Powerless unit, powerful union

Karachi's woes never seem to end. Just when the dust seems to be settling on the political front - at least for the time being - the city of lights is hit by another crisis. It is the months old KESC-union issue that threatens to haunt the city dwellers for days to come.

It all began when the KESC re-launched the VSS in a bid to rightsize the utilitys workforce to achieve operational efficiency. The management was under no illusion that it would not face similar hurdles such as the government pressure which had forced them to rescind an earlier attempt to rationalise the work force, a few months ago.

The fact is that the whole episode threatens to get even uglier this time round as the employees were virtually under siege; one not-so-fine night and the law enforcers could do nothing but helplessly watch the union workers and their aides surrounding the utilitys head office.

The gravity of the situation meant KESC had to take the extreme step of suspending its field operations till the time their concerns are addressed, which involves security guarantee from law enforcers.

Suspension of field operations means prolonged outages in case of tripping or line faults - which will remain unaddressed unless the affected get it fixed privately (a service being offered by the union workers these days).

What the KESC management does not want is political intervention. And rightly so, as it is a private commercial entity, and under no law can the government demand a private business to hire or fire a group of persons and that too such hooligan-like workers. Yet the matters are again likely to be settled or decided in the realm of politics, as the back-again Governor Sindh and the Chief Minister have called for indoor negotiations.

The KESC has time and again asked the union to negotiate the issues within the management instead of taking them on to the roads and playing street-politics. The role of the political forces in the city has to be questioned as well, as there is no way a group of 1000 workers can alone take a giant entity, such as KESC, to its knees.

There is something more to the problem than just the employees sacking, as certain political groups are believed to have an eye on KESC and have been vocally against the privatisation deal. The last thing that Karachi needs is KESC turning into another Steel Mills or a Railway, by virtue of going back to the government as political influence is strong and apparent in these entities.

Although KESC has not talked about taking the step of quitting; their patience is being tested to the extreme. In the words of the CEO, "running KESC is the toughest job in Pakistan" and that foreign investors have better opportunities in the region. It would be rather unfortunate, if political expediency and inaction on the governments part forces KESCs management to leave the scene.

With the situation getting worse, the relevant minister, Naved Qamar was nowhere to be seen as he was busy ensuring that the Russians invest in the power sector and that their interest will be safeguarded as the government believes in encouraging foreign investment. Wonder if the Russians would actually be fooled by his words, as actions, they say, speak much louder.