Disorder mars Nepra's K-E public hearing

A public hearing by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) was marred by disorder on Monday as traders of Karachi voiced their reservations against the performance of the city's power utility – K-Electric. 

Former president of Karachi Chamber of Commerce Siraj Qasim said that if K-E's 'monopoly' was to end, the business community of the city was ready to set-up a new electric distribution company. 

To this, Chairperson Nepra Tauseef Farooqi asked what happens when the license given to KE is revoked and there is no other distribution company. After a call to restore order was not heeded to, the NEPRA chairperson said: "why are representatives [from NEPRA] attending and and wasting their time".

The public hearing was disrupted and slogans were chanted in the hall against K-Electric, forcing NEPRA to adjourn the hearing.

When the hearing resumed, Chief Financial Officer of K-Electric, Amir Ghaziani, said, "Under the amendment in the NEPRA Act, we are allowed to operate till 2023. We also want companies other than K-Electric to be involved in power distribution. But new entrants will also have to decide how to deliver cheap electricity.”

K-Electric CEO Moonis Alvi said that KE had invested more than its contract and has reduced losses by 16 per cent. K-Electric's system continues to improve, he claimed.

Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman of Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi, while talking in the NEPRA hearing, said that electricity is switched off as the first drop of rain falls in the city while load shedding increases along with humidity.

“Even during winters, there is load shedding as they claim that gas is not being provided,” he said. “When you are working for Karachi, you should manage accordingly, these people do not tell the demand and supply of electricity, what they say we accept.”

“Bin Qasim's units have been shifting to coal for many years," he added

MQM leader Khawaja Izhar claimed that KE does not have any system neither any way to trace a fault.

“It takes them several hours to trace the fault, everything was closed due to the Covid-19 outbreak, but load shedding continued."