LARKANA: Activists of the Sindh United Party (SUP), Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) and citizens held a sit-in outside offices of the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) in protest against power outages and inflated bills.

Decrying the poor performance of Sepco, they took to the streets in the lead of Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) MPA Moazzam Abbasi and staged a sit-in outside the Sepco engineer’s office on Al-Murtaza House Road here on Wednesday.

Carrying banners and placards, and chanting slogans, they took out a procession from Municipal Stadium and staged the sit-in. They blocked the road for over an hour where the employees locked the office from inside to avoid an untoward incident.

The political activists and others assembled outside the Sepco office where in his speech the MPA accused Sepco of deliberately sending highly-inflated power bills with wrong meter readings and observing uncalled-for power outages in his constituency.

He said that for three months, ‘detection’ bills were being sent to consumers.

He alleged that Sepco in connivance with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had targeted the pockets that had in previous elections voted against the PPP candidate.

Sepco officials had adopted the strategy of punishing consumers only to cover their crime, he said and demanded of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate into the financial matters of the officials. He said that after the by-election on PS-11, where the PPP had lost, Sepco was being used as a tool to create difficulties for pro-GDA voters.

He warned the Sepco management to mend its behaviour, stop sending bills with incorrect readings and refrain from unscheduled loadshedding. The MPA threatened that another sit-in and protest would be held on Feb 7 if their issues were not solved.

Others also addressed the protesters.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2020