JI demands KE be held accountable over load-shedding

Munim Zafar, the interim emir of the Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) Karachi chapter, has demanded immediate relief for the people of Karachi against the power crisis.

He also demanded that the K-Electric (KE) be held accountable as he addressed a press conference at the Karachi JI headquarters, Idara Noor-e-Haq. He said a forensic audit of the KE accounts should be carried out so that comparison could be made between the performances of the same entity before and after its privatisation.

He recalled that then Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) was privatised in order to minimise load shedding and losses, and enhance power production. For the past 18 years after its privatisation, the KE had decreased its production from 9,304 million units to 7,334 million units showing a whopping decline of 19 per cent, the JI leader claimed.

He said that despite over 90 per cent increase in consumers from 1.8 million in 2005 to 3.4 million in 2024, no serious effort was made by the power utility to address the issue of load-shedding as the duration of power cuts had been increased in various areas of the city.

Zafar said the O level students were having their annual examinations and the matriculation examinations in the city would commence on May 7. He added that against this backdrop, the KE had resorted to unbearable load-shedding of up to 17 hours.

The JI leader said his party would hold a press conference outside the KE headquarters on May 7 to announce its future course of action. He added that the JI would also fight the case of the people of Karachi at the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority’s (Nepra) hearing.

He also lambasted the power regulator and said Nepra also shared the responsibility for what the KE had been doing to the people of Karachi. Zafar also expressed concern over the situation in the University of Karachi and the prolonged pen down strike in the varsity. The JI supported all the due demands of teachers, he said, adding that Rs2 billion should immediately be released to address the financial issues of the varsity.

KE’s version

Seventy-one percent of the KE’s service territory remains exempted from loadshedding. The remaining 29 percent experiences loadshedding in proportion to the loss profile determined on the basis of recoveries on account of electricity bills’ payment and power theft. “The maximum duration of loadshedding is, however, capped at 10 hours,” said the KE spokesperson on Friday. “Power theft bypasses safety protocols of electricity infrastructure installed by professionals and can lead to faults, which should not be equated with loadshedding.”