KARACHI: Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon on Monday lashed out at K-Electric (KE) for sending inflated bills to consumers and unleashing prolonged power outages across the megacity.

In a statement, he called the KE as ‘uncontrolled horse’ from day one till date and said that the balance sheet of K-Electric should be audited to see how much profit the power entity was making.

Sharjeel said: “Under an agreement, K-Electric is bound to spend one percent of its earnings on network expansion and maintenance, but whether it is rain or heatwave, the feeders of the KE are tripped.”

He said that the Sindh Assembly had passed a resolution some days back, urging the electricity supply companies to correct their direction. After it was passed in the assembly, KE wrote a letter as saying that the government’s electricity dues were pending, he informed.

He said that electricity supplying companies had no right to give collective punishment to the people, as inflated bills and massive load shedding was a violation of the Constitution and law.

Sharjeel said that power supply companies were sending bills based on mere estimates rather than meter readings, which was the violation of laws. He said when people approached the power companies for correction of the inflated bills, they told them that they could not reduce the bills but could make payment instalments.

The minister said that in the rural areas of Sindh PMTs were taken off even if there were 10 defaulters in 100 houses. K-Electric, Hesco, and Sepco were fully violating the constitution, he said and warned them that the law would come into action if the Constitution was violated.

He said that the power supply companies could not punish the poor people for their greed and incompetence, adding people were worried about due to load shedding amid heatwave, and even electricity was not being provided to examination centres.