Shagufta Jumani of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) expressed serious concern over load-shedding in Sindh and said that the people are facing 16 to 18 hours load-shedding a day despite paying heavy bills. She said that unscheduled load-shedding is being conducted in the rural and urban areas of Sindh. Parliamentary Secretary for Petroleum & Natural Resources Shahzadi Umerzadi said that there is a lot of electricity theft through kunda (hook) system in Sindh, adding that the collection of revenue is very low.
Shagufta Jumani said that it is responsibility of the government to take action against electricity theft, adding that they are ready to cooperate in this regard. Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Water and Power, Dr Amir Ahmad said that there are a total of 462 feeders in Sindh. He said that there is zero load-shedding in the industrial sector at 75 feeders, while 6 hours load-shedding is being conducted at 36 commercial feeders in urban area and 8 hours load shedding at 111 domestic feeders of the urban areas. He said that there is load-shedding of 10-18 hours a day at 240 feeders in rural/high loss areas.
According to the documents, a total of 1,620 FIRs were requested to be registered against electricity thieves, while only 73 FIRs have been lodged during the period from July 2016 to March 2017, adding it is true that attitude of the police department is non-cooperative. The standing committee took it very seriously and directed the IGP of Sindh to take action against the power pilferers in the province and submit a report to the committee.
The federal minister for states and frontier region had given assurance in the Parliament that the registration of illegal aliens would be started in Karachi and its suburbs. But despite lapse of a long period, the registration could not be started due to non-availability of rules.
The committee was informed that soon after the approval of the rules, the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) would start the process of registration. It was informed that the Ministry of Interior and Narcotics Control would give no-objection certificate (NOC) for registration and approval of the rules. The committee taking a very serious notice observed if rules could not be made in a long period of four years then what else would be done. The committee members directed the government to address all these issues in a period of 15 days and submit a report to the committee.
The meeting was attended by Abdul Majeed Khan Khankhail, Shahzadi Umerzadi Tiwana, Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, Malik Abrar Ahmed, Sheikh Salahuddin, Shagufta Jumani and Chaudhry Muhammad Munir Azhar. Moreover, secretary SAFRON, additional secretary Ministry of Interior and Narcotics Control, DG NADRA and other senior officers also attended the meeting.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017