Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi has launched one million petition drive as a part of its comprehensive campaign against the K-Electric. The drive is aimed to provide a platform for a legal battle to the affected people. JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman launched the campaign on Tuesday after a press conference at JI's camp outside the K-Electric's head office in Karachi.
Further talking about the campaign, he said the party will approach Supreme Court of Pakistan after compiling complaints of one million people from across the city. Speaking on the occasion, he reiterated that the JI will continue the campaign against KE at any cost. He made it clear that the sit-in against the KE and the government will he held outside the governor house as per schedule on Saturday 29th April. He said the party is intended to hold a peaceful sit-in, however the government will be responsible for the situation if the peaceful protest is interrupted.
To a question, he said governor Sindh contacted him twice. He said the party welcomed the governor's offer of holding dialogues with the KE and the Governor was told that any meeting in the name of dialogue would be fruitless if it would be held without the presence of representatives from NEPRA and the federal government.
Furthermore, the Governor was also told that dialogue would only be held with owners of KE instead of paid employees of second category. He said the KE administration has been mulling to flee as they have been concealing their accounts since June 2016 which is another clear violation of rules and regulations. He said it is also the responsibility of Karachiites to support the party and come forward against KE for their own rights. The JI leader also said that KE's De-rated production capacity is 2093 megawatt while NTDC provides 650 and IPPs provide it with 350 megawatt of electricity.
"The KE administration is imposing power outage despite the fact that the production capacity of the company is more than the requirement," he said and added that Karachiites need almost 2300 megawatt whereas the KE's production capacity and the electricity made available to the company by IPPs and the federal government is almost 3093 megawatt.
Naeem also alleged that KE's administration is directly responsible for compelling citizens of Karachi to face power outage at the times of heat waves. The situation is a blunt and open violation of NEPRA rules, he said. The JI leader further said the KE as discriminating area wise in power outage which itself is violation of rules. He said the constitution of the country as well as NEPRA rules ensure that the federal government and power company will provide uninterrupted electricity to each and every consumer who pays the bill. Naeem also questioned the KE's claim in connection with ending power outage in 61 percent areas of the city.