KARACHI, Aug 8: Former city nazim Niamatullah Khan has said he would move the Sindh High Court against the recent hike in power tariff, unannounced load-shedding, levy of bank charges at the rate of Rs8 per consumer and 20 per cent surcharge on late payment of bill, besides the privatisation of the KESC.

Mr Khan deplored that unannounced load-shedding was being resorted to along with the scheduled power suspension, and questioned the justification for repeated increase in power tariff without taking consumers into confidence.

He maintained that electricity rates in Karachi were already higher than those in other parts of the country. He said people of Karachi had every right to ask Nepra that on what grounds the KESC was allowed to raise the tariff further.

Mr Khan also noted that the KESC’s new management had taken no step to enhance its power generation capacity.

Mr Khan recalled that the Sindh Governor and the KESC management had held out the assurance more than one year back that there would be no load-shedding in Karachi after one year and the federal minister for water and power minister had even set the date as May 15, 2007. “Now the KESC Managing Director Gen Amjad says that there will be no load-shedding after 2011,” the former city nazim wondered.