KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi chapter on Tuesday hinted at a protest demonstration against the K-Electric (KE) if the continuing prolonged electricity load-shedding did not stop in the megacity.

“The JI will hold a big convention against the KE in the city and will also stage a sit-in outside the KE head office,” JI Karachi chief Engr Hafiz Naeemur Rehman told a news conference outside the K-Electric office.

He criticised the KE for the “worst” announced and unannounced load-shedding even during Sehar and Iftar hours of Ramzan.

He rejected the indiscriminate policy of “collective punishment”, which the K-Electric employs against its consumers even those who pay bills, saying that the power company misuses the policy.

He said as per this collective punishment rule, the power company cuts off electricity supplies to the entire areas, which also affects those consumers who pay their bills regularly on time. The power load-shedding is prolonged to all consumers indiscriminately under the policy, he said.

“The licence of the KE and the gas supply to the power company should be suspended under the same formula as the power company has failed in payment of hefty bills to the SSGC,” Hafiz Naeem proposed.

The KE has increased its capacity by only 16 percent in the last 17 years, he said adding that 51 percent shares of the KE should be owned by the government while the rest by private sector.

No government was able to take a solid action against the K-Electric, despite the violation of the agreement between the KE and the State, due to influence of the Abraj Capital - the parent company of the KE, he claimed.

He said that the KE receives 1000 megawatt electricity from the national grid without any formal agreement but the citizens in Karachi are forced to face load-shedding by up to 12 hours a day in several areas. He demanded of the government to end the monopoly of the KE in Karachi. On the occasion, he was flanked by MPA Syed Abdul Rasheed and other leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022