KARACHI, Nov 29: An inquiry initiated by the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation three months ago against errant officials has ended less with a bang than with a whimper.
The inquiry was instituted against those officials who were responsible for the delay in rectification of a cable fault in Model Colony.
Power riots broke out in Model Colony on Aug 10 when area residents took to the streets in protest over prolonged power breakdowns.
The chairman of the Water and Power Development Authority, Zulfiqar Ali Khan, had ordered action against those KESC officials who were responsible for the delay in rectification of the cable fault that had caused major power breakdowns in the second week of August and inconvenience to the residents of Model Colony.
The KESC managing director, Brig Tariq Saddozai, had also ordered an inquiry into the incident. At least three senior officers of the KESC were suspended. Those suspended included the zonal manager of Malir, the executive engineer of division II, and the assistant executive engineer of the Model Colony complaint centre.
KESC officials told Dawn that because the Malir Zone of the KESC had not been restructured, the power utility was not able to fix responsibility for the prolonged power breakdowns.
“The zonal manager, executive engineer and assistant executive engineer have been censured. But, if the power utility had been able to find exactly who was responsible for the prolonged power breakdowns, the officials would have been demoted or their promotions stopped,” they explained. They added that the KESC Malir Zone was being restructured.
“The three officials remained suspended as long as the inquiry continued. According to the efficiency and discipline rules of the KESC, those officials who have been suspended come to work and discharge their duties. A certain amount is deducted from their salaries and they are not considered for promotion,” they said.
KESC officials said that if the inquiry had exonerated the officers suspended, they would have been reinstated to their posts and their annual confidential reports would be cleared. Now the censure that the officials had received would find its way into their annual confidential reports, they added.
They recalled that initially a part of Model Colony had been # affected due to a link cable fault a couple of days before Aug 10 but the area had been normalized connecting it directly through the main cable. “Unfortunately the main cable also developed a fault on the morning of Aug 10 at 8am which suspended power supply of another section of the colony. While the earlier fault was being attended to, another fault occurred at 4pm, which cut off electricity of a major portion. The whole underground cable was dug up to replace the faulty piece with the new cable. About 80 per cent of the affected area was re-energized by 8pm and the whole of Model Colony was normalized by midnight after repairing the damaged underground cable.”
