KARACHI, Sept 1: The Sindh assembly on Monday heard angry members criticise the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority over prolonged load-shedding, excessive billings and discriminatory tariff slabs in the province.

The assembly unanimously adopted a resolution calling for reducing the new tariff which according to them is 45.5 per cent higher than that of the Lahore Electric Supply Company.

The other issue which caught the attention of the members was the reported brutal incident of burying alive of five women in Balochistan. The assembly adopted another unanimous resolution calling the federal government to trace the perpetrators of the crime and award them exemplary punishment.

Both issues were raised in the assembly through two separate resolutions moved out of turn by Law Minister Ayaz Soomro and Information Minister Shazia Marri, respectively, after suspending of all relevant rules under Rule 211.

The resolution regarding power rates reads:

“This assembly resolves and recommends to the federal government to reduce the new exorbitant tariff and new slabs proposed for the province of Sindh which are much higher than the rates for other provinces as the rate of Hesco are 45.5 per cent higher than those of Lesco as determined by the Nepra and it will not be in the interest of province of Sindh to pay such higher rates which are also discriminatory.”

Speaking in support of the resolution, the law minister said that Sindh was deprived of its due share in the National Finance Commission award and now facing the curse of power shortage. He said the PPP founding chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had rightly termed the Water and Power Development Authority a ‘white elephant’.

He said: “The new meters are running fast and excessive bills are being issued to consumers which is injustice to the people of Sindh.”

Almost every member of the house wanted to give his input on the overall criticism against the KESC, Wapda and Nepra’s attitude but for want of time and similar feelings only half-a-dozen members could express themselves and shed light on the agony of the people of Karachi reeling from long hours of load-shedding.

They said Karachi was the commercial hub of the country and instead of providing subsidies to attract investment, a higher electricity tariff was being charged which would have negative impact on the business activities of the city.

Youth Affairs Minister Faisal Sabzwari said the entire country was suffering from the curse of power shortage. He pointed out that KESC’s tariff had always been higher than that of Lesco. He called for providing maximum relief to Karachi to boost its economic activities.

Bachal Shah recalled the agony of villagers where if five consumers failed to pay their bills, the electricity supply of entire village was cut off. He called for determining the categories of consumers and charging them through a flat rate system

Humera Alwani said the KESC’s rates were almost double than the rates of other power supply companies in the country. She demanded equal rates throughout the country and called for ending load-shedding during Sehar and Iftar timings.

Speaker Nisar Khuhro, who was in the chair before calling it a day at 2.15pm to meet again on Tuesday at 9.30am, informed the house about his recent meeting with the representatives of the KESC management.

He said the representatives informed him that requirement of Karachi was 2500MW while at present the city was getting only 1800MW electricity.

Mr Khuhro said the representatives admitted that the Bin Qasim power plant was not operating to its full capacity due to shortage of gas supply and less use of furnace oil. They also admitted that they had prior knowledge that due to annual maintenance by the gas company the gas supply would remain short.

He said they, however, assured him that duration of load-shedding from Sept 4 or 5 would be reduced from six hours to two hours per day.

Buried alive