JI urges PM Imran to take notice of long power outages in Karachi

KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to take notice of extensive load shedding of K-Electric and hefty billing during the COVID-19 crisis.

While addressing a huge crowd of protesters outside the K-Electric head office in the metropolis, JI leader Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman said that KE has failed to augment power generation as per an agreement and demand despite extensive load shedding of 12 to 14 hours, adding that people are receiving hefty bills.

The JI leader said his party will be the voice of the people and will demand authorities to revoke the license of K-Electric for not delivering. Besides the long duration of power failure, citizens also bearing low voltage and fluctuation in their respective areas across the city, he said.

He said, “There is no electricity in the several areas from the past 24 hours due to which the condition of the citizens worsened as they are forced to stay in their homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic”.

Lamenting that the power-generating body is deliberately shutting down plants to optimize its profits, Rehman said that the electricity provider has “replaced copper wires with aluminum wires to save money”.

He blamed that the KE was looting the electricity consumers of Karachi by purchasing electricity from the national grid on cheap rates and selling it to the Karachiites on higher rates. The JI leader also condemned the provision of fuel by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to K-Electric.

Meanwhile, JI lawmaker and Member of Sindh Assembly (MPA) Abdul Rashid while addressing the protesters, lashed out at what he termed KE’s incompetence and maintained that the institution comes under the supervision of federal and provincial governments.

He said K-Electric authorities have launched its load-shedding for hours in the city causing great hardships to the citizens even in the hot days.

Citizens complained that they were already bound to remain indoor due to COVID-19 spreading while temperature had now been increased as a result they were facing hardships indoor without power, Rashid added.

JI lawmakers have urged KE to run power plants at full capacity in order to reduce the long hours of the power outage in the city or else the party will come up with “Plan B” as the solution to the problem.

They also demanded the Prime Minister and other authorities to take serious notice of load-shedding particularly in a fragile situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.