Omer tells NA body: There are black sheep in ministry, distribution companies

The government said on Wednesday that it is at war against power theft being done with the connivance of black sheep in the ministry as well as distribution companies.
This was stated by Minister for Energy Omer Ayub during a meeting of Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Energy. He also acknowledged that "there are black sheep in the ministry and distribution companies because of whom power sector has faced with current crisis of circular debt," amid protest by treasury and opposition members that senior officials of distribution companies are not listening to them.
Mir alam Khan of treasury bench and Shazia Marri of opposition stated that senior officials and staff of distribution companies are not ready to serve the people and mentioned Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) and Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco). While Asad Umar and other members of ruling party elected from federal capital Islamabad threatened to stage a protest against IESCO which was not providing electricity connections to the residents despite directives by the regulator (National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) in different zones.
The members of the committee from PML-N walked out from the meeting as protest against execution and inauguration of gas schemes in their constituencies by ruling party members. They said that PML-N government had approved gas schemes during its tenure and 90 percent work on these schemes had been completed and now some of the schemes are being inaugurated by the PTI lawmakers.
Omar Ayub said that it was the prerogative of the executive to inaugurate these schemes
The committee expressed dissatisfaction over the briefing given by the K-Electric on the deaths caused during recent torrential rains in Karachi. The committee asked NEPRA to submit a detailed report on this issue.
The chief executive officer of K-Electric (KE) said that illegal hooks (Kunda system) and water sewerage system have been the major factors for loss of lives in Karachi during the recent rains, adding illegal hooks and TV/Internet cables have heavily encroached upon power installations illegally and these are beyond the control of KE.
He said that a total of 33 deaths were reported of which 11 deaths have occurred inside houses due to internal wiring faults whereas 18 incidents were due to kunda or TV cable network. He said his company would take the responsibility if the company fault is proven in the report being conduced by the NEPRA. The KE officials said from 2012 onward the company has added 1000 MW in the national grid.
The chairman NEPRA informed the committee that regulator has for the first time issued investigation against any company and a team of technical experts are present in Karachi and collecting facts.
He added that he would submit the report to the committee in next meeting as it would be ready by September 10, 2019.