded the house. He asserted that Sindh was not a ‘parentless’ province and vowed to resist the federal government’s policies that damage its interests.

PPP’s lady lawmaker, Shamim Mumtaz said that her party had resisted the KESC privatization at first. She said that the PPP government would again raise voice against the power crisis in the house and on the streets. She alleged the federal government for ‘contriving’ power crisis in the province as a conspiracy against the Sindh government.

MQM’s veteran, Syed Sardar Ahmed said that the province had a ‘biggest’ issue as being isolated by the federal government. Public in Sindh was facing all kinds of problems from power outages to water shortage and inflation, he said, adding that “there are some institutions, which should not be privatized”. He asked the Sindh government to make a legislation to take over the KESC again.

MQM’s Faisal Sabzwari said that the assembly should question the K-Electric administration for its services. He said that the power provider had been left unleashed. PPP’s Khairunisa Mughal said that the federal government had left Karachi fully isolated despite the fact it provides 70 percent revenues to the national exchequer. She asked the federal government that why it had not appointed a representative from Sindh in the Nepra. Scores of other legislators from either side of isle spoke on the issue. The house will now meet on Wednesday morning at 10 am.