During last week, both the political atmosphere and environment of Karachi turned hot together. The power supply to Karachi city has now become a major issue posing serious concerns for the citizens. The company responsible for the power supply hides its inefficiencies by propagating groundless stories to avoid the public pressure. Just a few days back, a tricky 'game' was again played by this power utility, when the announced and unannounced load-shedding made the life miserable for the people of Karachi in the scorching heat. Once again KE took no time in attributing the power cuts by blaming the gas utility on account of low supply of gas volume. SSGC instantly retorted that supply situation was never the issue as they were actually supplying more than KE's demand. KE then quickly blamed SSGC for supplying low gas pressure that caused the power outages.
As citizens of Karachi, it's not a new scene for us, as summers after summers in during all these gone years we have been regularly watching this stereo type 'drama'. This year too, KE has stuck to its old agenda that has in fact never worked for them. Contrary to KE's claim, the gas utility did not reduce the gas volume to KE and has in fact been providing an additional 10-15 mmcfd of natural gas to the power company, according to their press statement. Later, KE blamed SSGC for supplying low pressure that resulted in power outages, however facts gathered from the media reports reveal that there was no issue with gas pressure supplied from the gas company. SSGC's press statement clearly explained that it was a false allegation as SSGC supplied gas with full pressure to all four power plants of KE.
This writer would like to quote SSGC's press statement that stated that they provided 140 mmcfd gas at 104 psi to Bin Qasim power plant, 26 mmcfd gas at 55 psi to Korangi Creek power plant, 12 mmcfd gas at 35 psi to Korangi Industrial Area power plant and 14 mmcfd gas at 30 psi to SITE Area Shershah power plant. Press statement of Federal Minister of Energy (Power Division) Omar Ayub Khan who was quick to reject KE's claims of low gas pressure supplemented SSGC's stance.
There are reports that claim that Nepra had scheduled to conduct a plant production capacity test for KE's power plants. However, since KE was aware that such tests would expose its deficiencies, in order to avoid the exercise by Nepra, it diverted the blame towards Sui Southern Gas Company by attributing the latest power outages in the mega city, first to curtailed supply of gas and then by blaming it for low gas pressure.
Recently, Ikram Sehgal, Chairman Karachi Electric had confessed through his press statement that there was no issue of electric load shedding in the city, however there was a severe and serious issue in its distribution system.
It must be brought to record that in this modern world KE has the oldest gas distribution system. This writer remembers those days when the then KESC was first sold to a foreign company, and in a media meet the then CEO of Company Shimit, had unveiled that the electric company (then KESC) had the oldest distribution system which is very hazardous and risky. He also claimed that KESC needs a full throttle rehabilitation otherwise system would not sustain long and there are many chances for it to be collapse. He also told the journalists that in the current scenario KESC's system is highly vulnerable and we can't add even a single megawatt to it as it may disrupt and blast.
Over the years, Karachiites have understood the smart media 'tricks' employed by KE to fool them, as on the arrival of every summer season they tend to blame SSGC for hiding their inadequacies that result in massive load-shedding in the city. There is a proverb that says "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."
(The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper)