Alternative arrangements: HESCO asks mourners to find other power sources

The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) has asked mourners' organisations to make arrangements for alternative sources of electricity during Muharram, saying that power outages may become difficult to control.

The company's newly posted acting CEO, Zahid Pervez Mughal, who met a delegation of representatives of these organisations on Thursday, cited the upcoming rain spell as the reason. He said the Pakistan Meteorological Department had forecast a week-long spell of rain in Hyderabad and adjoining districts.

"We appeal to mourners' organisations to make alternative arrangements, such as solar power or standby generators, so that majalis or processions are not affected in the event of technical faults in HESCO's supply or power suspension for safety reasons."

During the meeting, the delegation was contradictorily also assured of uninterrupted power supply during Muharram, with Mughal telling them HESCO had set up a control room for receive and address consumer complaints.

He also appealed to commercial consumers to close markets earlier and minimise the use of electricity during Muharram so a continuous power supply could be provided to the majalis and along the procession routes.

Earlier, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf MNA Nuzhat Pathan had met Mughal and asked him to maintain a continuous power supply during Muharram. She requested HESCO to arrange transformer trolleys so that faulty transformers could be replaced by the trolleys as a stopgap arrangement.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2020.