SEPCO issues final notice to Bhutto mausoleum

Rs8.2m is outstanding for the mazar for the last 12 years

KARACHI: The Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) has issued a final notice to the Bhutto family mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bux, threatening to cut the electric line if the outstanding bill of Rs8.2 million is not paid.

The electricity dues of the mausoleum, which houses the graves of former prime ministers Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto as well as Begum Nusrat Bhutto, Mir Murtaza Bhutto and Shahnawaz Bhutto, have not been paid for 12 years.



According to sources in Sepco, the officials of the Bhutto Mazar Committee were reluctant to pay the dues despite repeated warnings. "We have now issued a final show-cause notice to them, failing which we will have no other option but to cut the power supply," Sepco rural executive engineer Khalil Chandio told The Express Tribune.

"Electricity is provided to Garhi Khuda Bux through the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto feeder," Chandio explained. "The Naudero grid station and higher authorities did not insist on payment earlier because [Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson] Asif Ali Zardari was the president then. Now, however, strict orders have been issued by the federal water and power ministry to take action against the defaulters."

Sources in Sepco claimed that, during Zardari's tenure as the president, many of Naudero's residents disconnected their permanent power lines in favour of kundas [illegal power lines], while the electricity supply remained uninterrupted from September 2008 to September 2013.

The affairs of the Bhutto mausoleum are run by the Mazar Committee, headed by PPP MNA Faryal Talpur, Zardari's sister. There are reports that the PPP local leadership has requested the provincial chief minister to clear the mausoleum's dues; the officials of the Sindh finance department have reportedly contacted Sepco in order to reconcile the amount. Despite attempts to contact the provincial finance minister and his secretary, they were not available for comment.



Meanwhile, PPP MPA Khursheed Junejo, a Mazar Committee member, rebutted Sepco's claims of 12-year-old outstanding dues. "We owe Sepco dues from last year," he said. "We pay the bills on time but Sepco issues us inflated bills based on incorrect readings, without sending any officials to check the meters."

Junejo added that power breakdowns had made the lives of Naudero's residents miserable. "There are 16 to 18 hours of load-shedding every day here. We wonder how they could have issued us with such exorbitant bills," he remarked. "We have asked Sepco to reconcile the amount but it has been in vain, causing delays in payment on our part."

Sepco has also cut the electricity supply to around 150 villages in Larkana and Qambar Shahdadkot districts. In response, the residents took to the streets against the power utility company, setting tyres on fire and pelting vehicles with stones.

Sepco officials claimed that this action was taken because these villages had failed to clear their dues, alleging that most of the residents were involved in power theft. "We will not restore the electricity until they pay their dues," said Chandio.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2015.