KARACHI: Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) has urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo moto action against K-Electric, and federal ministers Khawaja Asif and Abid Sher Ali over the deaths of hundreds due to the energy crisis experienced during the heatwave.

This demand was made by participants at a protest rally staged by MWM Karachi chapter on Sunday outside the Karachi Press Club where speakers held the federal government and K-Electric responsible for unannounced loadshedding.

Addressing the participants of the rally, who were holding banners and placards against K-Electric, MWM Karachi leader Allama Mubashir Hasan said that federal ministers Khawaja Asif and Abid Sher Ali were responsible for over 1,200 deaths in the city. He said Karachi was being paralysed by the federal government under a calculated move and had the revenue generated from the city been spent well, there would be no loadshedding.

Other speakers at the rally said those who were claiming to supply 650MW electricity to Karachi should answer why the city was being pushed into darkness and the electricity requirement not being met. The energy crisis, along with the heatwave had taken a serious turn resulting in the death of hundreds during the last 8 days, with over 1,200 people dead.

Recalling that the people of Karachi were being charged the highest tariff, they demanded that electricity rates be reduced and K-Electric be investigated by a government commission for over billing and earning huge profits, without improving its services. The company’s shareholders should be exposed, the city be declared calamity-hit and emergency be declared with electricity provided for three months without any interruption, were other demands put forward at the rally.

The federal government, instead of indulging in the politics of allegations, should take practical steps to overcome the energy crisis. MWM also demanded that the Sindh government ought to take measures to improve medical services provided to patients in government hospitals and set up temporary medical camps in different parts of the city with provisions of emergency treatment.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2015

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