HYDERABAD:Federal Minis­ter of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali on Wednesday faced angry power consumers and a hostile demonstration staged by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) activists near Wapda Water Wing Colony, where he held an ‘open kutchehry’ to hear complaints against the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco).

Several complainants indulged in heated arguments with the minister over their unsolved problems, which they attributed to “poor performance of the power utility and indifferent attitude of its officers”.

Most of the power consumers who approached the minister complained about rampant corruption, over-billing, unnecessary delay in the installation of new connections, prolonged outages, unscheduled loadshedding and Hesco officials’ unwillingness to look into their woes.

The minister issued directives for suspension of an executive engineer and three sub-divisional officers and some other employees of Hesco’s Hirabad sub-division and ordered an inquiry against them in the light of many complaints made against them at the kutchehry. He said a report in this regard should reach him within the next three days.

He asked senior Hesco officials to hold such kutchehries on Friday in their respective areas of operation and provide immediate relief to the aggrieved consumers coming with genuine complaints.

He said that he was on a visit to Sindh on a directive of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who wanted him to address power consumers’ issues. He said he would pay more such visit to ensure relief to consumers.

Close to the venue of the kutchehri, PTI activists raising slogans of ‘Go Nawaz Go’ staged a noisy demonstration against the federal government’s plan to privatise Wapda.

Carrying party flags, banners and placards, the protesters strongly condemned the government for privatising national institutions one after the other. They also demanded a drastic cut in power tariff in view of a sharp decline in fuel prices in the international market.

PTI district president Dr Mustansar Billa, leaving the protesters outside, entered the kutchehri to apprise the minister of his party’s strong reservations over the Wapda privatisation plan.Speaking to journalists at a tea party hosted for him at the Hyderabad Press Club, Abid Sher Ali criticised PTI chief Imran Khan and Awami Muslim League president Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed for ‘sabotaging’ the Chinese president’s visit to Pakistan a few months ago to obstruct major accords between Pakistan and China to overcome power crisis and the government’s efforts to bring in foreign investment.

“They want to keep the country in darkness,” he said, adding that the PTI failed to resolve any issue in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) since forming its government there. He alleged that Jehangir Tareen provided his plane to Mr Khan and in turn got major mining projects.

He said the PTI hatched a conspiracy to topple the PML-N government but failed.

Abid Sher Ali also faced a protest demonstration by PML-N activists from Dadu district. Led by Zulfiqar Sarang, the protesters raised slogans against PML-N member of the Sindh Assembly Sorath Thebo and Hesco officials of their area for not paying any attention to their issues. They urged the minister to convey their grievances to the central leadership and the federal government.

The minister chaired a meeting of the local chapter of the PML-N at the Circuit House and discussed party issues and problems pertaining to water and power.

Iqbal Qaimkhani, the provincial general secretary of the All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union along with a group of workers visited the kutchehri and conveyed to the minister Wapda workers’ serious concerns over plan to privatise the national institution. The minister gave him a hearing and invited the CBA to a dialogue on the issue later.

Protest in Mirpurkhas division

MIRPURKHAS: A pen-down strike will be observed by Wapda Hydero Electric workers across its Mirpurkhas division on Thursday against the government’s plan to privatise Wapda.

This was announced by divisional chairman Akbar Leghari and general secretary Yousuf Soomro of the Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union here on Wednesday.

In a statement, they said that employees would wear black armbands at all Hesco offices in Mirpurkhas division.

A protest rally would also be taken out at 10am from the division office to the local press club, they said.

They condemned appointment of private chief executive officers in Wapda’s affilated power companies

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2014