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The privatised KESC, the brainchild of our former prime minister enjoying his saturated life now in America and Britain, has crippled to the hopeless conditions.
Blessed be the Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry who prevented the state enterprise, Pakistan Steel Mills, from falling in the hands of merchants of Venice, otherwise one fears to think of the consequences of the privatisation of the Steel Mills.
The Saudi entrepreneur immediately left KESC and the German managing director as well as a foreign company have also deserted the company leaving it with the local entrepreneur who seems to be least concerned for the normal functioning of the company.
Our President and the erstwhile caretaker Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers are sitting comfortably in the palatial houses without a moment of loadshedding. So is the case of the Governors and their teams of the ministers. Small industries are being closed and the big manufacturing plants are on the verge of closure. Businessmen and the industrialist are crying for power but there is nobody to listen to them. Unemployment is on the rise. Students are suffering and overall depressing conditions are also on the rise.
To sprinkle salt over wounds, KESC is thinking to increase tariff. The new members of the assemblies are wrangling for prize ministries with no one even offering a ray of hope to come to the rescue of the citizens of Karachi. A lighter side of the scenario is that the generator traders and importers are making windfall just like that of the vegetable ghee and oil manufacturers besides the foodgrains dealers.
Nobody has given a thought to the fact that prior to privatisation why KESC was working well. Should it not be de-privatised? What had been the reasons for that? Rupees 50 billion out of PSDP have been taken out by the government as per the planning commission's Dy. Chairman's statement published in newspapers on March 15, 2008. Apparently this amount will be put at the disposal of the incoming government as the retiring caretakers must have already spent all the funds short during their short tenure with the overpowering instinct that such opportunities rarely comes in one's life when the lady luck smiles. The question hotly discussed among the citizens is will Karachi survive the power trauma? If not, what shall be the end result?

Copyright Business Recorder, 2008

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