JI gives three-day deadline to K-Electric

Wanrs power utility to end load shedding or face protests

KARACHI:

Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi Ameer Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman, in his closing address to the protest sit-in at the K-Electric head office, announced a three-day deadline for the power utility's administration to end load shedding.

"If that it does not end, we will hold a long sit-in on Shahra-e-Faisal. If load shedding continues, the protest will be expanded," he warned. The nominated chairman, vice chairman and councilors of Jamaat-e-Islami will protest in their respective areas. He said the party had no desire to block roads, but would be left with no alternative if K-Electric did not "come on track".

"The worst load shedding has overwhelmed the entire population. K-Electric is a private company, but all governments and ruling parties support it and have turned it into a political mafia." He added that billions of rupees are being given as a subsidy annually to the power utility.

He alleged that this 'mafia' had set aside Mafia has priced millions of rupees for all parties and governments. "If there was a mayor of Jamaat-e-Islami, K-Electric would not have the courage to oppress the citizens of Karachi. We would like to ask Miftah Ismail and his predecessor Asad Umar as to under which agreement K-Electric was being supplied with gas, while it is a non-payer of Sui Southern Gas dues."

The JI Karachi Ameer said that those who were given the mandate by the people have destroyed Karachi. "Even today, their prices are being set." Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman said that the fault in the Dhabeji pipeline was also due to the load shedding of K-Electric. "The federal and provincial governments have deprived the people of Karachi of their right to live. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah says that there is a leakage of water. We want to say that it is not a leakage, but corruption."

He accused PPP and MQM together of depriving the people of Karachi of transport. "If Karachi pays taxes, the whole country runs, but it is deprived of education, health, better transport, circular railways and educational institutions."

He asserted that the Jamaat-e-Islami is determined to build model schools in Karachi if a mayor from their party takes the reins of the city. "Nematullah Khan started the K-4 project after completing the K-3 project. After 2005, MQM has been in municipal government twice and Nawaz League for five years. PTI has been in charge of the federal government for almost four years, while PPP has been ruling in Sindh for 14 years, but none of them completed the K-4 project."

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2022.