Wapda, KESC come under fire in NA: Power outages in Karachi
By Raja Asghar
ISLAMABAD, April 29: The Water and Power Development Authority and the new management of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation came under fire in the National Assembly on Saturday for crippling power cuts in the Sindh capital.
Members from opposition and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement accused the government and Wapda of ignoring the problems of the city during an inconclusive debate on frequent power cuts across the country.
One ruling coalition member demanded transfer of Wapda headquarters from Lahore to Islamabad to make the institution more responsive to people’s problems.
The debate was sought by adjournment motions tabled by members from the People’s Party Parliamentarians, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and the MQM.
The day’s proceedings were devoted to problems faced by industries and general public of Karachi owing to loadshedding while problems of other affected areas of the country will be taken up on Tuesday.
But most members of the house were absent.
PPP member Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur pointed out lack of quorum during the debate but Nawab Mirza of the MQM, who was presiding over the proceedings at the time, would not listen to the plea.
Mr Talpur repeatedly raised his point ignoring requests from some of his party colleagues to let the debate go on before walking out of the house in protest against the chair’s refusal to listen to him.
Opening the debate, PPP’s former finance minister Naveed Qamar accused the foreign management of the KESC of doing little to improve the utility after buying it at a ‘throw-away price’ and said the victims of the present crisis ranged from industrial units to students in the midst of an examination season.
He asked the government to intervene through the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority to force the management to inject funds worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the KESC within months rather than years.
Kunwar Khalid Yunus of the MQM, who saw a ‘conspiracy’ in the situation, asked why Wapda was not meeting Karachi’s needs although it had, at one time, offered to sell electricity to India.
Complaining that the loadshedding had shut down “more than half of industries in Karachi,” he said Wapda headquarters should be shifted to Islamabad because, according to him, its location in Lahore was “the cause of all problems”.
MMA’s Mohammad Hussain Mehanti wondered why electricity was costlier in Karachi than anywhere else in the country and demanded an expansion of the KESC’s generation capacity.
MMA member Abdul Sattar Afghani, a former Karachi mayor, bemoaned that “the city of lights has become a victim of darkness.”
PPP’s Abdul Mujeeb Pirzada said the situation in Karachi, including that of law and order, was deliberately being allowed to worsen to find an excuse for enforcing emergency.
MQM’s Haider Abbas Rizvi saw the power crisis as part of an attempt to check the industrial growth and expansion of the city.
Dev Das, Shabina Talat and Shamim Akhtar of the MQM, Mohammad Laeeq Khan of the MMA and Ghulam Murtaza Satti of the PPP also spoke.
Earlier, PPP chief Makhdoom Amin Fahim and his party colleague Aitzaz Ahsan urged Speaker Amir Hussain Chaudhry to intervene to stop alleged victimisation of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) member Saad Rafiq by the Punjab government.
Mr Ahsan said that while the PML-N member had been bailed out in two cases registered against him and was likely to get bail in a third case as well, the Punjab government, ‘at the highest level’, was digging out old cases against the MNA relating to his political activities.
Mr Fahim said the chair must intervene to prevent political victimisation of a member of the house, adding that no pressure should be allowed to be put on judiciary.
The speaker said he had done what he could by issuing a production order but could not interfere in investigations or court proceedings. “I think the judiciary is free,” he remarked as he dismissed the points of order.
Inter-Provincial Coordination Minister Salim Saifullah Khan assured the house that he would contact the NWFP governor and other authorities to facilitate a Tablighi Jamaat gathering being held in North Waziristan on May 3-4. He was responding to a complaint from a pro-MMA member from the area, Maulana Naik Mohammad, about search of ulema going to the gathering by security forces.
