Traders demand handing over of KESC to Army

Hundreds of traders on Friday staged a protest sit-in against the prolonged power outages in markets demanding the government to hand over Karachi Electricity Supply Company (KESC) to Pakistan Army for an interim period to solve the electricity problems of the public immediately.
Shouting anti-government slogans, the desperate traders warned KESC to stop power outages within three days or otherwise they would stage a demonstration in front of the company's head office. The protesting traders were holding placards and banners and black flags, demanding the government to reverse the KESC privatisation immediately. The protest sit-in call was given by All-Karachi Tajir Ittehad (AKTI), which was staged at Timber Market on Siddiqi Wahab Road.
Addressing the protestors, Chairman AKTI, Muhammad Atiq Mir demanded the government to hand over the company to Pakistan Army as interim caretaker under an emergency plan to undertake a thorough repair work of electricity lines in affected areas. He threatened the company that the traders would withhold the current month's utility payments if it ignored the complaints regarding power cuts and transmission problems in the next three days. He urged the affected citizens and traders to take part in the protests as Jihad against the company's damaging attitude towards the city's commercial and residential consumers.
He slammed the government for handing over the power supplying company to an inefficient firm, which according to him, had monopolised the whole system and was deliberately cutting off power supplies to consumers. Atiq Mir said that the commercial, businesses and academic life of the people has been paralysed for the continued outages particularly in summer season, while KESC unheeded the complaints of hundreds of consumers on a daily basis. "The country's economy has doomed for lack of electricity and the next budget will show the bad results," Chairman AKTI told the sit-in participants.
Showing astonishment, Atiq Mir said the country's largest city is undergoing power cuts for several days whereas the rulers have completely given cold shoulder to the public's important issue. "The rulers have disassociated themselves from the city's affairs, which shows a meaningful hint," he said.
He said: "If the traders did not receive unabated power supply then they will stop paying bills to KESC and taxes to the government," adding the traders are unable to bear the soaring cost of generating electricity in private capacity. Other speakers including Jamil Paracha, Abdul Ghani Akhwand, Haji Hussain Turk, Mansoor Jaferani and Arif Jeewa also criticised KESC for its monopolisation of power supply. They said the trade and industrial output had badly affected during the recent power cuts and caused huge losses to the investors in the city.