K-Electric (KE) failed to honour its commitment of not carrying out load-shedding during Eid holidays as different parts of the city were either subjected to prolonged load-shedding or experienced power outages of longer duration. Complaints of heavy power fluctuation which caused damage to home appliances also continued to pouring in newspaper offices. Though the KE had announced that it had set up special teams to tackle any emergency during Eid holidays, the so-called teams did not even bother to respond to the consumers' calls.
A number of consumers complained that their home appliances, including refrigerators, television sets and microwaves, were damaged in the wake of heavy fluctuation during Eid holidays.
"Power utility has installed sub-standard silver wires as against pure copper wires," a resident of Lines Area, Saeedullah Khan, told this correspondent. Another consumer, who identified himself as Hamid-ur-Rehman, said that his refrigerator worth Rs40000 was damaged due to heavy fluctuation but all his complaints lodged in this regard with the KE's concerned department went in vain.
"Isn't it irony that the officials of KE's Customer Care Center (118) do not even bother to give complaint numbers whenever a complaint is lodged with them," remarked a weary consumers.
Karachi Electrics Consumer Forum's Chaudhry Mazhar Ali said that prolonged load-shedding, power outages of longer duration, inflated bills and high power tariff have become a matter of routine since privatisation of the power utility.
He urged the K-E to make its customer call centers effective so that its consumers might not face any difficulty in getting registered their complaints. Meanwhile, the power utility claimed that it had evolved a proper mechanism for the registration of consumers' complaints following installation of modern communication device.