Lawmakers slam K-Electric for frequent load-shedding

Post-budget debate session focuses on finding a way to deal with the power breakdowns instead

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly unanimously demanded on Saturday strict action against K-Electric for making citizens' lives miserable in the month of Ramazan.

"Around 70 per cent of the city is suffering from 10 to 15 hours of acute load-shedding and there is no respite even at the time of Iftar and Sehri," said the opposition leader, Muttahida Qaumi Movement's (MQM) Khawaja Izharul Hassan. "We should devise a joint plan of action against the power utility," he said, adding that the prime minister and the federal power minister had taken notice of Karachi's load-shedding but the provincial government was tight-lipped over the issue.

Though it was meant to be a post-budget debate session, a majority of the lawmakers wanted to speak about the long hours of unscheduled load-shedding in their areas.

Sindh Assembly speaker Agha Siraj Durrani said the K-Electric  (KE) has even defied the orders of the prime minister, who had announced there will be no load-shedding at Iftar and Sehri times. "KE welcomed the first day of Ramazan with 10 hours of load-shedding in my area. There was no light even at the time of Sehri," said Durrani, asking members of all parliamentary parties in the assembly to bring a resolution against KE so that action can be taken against them.

Finance minister Murad Ali Shah claimed they had twice written to the federal government and KE to minimise load-shedding in Karachi and other parts of Sindh. "We will speak to KE again and will later protest and bring a resolution against it if no tangible result comes out soon."

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Sardar Shah said that power and energy should be a provincial subject after the 18th Amendment but the federal government was not willing to devolve this authority. "Abid Sher Ali, the state minister for water and power is behaving like a viceroy. His position is illegal. Instead of providing relief to Sindh, they are victimising us," he said.

Budget brings out the worst

During the session, members of the opposition and treasury benches lashed out at each other with allegations and counter-allegations being screamed from one end of the house to the other.

Manzoor Wasan, the minister for anti-corruption, alleged that Pakistan Muslim League - Functional (PML-F) members were getting extortion from oil and gas companies in Khairpur district. "There are three oil and gas exploration companies, Sawan Wari, Qadin Wari and Tajal, from whom criminals belonging to the PML-F get Rs10.25 million in extortion every month," he said, in response to the PML-F members' speeches against the government.

Referring to the pending inquiries in his office, Wasan said the Sindh government, on the directives of Benazir Bhutto, had allotted 16,000 acres to poor women but the PML-F activists had tampered the records and encroached and distributed the same among their party workers and members of the Hur Jamaat. This irked the PML-F members, who protested against Wasan's remarks.

Soon after the speaker gave him the floor, PML-F parliamentary leader Nand Kumar questioned why Wasan, in his capacity as the anti-corruption minister, had failed to register cases against the Hur Jamaat and PML-F workers involved in extortion. "If our people were involved in extortion, you would have definitely registered cases," he said.

Kumar diverted the attention of the House towards the government's unnecessary expenses as well as favouritism and misuse of funds. "Rs7 billion have been allocated for the purchase of luxury vehicles and furniture for bureaucrats. This amount could have been given to the poor or a couple in Badin who committed suicide because of starvation," he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2015.