KARACHI: Traders reject govt plan for early closure of business
By Shamim-ur-Rahman
KARACHI, May 6: As enraged power consumers took to the streets to give vent to their feelings against the persisting power outages and the KESC’s indifferent attitude, traders and businessmen on Sunday refused to abide by the national energy conservation plan which goes into operation from Monday and makes it mandatory for operators of all shops and business concerns to switch off lights by 8pm.
Traders have suggested that the time be revised to 9.30pm and sought guarantee that there would be no load-shedding during the day.
People in the Liaquatabad and adjoining areas have been protesting since Friday against the weeks of frequent and prolonged power failures. The collapse of the KESC’s power generation and distribution system at 5am on Saturday rendered almost the entire city without electricity most of the day, forcing groups of angry and anxious people in many localities to take to the streets.
The breakdown had occurred just a few hours after the Federal Minister for Water and Power, Liaquat Jatoi, unfolded the nationwide energy conservation plan requiring shopping areas and commercial centres to switch off their lights by 8pm from Monday.
Power supply situation in the city remained precarious even on Sunday because the KESC’s premier generating unit, Bin Qasim Power Plant is generating about 625MW as against the increased demand of up to 2,250MW while the Unit-4 is not available because of delay in its repair and maintenance.
The Unit-5, which was renovated last year, has also been affected and the Unit-1 is out of order. A supply of 70MW from Kanupp is also not available to the KESC.
A protest was organised by the Action Committee of the Alliance of Market Association and the Chamber of Small Traders, on April 27, had staged a protest outside the KESC headquarters with the backing of the Karachi Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The organisation had threatened to stop paying utility bills and taxes if the KESC failed to do away with the load-shedding within three days.
The protesters complained that the city’s routine life, besides business and industrial activities, was being ruined by the disruption in power supply on a large scale, and blamed the situation on “deliberate neglect and corruption on the part of KESC staff, particularly those belonging to its technical workforce.” They urged the president and prime minister to intervene and seriously address the problem which was not only affecting the life of common citizen but also the country’s industrial production and export commitments.
“We support small traders in their stand against the plan announced by Mr Jatoi without consulting us and without keeping realities of the situation into consideration,” said Majyd Aziz, President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, adding that the business community was prepared to discuss alternatives to help the government “but we should not be taken for a ride.”
He said that Chief Executive Officer of the KESC General Amjad would be visiting the KCCI offices on Monday afternoon to discuss the issue. He made it clear that unless some of his community’s demands were met, there would be no improvement in the situation. He said the business community and traders were prepared to help the government work out a staggering closure plan because the government’s plan was detrimental to the businessmen community and would inflict a crushing blow to the economic activity in the country.
Majyd Aziz also demanded that the government should disclose the terms of agreement with the new KESC owners and details of the pact between the KESC and Siemens. He accused the Siemens of being ‘the real culprit’ and responsible for the current power crisis in Karachi.
Mr Aziz said the conservation plan would not bring much relief to the people of Karachi because the concerned quarters had not held out the assurance that there would be no load-shedding before 8pm.
The small traders’ organisation has already rejected the conservation plan and chalked out a programme to hold protest rallies from May 15.
The business and industry sector maintains that 30,000 shopkeepers of over 350 large markets, 15,000 factories in five industrial towns, hundreds of thousands of small and cottage industries spread over 18 towns of the metropolis and over 18 million inhabitants are suffering because of the inefficient working of the KESC which has failed to increase its power generation capacity to meet the electricity demand in Karachi.
Mr Aziz pointed out that at a press conference in July 2006, the then KESC managing director and the Siemens managing director had announced that Siemens would provide a 428MW power plant that would be made operative by April 2007. He regretted that neither any plant had been installed nor had any positive steps been taken to meet the 350-400MW shortfall.
