KARACHI, Aug 7: Business leaders have given 24-hour ultimatum to the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) to restore power supply to all industrial areas, thereafter they reserve the right to take any course of action against the utility company with the help of the Sindh government.

Addressing a hurriedly called press conference at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Monday, five business leaders, including president Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and SITE Association of Industry chairman said they were perturbed over the indifferent attitude being shown by the power utility towards their problems.

The business leaders further demanded of the government to immediately appoint independent directors on all the utility companies, including KESC, SSGC, and SNGC etc.

They were all unanimous in their view that there had been unabated power failure ever since the first heavy downpour of the current monsoon season started last Sunday. There is not a single industrial area of the city, which did not suffer invisible losses in billions of rupees on account of power failures for the last two weeks, they lamented.

Some of the business leaders, who remained on the board of the KESC in the past, recalled that they saw worst sort of crisis in the power utility, but never of this sort where internal issues are so flagrant that they are totally crippling the working of the KESC.

Among business leaders who spoke on the occasion were: Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) President Haroon Farooqui, SITE Association chairman Ameen Bandukda, Siraj Teli, Zubair Motiwala and Majyd Aziz. It seemed that all of them have lost any hope of getting good treatment from the KSEC and at times it looked as they lost their nerves and patients over the on-going long power failures now even stretching up to weeks.

The long shutdown of industry owing to power failure was causing billions of rupees invisible losses. The business leaders asserted that the country was already confronting with the issue of `bad image’ on account of other factors but delay in export shipments was further aggravating the situation.

They said that foreign buyers are not interested in “our problems” or are even not ready to listen to the causes and reasons for delayed shipments. “Therefore, many a time we have to air-lift such shipments at higher freight in order to protect our goodwill and also avoid further damaging our country’s name,” they added.

But unfortunately, they said, the KESC management is least bothered or worried about what was being experienced by the industry without power and instead take a simple way of clearing position by appearing on electronic media. They suggested that KESC management should concentrate on its working rather than pleading its case on false and flimsy grounds.

They also questioned the government grant of $100 million given to the KESC for the up-gradation of the system.

They even challenged the KESC’s claims about generation shortages and distribution problems and said that on the contrary the utility company had totally failed to check its internal disputes, which are actually causing all sort of power failures in the entire city, including industry, commercial and residential complexes.

PPI adds: The traders and industrialists threatened to suspend their business activities if the menace of load shedding in the city was not done away with.

They lambasted the performance of KESC and alleged that its private owners had miserably failed to run this vital utility organisation and redress problems of the consumers.

They said that traders had been hoping that the privatisation of KESC would solve all problems but instead it further added the miseries of business community as well as the masses.

The trade leaders said that the Karachi businessmen and industrialists had lost more than Rs8 billion during last nine days due to suspension of electricity supply in various major wholesale markets, trade and industrial areas.

They charged that the KESC administration had compelled them to take some 'aggressive steps'. They demanded of the KESC to get published within 24 hours details of power faults, steps being taken to redress them, besides exact date from which electricity would be supplied to Karachiites without interruption.

They also demanded of the government to make public the details of agreement inked between the government and KESC administration at the time of privatisation of the utility.The business leaders further demanded of the government to declare Karachi a calamity-hit area and deploy army to resolve the electricity crisis.