He urged Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to take notice of it and direct K-Electric to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the city particularly in the ongoing season. He said that continuous load-shedding and heavy billing is a crime and injustice to the inflation-hit consumers. He said that not only the residential consumers are being subjected to hours' long power outages, the industrial users are also facing continuous load-shedding.
He lamented that frequent power suspension is affecting the business activities in Karachi that is known to be the commercial hub of the country. He said that the complaints of cable faults and power breakdown are common against KE apart from scheduled load-shedding.
"I had requested the K-Electric to reduce duration of load-shedding at the beginning of summer. The request was aimed at providing relief to citizens," he said, adding that the power utility turned a deaf ear to his plea despite the fact that power cut has made life of citizens painful. Karachi mayor asked the provincial government to feel its responsibility and make it obligatory on the K-Electric to ensure reasonable power supply to the citizens.
It is relevant to add that Pakistan People's Party (PPP)-led Sindh Government has also been protesting to press the federal government for due water and power share. Sindh chief minister accused PML-N government at the Centre of not giving Sindh its due share of gas and nor supplying electricity. Jamaat-e-Islami too has been holding protests and sit-ins against the power company.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017