KARACHI, June 27: The Pakistan Peoples Party, Karachi chapter, on Monday expressed concern over continuing and prolonged load-shedding in the metropolis and other parts of the country amid continuing heatwave. In a joint statement, PPP’s Karachi president Rashid Rabbani and general secretary Rafiq Engineer slammed the authorities for failing to rectify the power supply situation in the country’s biggest industrial and business hub and alleged that it appeared to be part of a conspiracy to relegate the city to backwardness.
They criticized KESC management, which was in the hands of men in uniform, for failing to improve the 11kv distribution systems despite huge allocation given for improvement and handing over inflated bills to consumers, besides, its failure to root out power theft and leakages.
The PPP leaders were of the view that due to frequent power outage citizens were put under considerable stress and tension which in many cases had resulted in serious ailments.
Mr Rabbani and Mr Engineer maintained that owing to government’s failure to improve utility services, the city water supply was also in shambles, partly due to power breakdowns.
They claimed that a large number of daily wage earners were sitting idle as their business was seriously affected due to power outage. “People have no jobs and government thinks that the only solution for economic prosperity is to increase taxes while the masses have no means to earn,” they said.
They also deplored the rapid increase in prices of commodities used by the common man owing to which many people were forced to commit suicide.
In a separate statement, former legislators Nawab Yusuf Talpur, N.D. Khan, and Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani castigated the non-civilian managements of WAPDA and KESC imposed by the regime for leading the country’s electricity system to a point of collapse.
They alleged that neither the service of these utilities had improved nor the losses had been curtailed despite induction of military personnel in these organizations while thousands of workers were deprived of the livelihood. “Instead a cruel loot and plunder have been let loose in WAPDA and KESC which also need a thorough probe,” they said.
The leaders said that the mercury had touched an all-time high in the country but the power companies, instead of providing uninterrupted supply of electricity to the people, resorted to shutdown of longer durations.
In the villages of Sindh, the situation had become even worse with power suspended for days and weeks as none in the corridors of power listen to the cries of people of the rural areas.
The PPP leaders also criticized the government for its failure to fulfil the responsibilities with regard to National Finance Commission as well as providing security to life and property of public.
