Traders protest 12-hour power outages

All seven industrial associations join hands.

KARACHI:

All seven industrial associations of the city and the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) gathered on Wednesday outside the Karachi Press Club to protest against the 12-hour power outages by the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC).

Representatives of major industrial associations said that KESC has scheduled 12-hour outages in the industrial areas of the city in three phases of four hours each, making it impossible for industries to operate even a single shift.

Talking to The Express Tribune, KCCI President Mian Abrar Ahmed said that “our protest was against KESC because it was responsible for not providing required power”.

“We feel that KESC is black mailing both the industry and the government. It demands a certain amount of gas to produce cheap electricity instead of using furnace oil,” he said, “although the government has told KESC to use furnace oil and that it will pay the additional difference in cost between gas and furnace oil.”

“The present 12-hour load shedding is actually more than 20-hour load shedding for industries because our machinery needs at least two hours to restart,” he added.

“KESC recovers 98% of its electricity bills from the industries, which shows that the industries are doing their part of the bargain. But what do we do when we do not get power even after paying all bills?” he questioned. “After Wednesday’s protest, we will chalk out our next plan. It is expected that we will stop paying electricity bills to KESC as a last resort,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2011.