KARACHI: Promising relief for Karachiites, both in uninterrupted power supply and its inflated tariff, Federal Minister for Energy Khurram Dastagir on Wednesday vowed to take up all concerns of the city’s residents with top authorities in Islamabad to take “all-out measures” to address their problems.

However, the energy minister did not explain the reasons behind his confidence to address and resolve the core issues—which are pending for a long time and attracting serious criticism from almost all segments of society—in the next few days when the term of his government is set to be over before the caretaker setup takes charge of the affairs, both in the Centre and the provinces.

The fresh resolve from him came during his brief interaction with the media after holding a meeting with K-Electric management along with leaders of Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P), which had actually taken up the matter with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during his last week’s visit to Karachi who then assigned Mr Dastagir to look into the complaints against the power utility raised by his allies in the Centre.

The minister said, “The concerns of the citizens of Karachi regarding power supply and its tariffs would be discussed at the federal level and all-out measures would be taken to provide relief in this regard.”

Meets KE management along with MQM-P leaders

“The government is taking steps to address the issue of non-payment of bills and power theft so that the consumers who pay bills should not face power shortages. The concerns were expressed by the MQM leadership which said that since KE was a private power distribution company which shouldn’t have any role in the circular debts of the country and so it should not charge the consumers in this respect,” he said.

Later, the MQM-P leaders — Dr Farooq Sattar, Mustafa Kamal and Aminul Haque — who accompanied the federal minister in a meeting with the KE management “congratulated” Karachiites for resolution of their issues and made it clear that the party would no more accept “forced extortion” from the power utility in the name of circular debt.

“We have strongly put the case of Karachiites that the additional burden of Rs3.5 billion in the name of circular debt payment through KE tariff would not be accepted,” said Farooq Sattar while talking to reporters. “It was our effort that the PM assigned the energy minister to solve this problem and today we have almost achieved our target. We have fought for Karachiites at every legal forum and practically done our job without staging any protest or placing banners in the streets.”

Mr Kamal came up with another “good news” for the people of the metropolis and called it a success of his party that the KE had lost the monopoly status of power supply utility in Karachi and now there would be more companies soon bringing competition and options for the consumers.

“So let me tell every Karachiite that MQM-P is the only option and party of yours,” he said. “We pursued and followed this [power supply and tariff] issue constantly and have almost reached our destination. We are in the government but didn’t ask anything for the party. We fought for you [Karachiites]. We took your case and went to extent for your rights. We haven’t abandoned you. We are here with you and would remain among you,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2023