On the warpath: Adviser to CM starts movement against KESC

He says that the power utility has become like the East India Company.

KARACHI: The adviser to the chief minister and general secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Haleem Adil Sheikh, has formed a group called the Citizen Action Committee against KESC Lootmar. Its first activity was to set up a complaint box against the power utility outside the gate of the press club on Sunday.

The committee has been formed to protest against the inconvenience that the KESC causes to the people of Karachi through excess billing and load shedding. It also held a protest against the organisation on Sunday and shouted slogans against its management. “The power utility has become like the East India Company since there is nobody to hold it accountable for its actions,” Sheikh said.

The committee will fix complaint boxes across the city. The complaints received will then be used to file a petition at the Supreme Court against the management of the KESC. Complaint cells will also be opened in the city, which will provide free legal aid to anybody who wants to take the organisation to court.

Sheikh said that he should have started the movement earlier but now that has become a victim of the KESC, he will free the people of Karachi from the monopoly of the organisation. He alleged that the power utility was responsible for gas load shedding in the country because it runs its power plants on gas instead of furnace oil. The organisation has the capacity to generate 1,950 megawatts of electricity and can overcome load shedding if it runs all of its power plants on furnace oil, he added.

“KESC gets 800 megawatts of electricity from the Water and Power Development Authority at the rate of three rupees per unit. It then charges its consumers Rs30 per unit,” said Sheikh.

He said that in the past, it was decided that the organisation would not increase the price of electricity for seven years and would also invest four billion rupees in the company. Despite the fact that the utility receives nine billion rupees from the citizens and also gets billions of rupees in subsidies from the government every month, it gives nothing back to the people, added Sheikh.

He demanded that the government buy back the company, put the names of its management on the Exit Control List (ECL), freeze the accounts of Abraaj Capital and bring back all the money that has been transferred to other countries. “We have been told that the managers of the power utility are fleeing from the country. That is why we have demanded that their names be put on the ECL, including that of the managing director, Tabish Gohar,” said Sheikh. He said that as a part of the movement, a website will be launched on which people can offer their feedback.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2011.