Shanghai Electric & KE agreement to help resolve city's power problem

KARACHI: The agreement between China's Shanghai Electric Power (SEP) and KE augurs well and it would contribute towards resolving the Karachi's power shortages.

This was pointed out on the opening day of the two-day session held at a local hotel on Thursday.

On the occasion, the K-Electric (KE) presented its review motion in response to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority's Multi-Year Tariff (MYT) Determination 2017.

Chairman NEPRA, Brig. (Retd) Tariq Sadozai, member from the Punjab, Saifullah Chatta, Himayatullah Khan from Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Balochistan's Haroon Rasheed and Masood ul Hassan Naqvi of Sindh were also present on the occasion.

Vice-President of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Mirza Ishtiaq Baig was of the view that the SEP-KE accord augurs well and this would contribute towards resolving Karachi's power shortage problem on permanent basis and would help improve KE's performance.

This, he opined, would help create employment opportunities and would also benefit the industry and increase the country's exports.

Businessman Arif Habib believed that with the administrative control of the SEP the , the electricity situation in Karachi will improve.

He was of the view that SEP was facing difficulty in taking up charge of the KE because tariff was different when the agreement was reached and that the tariff is now different from the previous one.

Arif Habib maintained that this matter should be resolved at the earliest as at present the KE's power supply system was not satisfactory.

He said that he believes that the accord between SEP and the KE should be implemented.

The Amir of Jamat-e-Islami Karachi, Naeem ur Rehman, criticised the performance of the KE and added that the Karachiites are fed up with such a situation.

He pointed out that even in pleasant weather in Karachi the loadshedding continues which, he believed, was without any justification.

Naeem demanded that the agreement between the SEP and the KE be made public.

On the occasion, he also accused the KE of resorting to corrupt practices.

The JI leader urged upon the NEPRA authorities that there should be no increase in KE's tariff and instead it would be lowered.

He also expressed concern that KE has been dispatching inflated bills to the consumers.

On the occasion Naeem also called for carrying out the audit of the KE and restoration of the sacked employees.