ISLAMABAD, May 5: People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Senator Mian Raza Rabbani on Friday demanded formation of a parliamentary committee to probe into prevailing power crisis in Karachi and held the federal government’s privatisation policy responsible for this situation.

Talking to a group of reporters at the Parliament House here, the PPP senator said the government should immediately constitute a parliamentary committee to inquire into the reason as to why the KESC was failing to provide uninterrupted electricity to the city of Karachi.

He said privatisation of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) and its handing over to a foreign consortium had plunged the city of Karachi into total darkness.

Mr Rabbani said unannounced loadshedding for over six hours continued in various localities of the city causing great hardship to the residents of Karachi, which had become a “city of darkness and without water”.

The PPP senator said the KESC had falsely alleged that Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) had cut its supply and this charge of the KESC was denied by Wapda. The controversy between Wapda and the KESC was causing great troubles to the ordinary citizens, he added.

Mr Rabbani expressed his concern that loadshedding had now spread to the industrial areas and as a consequence, the elected bodies of the industrial areas had announced that they would not be able to meet export targets.