PPP to raise Karachi power outages issue in Parliament

Party members blame 'callousness' of ministry of water and power and failure of K-Electric for blackouts

ISLAMABAD: As Karachi and other parts of the country have been experiencing increased power breakdowns, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has decided to take the issue in Parliament.

Four PPP MNAs, i.e. Dr Nafisa Shah, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Shazia Marri and Ejaj Jakhrani on Monday submitted an adjournment motion at the National Assembly secretariat to discuss the matter in the next session.

PPP is the largest opposition party, which holds the slot of the opposition leader PPP, as well as the Senate chairman.

In their written motion, PPP members said citizens of Karachi continue to suffer electricity breakdowns due to the “callousness” of ministry of water and power and the failure of the city power supply company, K-Electric.

Read: Sehri in the dark: Parts of Karachi suffer blackouts again

“What is concerning is that NEPRA headed by the prime minister has failed in holding the K-Electric to account 1200 deaths and  power failures are unending in the city” the draft of the motion said.

The members said two ministers (federal, state) normally vociferous on their achievements had become invisible during this time, and nobody came out to inform why Karachiites continued to suffer repeated blackouts.

Read: #Karachiblackout: K-Electric customers unleash fury on social media amid outages

The PPP leaders also asked to direct relevant ministers to brief Parliament on reasons for power breakdowns, and what remedial steps the government was taking.

Meanwhile, the opposition party also plans to take up the matter in Senate.

Karachi for the last week has had faults in its power lines at least three times, leaving swathes of Karachi without electricity.