• Moonis appears before PA’s committee on loadshedding, highlights challenges
• MPAs take up issue of unannounced, prolonged outages in Karachi

KARACHI: Chief Executive Officer of the K-Electric, the city’s sole power utility, on Thursday finally appeared before the Sindh Assembly’s Special Committee on loadshedding and excessive billing and categorically told the provincial government to get the company’s licence cancelled and supply electricity itself.

Informed sources said that KE CEO Moonis Alvi appeared to be as an “opinionated person” and took an “aggressive stance” from the outset of the meeting, denying any prolonged loadshedding and excessive billing in Karachi.

While the special committee members took up the issue of unannounced and prolonged power disruption in parts of the city, the CEO categorically told the committee that “no loadshedding was carried out late at night”, adding that around “70 per cent of the network is loadshedding free”, while remaining 30 per cent of the network faced issues.

As for the settlement of dues with the provincial government, he made it clear that the power utility wouldn’t make any payment unless the dues outstanding against the provincial government were cleared.

He said that the KE did not fix electricity prices and added that the government could start supply electricity by cancelling their licence.

Jamaat-i-Islami member Muhammad Farooq told the KE CEO that their last meeting was held in a good atmosphere, but the matters decided in the meeting were not implemented.

He brought into his notice that there was 18-hour loadshedding in water pumping station of Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation in Damloti which provided water to three districts. “Is there any pumping station in Malir Cantt where loadshedding is carried out?” he asked and added that there were all problems where the water went to civilian areas.

Parliamentary Leader of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-backed Sunni Ittehad Council Shabbir Qureshi told the KE chief that the power utility resorted to loadshedding and presented its justification for power theft.

“You have institutions to stop electricity theft, but put the burden of electricity theft on the people,” he said, adding that the power utility seemed “not to be accountable to anyone”.

MPA Saleem Baloch of Pakistan Peoples Party said that the power utility could not make such a system to distinguish between bill payers and non-payers.

“If 40 out of 100 consumers of a PMT [Pole Mounted Transformer] are not paying their bills, why are the remaining 60 punished for it?” he asked and suggested that water pumping stations should be exempted from loadshedding so that water supply did not interrupt. PPP lawmaker Sadia Javed said that the KE must have complaints from the people of the city and asked the CEO if he had any solutions to problems.

She also asked the water utility chief as to what was the duration of loadshedding in Malir Cantt.

The KE CEO told the special committee that the rate of electricity charged from customers in their monthly bills across the country was same under the uniform tariff policy.

He said that the power utility had tried to end loadshedding but it had not been successful in certain areas.

Mr Alvi suggested to the committee to make a joint committee of lawmakers and the KE management to discuss the issue.

He clarified that loadshedding was not being carried out in the areas where electricity was not stolen.

“Load shedding is carried out in an area where power theft is high or due to non-payment of bills,” he said.

KE version

Sharing information on the meeting held between the K-Electric CEO and senior company officials with members of the Provincial Assembly Committee on Energy, a KE statement said that the discussions were held on electricity duty, provincial government dues, and various matters.

The committee members acknowledged K-Electric’s “improved” performance compared to other distribution companies (DISCOs) in the country, the statement claimed.

“Committee members also appreciated K-Electric’s progress regarding Village Electrification Program.”

It added: “Syed Moonis Abdullah Alvi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) clarified the issue of electricity duty and sought cooperation from the committee members on the settlement of payments on reconciled dues. It was also reiterated that as per federal laws and regulatory guidelines, the rate of electricity charged to customers in their monthly bills across Pakistan is same under the uniform tariff policy.”

According to the statement, an agreement was reached for more meetings throughout the month between elected representatives and K-Electric to prevent electricity theft and ensure timely bill payments.

“K-Electric CEO also highlighted the challenges due to theft and non-recovery of electricity dues.”

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2024