HYDERABAD: Activists of Pak Sarzameen Party staged a rally outside the local press club on Thursday to protest against poor service delivery by Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) and Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa).

PSP vice chairman Shabbir Ahmed Kaimkhani said at the gathering that the power utility and Wasa had made peoples’ lives miserable as they had utterly failed to ensure uninterrupted power supply and proper sanitation. There was no one to whom people could turn to get their problems resolved because it lacked leadership, he said.

He said that those who had secured votes from people of Hyderabad had left them alone to fend for themselves. Hesco had become a chronic problem as it had completely failed to overcome loadshedding.

He said that prolonged power outages had become almost a routine for people of Hyderabad. Elected representatives did not pay heed to cries of their electorates while the city’s infrastructure had crumbled completely.

He said that Rs500,000 had been given to each union committee of Hyderabad which had 96 UCs in all. But, this money was not spent on public welfare. PSP would issue a ‘white paper’ like the one it had issued in Karachi to expose those who had looted this city, he said.

Kaimkhani warned Wasa and Hesco to improve their performance or else PSP would hold them accountable. PSP chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal and president Anis Kaimkhani would visit Hyderabad on Friday, he said.

He said that PSP was challenging the “terrorists” who had destroyed Sindh’s cities and sought cooperation of people of Hyderabad in this regard in order to restore old glory of this historic city.

PSP Sindh council member Riasat Kaimkhani, Rahim Babar Chandio and others said that Hesco had not only failed to overcome power crisis in Hyderabad but also in Badin, Tando Mohammad Khan and Mirpurkhas.

PSP Hyderabad division president Nadeem Qazi and district Hyderabad president Shoaib Jafri said that recent rain had exposed performance of local government department and Hesco.

They said that waterborne diseases were emerging because rainwater was still stagnating on main roads. Faulty transformers were not repaired unless people paid bribe to Hesco staff, he said.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2020