August 03, 2008	Sunday	Rajab 30, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 2: As the citizens continue to experience prolonged power breakdowns, sources in the Karachi Electric Supply Company estimated that the utility suffered a loss of over Rs10 billion due to a major breakdown of electricity network on the first day of monsoon showers.

Residents of many areas complained on Saturday that they experienced repeated power failures for two hours each. Insiders said the utility had not been able to address about 30,000 complaints that had piled up since the first showers. Malir, Landhi and Korangi areas were without electricity for almost eight hours while there was no electricity for more than seven hours in the industrial and residential areas of Nazimabad, Azizabad, Sohrab Goth, Landhi and Korangi on Saturday.

There has been no electricity on Marriot Road since Monday and despite repeated complaints lodged with the utility, no official responded and the faults have not been rectified so far, said General Secretary of the All Pakistan Organisation of Small Traders and Cottage industries, Mahmood Hamid.

He said the massive power breakdown had affected the industry alleging that energy crisis in the metropolis was part of a conspiracy hatched to destroy the country’s economy.

At present the utility is producing power much below its original capacity, a little over 900MW, because its plants have lived out their life and the management has adopted a policy of churning out less power to save on fuel cost, even if it goes against the consumer interest. Repair of faults is also suffering as without a CEO there seems to be no authority in the utility responsible to take decisions for allocation of funds required for repairs.

A source in the utility told Dawn that losses could have been much less if rain emergency measures were taken in advance and the utility was managed by technical persons with foresight.

Lateef Mughal of the People’s Workers Union of the KESC said the privatisation was carried out on the plea that it would result in much needed large scale investment for expansion, augmentation and improvement of its generation, transmission and distribution network. However, nothing of the sort happened during the last three years, he added.

He pointed out that the KESC’s privatised management had mortgaged utility’s assets, including plants, grid stations and empty real estate to banks and other lenders, in some cases even against personal guarantee of Aljomaih.

He alleged that Aljomaih had violated the agreement by entering into a deal with Al Abaraj of Dubai before the expiry of a three-year timeframe and allowing it to have effective control in day-to-day affairs even before the deal had not been officially announced.

The union activist demanded that the government should immediately take control of the KESC by posting an administrator which he said was the only way to save the national assets. He also called for restoring the KESC to its previous position along with its previous organizational structure as it was on Nov 29, 2005.

He urged the government to set up a commission to probe into the so-called privatisation and the role of private owners who failed to honour their commitment. He suggested that the private owners of the utility be fined for their failure to invest in its generation capacity and transmission and distribution system.

He said the government should also explore the alternate energy resources and abolish levy on equipment to be used for wind and solar power.