ISLAMABAD: The Senate’s standing committee on finance has decided to review the contract of privatisation of Karachi Electric (K-Electric) previously known as the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) after its alleged failure to implement an agreement with the government.

The chairman of the committee, Salim Mandviwala, told Dawn that the committee would hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the issue.

He said all stakeholders and relevant authorities would be invited to the meeting to present their points of view. He said people of Karachi had been suffering because of frequent power breakdowns during the severe hot weather and there had been protests in the city against K-Electric.

Mr Mandviwala, who had served as finance minister during the previous PPP regime, said the Privatisation Commission wanted the meeting to be scheduled after Eidul Fitr. If officials of the Ministry of Water and Power and National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), who had also been invited to the meeting, made a similar request, the meeting would be postponed.

Time had come to review the contract signed with the K-Electric, he said and added that the committee was determined to do so.

All stakeholders and authorities concerned to be invited to a meeting to present their points of view

He said the matter was of high public significance and the committee would give its recommendations in this regard after having a detailed discussion on it.

The KESC was privatised in 2005 during the regime of Gen Musharraf amid protests by opposition parties, including PPP, and workers of the company fearing layoffs after the privatisation.

Meanwhile, five lawmakers of PPP submitted on Monday an adjournment motion to the National Assembly secretariat to discuss “the urgent and serious issue of power failures and blackouts in the country, particularly in Karachi”.

The motion says that people of Karachi continue to suffer power failures “due to callousness of the Ministry of Water and Power and K-Electric”.

“What is concerning is that Nepra headed by the prime minister has utterly failed to hold K-Electric to account,” it alleges.

With 1,200 deaths caused by heatstroke, power failures are still continuing in the city,” it deplores.

In the motion, the opposition PPP members have also criticised Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif and his deputy Abid Sher Ali for their alleged failure to resolve the issue.

“The two ministers who are vociferous on their achievements have become invisible...and no one has come out to give a statement why people must suffer repeated blackouts,” the motion says.

It calls upon the federal government and the ministers concerned to inform parliament of the reasons for the recent power failures and what remedial steps are being taken.

The motion has been submitted by Dr Nafisa Shah, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Shazia Marri, Shahida Rehmani and Ejaz Hussain Jakhrani.

Published in Dawn ,July 14th, 2015

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