KARACHI: Members of civil society and representatives of various labour unions and nongovernmental organisations held a joint press conference at the Karachi Press Club here on Wednesday to welcome the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) verdict asking the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to take action against K-Electric for discriminatory loadshedding in the city.

“The residents of Karachi are suffering in hot weather but K-Electric is generating power below their capacity just to save fuel in order to mint maximum profits,” said Nazim F. Haji of the Trust Against Crimes, while suggesting that the provincial government should set up monitoring and complaint centres at the district level so that the citizens could file their complaints against the KE there.

He said the total installed capacity of KE was quite sufficient to meet the demand of the entire city. And in addition to that the National Transmission and Dispatch Company was providing 650MW to KE, which was almost free. “The main objective of the private sector management of the KE is to maximise their profits,” he said.

“It is important for the people of Karachi to know what is really going on behind the unscheduled loadshedding in their respective areas. And political parties, citizen organisations and the public should come forward and jointly struggle for their rights,” said Saeed Baloch of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum.

Shaikh Majeed, a trade union leader, said that there had been prolonged loadshedding since the beginning of Ramazan, especially during Sehri and Iftar, and even in those areas which were previously declared as loadshedding-free.

Mahnaz Rahman of the Aurat Foundation said women were suffering a lot because of the prolonged outages. “The housewives are frustrated as they are unable to complete their domestic chores and the working women, especially the home-based female workers, are unable to earn their livelihood due to loadshedding in Karachi,” she said.

Habibuddin Junaidi of the Sindh Labour Solidarity Committee said the KE should be nationalised now as the company had failed to provide any relief to the citizens after its privatisation.

Labour leader Liaquat Sahi said the KE management should be made accountable for adding to the woes of the people of Karachi in this heat.

Karamat Ali of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) said that civil society representatives were planning to meet the chief minister of Sindh and the mayor of Karachi to apprise them of the problems of the people regarding electricity. “They should play their role in redressing this issue in light of the high court’s verdict,” he said.

He also said that the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) would activate its Consumer Rights Council to monitor implementation of the SHC verdict. “Citizens, too, should file their complaints there,” he said while also asking the provincial government and the Karachi municipality to take measures for implementation of the SHC’s verdict and suggested the setting up of complaint centres at the district level.

Finally, Karamat Ali appealed to the people of the city to refrain from violence in their protests against the KE. “It is our constitutional right to protest, but violence in any form is not allowed in any case. SHC’s verdict has provided an opportunity to the citizens to force Nepra to implement the SHC verdict in letter and spirit,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2017