KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that people in rural and urban areas are suffering very badly in this sizzling weather from prolonged power failures and loadshedding and added that he could not rule out the possibility of emergence of any untoward situation, if the electricity outages continued at the same alarming scale.

“The Hyderabad Electric Sup­ply Company (Hesco) and the Suk­kur Electricity Supply Com­pany (Sepco) have failed to serve people of rural Sindh while the performance of K-Electric in the city has also turned out to be poor. It has failed to upgrade its system and did little to include more electricity in its system and that is why people are facing serious hardships on account of tripping of its system and loadshedding.”

The chief minister, who was talking to media after inaugurating a Paediatric Emergency Room at the Sindh Government Hospital Korangi-5 here on Tuesday, recalled his meeting with the KE management, who, he said, had assured him that no loadshedding would be carried out during Iftar and Sehri time and the overall loadshedding would also be reduced.

Talking about Hesco and Sepco, the chief minister said both the companies had completely failed to serve the people of rural Sindh. “About three year ago, the Sindh government had offered to take over both the companies [Hesco, Sepco] for their smooth, efficient and effective performance but the federal government refused. Today they are in a shambles and they could not be made efficient even if the Sindh government is allowed to take over,” he said.

“I know people of rural Sindh are leading a miserable life by facing 21-hour-long loadshedding,” he said and urged the federal government to have pity on the people of Sindh and improve its system.

“The tripping of 500 Kv line is pathetic and unacceptable and still it has not been restored completely,” he said.

The chief minister also recalled his meetings with the federal water and power minister, the prime minister and also talked about the letters he had written to them asking for reduction in loadshedding and imp­rove­ment in its supply system. “But sorry to say nothing has improved and my repeated phone calls, letters and requests [for smooth supply of electricity] have fallen flat on deaf ears,” he said.

Children ward inaugurated

Earlier, after inaugurating the 80-bed Paediatrics Emergency Ward at the Sindh Government Hospital Korangi-5 set up by the Child Life Foundation, the chief minister said he was working on a plan to establish the children hospitals/wards in 10 hospitals located in different areas to cater to the growing needs of Karachi.

The chief minister recalled that just after taking over as CM he had visited the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) where he was informed that 80,000 children were treated every month. “Presently, there are two major child health facilities — the NICH and the Civil Hospital and now even after addition [of] this Sindh Government Hospital Korangi-5 as the third facility, still two more such fully-equipped facilities are badly required,” he said.

On the occasion when it was pointed out that children emergency wards could be established in the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and the Nagan Chowrangi Government Hospi­tal, the chief minister said that he was ready to provide funds. “There is no shortage of funds for health sector, I just need some dedicated and devoted doctors to serve ailing children selflessly,” he added.

The chief minister announced that 10 such children hospitals/wards would be operated on public-private partnership. “This experiment has delivered successfully and even in rural areas where doctors were not ready to serve, have started working there,” he said.

After the inauguration, the chief minister visited all sections of the Paediatrics Emergency Ward, including the ICU and lauded the set-up.

Around 150,000 children are provided medical facility at the Korangi hospital annually and now the ratio would further increase as its Child Emergency Ward has further been equipped with latest medical facilities.

He also went to the medicine store to personally witness the temperature in which medicines had been stored.

He checked their quality (brands) and also asked the people present there to give required medicines to patients. “You don’t take it as a job but take it as a service to humanity,” he asked Medical Superintendent Mahb­oob Shah and expressed the hope that he would be serving poor people at the hospital properly.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2017