Two sides to the coin : As blame game continues, KESC says it’s not its ‘fault’

Minister for Power and Irrigation Shazia Marri slams utility in Sindh Assembly.

KARACHI:

The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) remained in the spotlight on Tuesday, saying that its work continued to be violently disrupted by unionists. Meanwhile, in the Sindh Assembly, the minister for power and irrigation, Shazia Marri, criticised the utility on several issues.

Small protests were registered at Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Shahra-e-Qaideen and in Saddar but the police did not let them get out of control. For its part, KESC said that union members and supporters disrupted power supplies at dozens of places in the city, stole equipment and cables, damaged installations, beat up employees at work, and destroyed the company’s vehicles and other assets.

In an interview with The Express Tribune, Marri said that the company’s management has been getting a lot of support from the government when it has come to gas and furnace oil supplies but it has always ignored the Sindh government when it has come to employees or load shedding. “The load shedding is self-created and unnatural,” she said. “I don’t know who is behind such manipulation but it is a fact.”

To Marri’s claim, KESC’s director of corporate communications, Ayesha Eirabie, said, “We are a public utility. Our business is run on generating, transmitting and distributing electricity.

“It does not favour the organisation in any way to not produce or distribute electricity as this is our source of income.” If it has the capacity and means to produce, it will do so as much as possible.

Marri accused the KESC management of being inaccessible. But Eirabie refuted this claim, saying that they were scheduled to meet her on Wednesday (today). “Our focus is very customer-centric,” she said, adding that KESC has departments that deal with all stakeholders and its accessibility to the media has also been increased.

The minister warned KESC’s management against underestimating the provincial government. She said that it has never taken Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on board even though the CM has always invited them to discussions on public-related issues. On KESC’s part, Eirabie said, however, that they understood and paid respect to the Sindh and federal governments. “We have approached the Sindh governor who had issued statements supporting us and asking whoever is behind these illegal activities to follow the court’s orders,” she clarified.

In reply to a question, Marri also said that it was KESC’s responsibility to improve its ability to produce power, reduce the “skyrocketing” financial packages for its management and live up to people’s expectations as it has always vowed that it is a public utility.

Eirabie clarified that KESC has added 450 megawatts to its power generation ever since al Abraaj took over. Another 560MW will be added shortly through the Bin Qasim II project. “These projects aren’t completed overnight and the progress on all these projects has been shared with the stakeholders and the public,” she added.

Marri was of the opinion that as load shedding and labour problems were provincial matters, a member of the Sindh cabinet should be on KESC’s board.

To this, Eirabie later told The Express Tribune that the utility already has a federal government representative on the board. “All major decisions of the company are made in consultation with the board,” she said.

The minister said that she had told KESC’s CEO Tabish Gohar that he must not ignore worker rights protected under the labour laws and the constitution. Any retrenchment would only be acceptable if done in accordance with the law. Eirabie said that the management abides by all laws. “We come under Nepra and whatever regulations they apply, we comply,” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2011.