Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, after a high-level meeting in Karachi on Monday, directed the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) to supply as much gas as required by K-Electric (KE) to provide electricity to the city.

The special meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) was called to resolve a dispute between the the two utilities which has led to the city suffering from extensive load-shedding.

"The city will have electricity as well as water, as water is supplied using electricity," Abbasi said, adding that Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Miftah Ismail has been tasked with determining within 15 days what dues are owed by which company.

"The load-shedding in Karachi will end completely when 100 per cent of the bills are being paid," the prime minister said in response to a question.

He said that KE had given a written statement saying that all its furnace oil plants were working at full capacity, suggesting that the additional load-shedding being currently faced by the city is due entirely to limited gas supply.

Abbasi said that the electricity production in the country was in excess of demand but it cannot afford to bear the burden of those who do not pay their bills and, therefore, load-shedding would continue in areas with high incidence of electricity theft.

In a statement released to the media on Monday evening, KE said: "The provision of gas supply from SSGC has been increased from 90 mmcfd (million cubic feet per day) to 130 mmcfd."

"This has resulted in an improvement in the power supply in the city and situation is expected to normalise once gas levels improve to the required level of 190 mmcfd," the statement said.

"With the current increase in gas supply, industrial zones will be resuming their load-shed exempt status from tonight," KE said in the statement.

During his address after the meeting, the prime minister also said that the centre has done a lot more for the city than was due. "If Sindh asks for buses for the Green Line project, we are ready to provide them as well," the prime minister offered.

He dismissed any possibility of KE being privatised and assured that the company was operating according to National Electric Power Regulatory Authority tariffs and therefore cannot charge any more or less than the decided dues.

KE reported it had Rs52 billion in outstanding claims against the KSWB, while the SSGC said it has claims of about Rs80bn against KE, excluding a Rs7bn security deposit required for increasing gas supply to 190mmcfd. Separately, the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) has Rs30bn claims against KE.

The centre and the Sindh government had also laid the blame on each other as the dispute lingered on at the cost of Karachi's citizens.

Meanwhile, a Nepra committee had found KE at fault for the excessive electricity shortage, but also requested the government to increase the gas quota for the power utility to ease public sufferings.