The National Assembly (NA) on Wednesday witnessed two separate walkouts one by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) against perennial load shedding in Karachi. Besides MQM members, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) also walked out of the house to protest the unprecedented power crisis in country's commercial capital.
Riaz Hussain Pirzada, who was presiding over the sitting, wanted to have explanation from the government but Water and Power Minister Liaqat Ali Jatoi was absent. MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi was the first who complained that power crisis in Karachi has worsened and almost paralysed the industrial activities there.
He said, in such disturbing situation, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has been advised to raise the electricity tariff that was totally unjustified. Haider appealed to the chair to take notice of the issue, followed by a token walkout by all members of the government's major ally party. Later, the religio-political alliance also protested over the issue and staged a walk out.
The issue of power crisis has surfaced in the Parliament on a number of times with MQM demanding nationalisation of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC).
Repeated justifications by Water and Power Minister Liaqat Ali Jatoi have miserably failed to deal with growing concerns of parliamentarians about the performance of KESC.