The civil society, NGOs had staged protest under the aegis of Pasban Pakistan on deaths of civilians owing to blackouts by Karachi Electric (KE), scarcity of water supply and heat stroke at the Karachi Press Club here on Wednesday. The protestors demanded an FIR under Section 302 of the criminal procedure code and Section 7 of the Anti Terror Act (ATA) should be registered against the power distribution company, KE.
Speaking on the occasion, Pasban Pakistan President Altaf Shakoor said the water and power crises had reached a point of acute devastation in the metropolis of which the KE was directly responsible for loadshedding for prolonged durations and depriving the citizens of their basic need of potable water. He said the installed capacity of power generation of the KE was 2300MW while the company regularly availed 650MW from the WAPDA at a cheaper rate of Rs 6.33 per unit. Ensuring 2950MW supply to the electricity consumers in the city, the loadshedding would come to zero level but the KE was only producing 900MW and in order to earn huge profit through inflated bills, the company was conducting loadshedding for 14-18 hours in a 24-hours cycle. The KE had its major role in deaths in Karachi amid intense heat as the company kept the consumers deprived of electricity owing to which extreme suffocation and water scarcity had prevailed in densely populated residential colonies and thus the death toll continued to escalate minute by minute.
The Pasban Pakistan president demanded that government should arrest KE's CEO, directors operations, transmission and distribution and FIA Director General under Section 307 and 302 of the CrPC. He said the government had in the fiscal year 2015 a sum of Rs 20 billion were given to the company in form of subsidy while the KE had in the very same year had minted Rs 18 billion through inflated bills. The KE had already minted Rs 12 billion in 2014. The KE was also cheating on the consumers as it was solely dependent on natural gas as basic fuel for the generation of electricity and thus the cost of production of per unit of electricity was Rs 5.34 but it was charging Rs 20 per unit from the consumers.
He said the KE was also severely violating the NEPRA's rules for producing just 900MW from assigned and approved 2300MW and hence the company was fit for criminal trial. He said the KE had replaced copper lines with cheap aluminium lines owing to which heavy fluctuations were a routine, which inflicted damage to people's electronic appliances, which amounted to billions. He also lambasted the Federal Minister Khawaja Asif for favouring the KE. He demanded that the license of the KE should immediately be revoked and the government should take its control and also initiate enquiry on sale of water through water tankers.