Protest and power : KESC comes under fire in the Senate

‘Govt wants to revisit its privatisation policy in interest of workers’.

ISLAMABAD:

The government wants to revisit its policy on the privatisation of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) as well as other institutions, for the welfare of its employees, said Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Khurshid Shah in the Senate on Thursday.

He was responding to points of order by the senators. Shah holds the additional responsibility of the ministry of labour and manpower.

The last government had privatised KESC to the consortium of Hasan Associates (Pvt) Ltd. The company had to invest Rs3 billion to supply electricity to Karachi at a low tariff but it had apparently failed to do so, he observed.

The federal government has already written to the government of Sindh and KESC, pointing out that clauses of the agreement between the company and the government have not been implemented, he said. Lawmakers criticised what they said was the harsh attitude of the KESC administration, expressing their concern over the sacking 4,000 KESC employees who have been sidelined in a surplus pool.

The poor workers are on a hunger strike and are protesting against being relegated to the surplus pool, Senator Raza Rabbani informed the House. “If anyone loses his life in this strike we will register a case against the KESC administration,” he warned. He said that the “anti-labour management” was hell-bent on demonstrating a stubborn attitude and deemed itself above the law and Parliament.

Senator Tahir Hussain Mashahdi of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement alleged that rampant corruption had hit the company hard and there had been no electricity in Karachi for three days. KESC has refused to appear before the Senate Standing Committee despite repeated calls, Senator Lashkari Raisani informed the deputy chairman of the Senate, Jan Muhammad Jamali, who was leading the House in the absence of Chairman Farooq H Naek. On this point, the minister said that they could be arrested and brought there.

Senator Haseeb Khan said that under the agreement KESC was bound to invest $500 million over three years but it has not been able to deliver results. He said KESC had the capacity to generate 3,000MW but it was not doing this to avoid spending on furnace oil.

Professor Khursheed and Professor Ibrahim, Haji Adeel and Zahid Khan, Mushahidullah Khan, Gulshan Saeed, Seemeen Siddiqui and Abdul Haseeb also took part in the discussion.

May 12, 2007 incident

The upper house also had a heated discussion on the May 12, 2007 violence. The lawmakers demanded a judicial probe into the deaths of 49 people. Speaking on a point of order, they requested the chief justice to head the judicial commission for an independent inquiry into this bone-chilling incident. They demanded that a case against the then president Pervez Musharraf should be registered as well. Taking suo motu notice, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry should expose the names of people who took the law into their hands, said Senator Safdar Abbasi of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

“Musharraf must be tried under Article 6 for breaching the constitution,” demanded Rabbani. Senator Haji Adil supported this by saying, “The absconder [Musharraf] should be brought back and cases should be filed against him.”

Professor Ibrahim said the people who were in the government in Sindh 2007 were responsible for this horrific incident. Senators Khalid Soomro, Hasil Bizenjo, Professor Khurshid and Abdul Rahim Mandhokhail also called May 12 a black chapter in Pakistan’s history.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2011.