KARACHI, Sept 1: Amid strong criticism of the government’s move to increase electricity tariff by 31 per cent, Karachiites continued to suffer prolonged load-shedding, stretching beyond two hours, at least for four times on Monday.

The utility was facing a shortage of more than 350MW as the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant was still not back on grid and at least one unit of the Bin Qasim Power Plant was out of action.

After strong criticism by trade and industry and the public, the provincial assembly also called upon the federal government not to penalise the hub of Pakistan’s economic activity by imposing a higher tariff and called for reducing new tariff and new slabs proposed by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority.

Sources said that load-shedding in the city could be reduced by more than 30 per cent provided all feeders, except those connected to hospitals, were shut down by turns and no priority or exemption was given to any area or person in this matter.

At present, about 300 of the I,100 feeders are run on a priority basis and not subjected to shutdowns. The public is suffering because of extra care given to a few VIPS, claimed the general secretary the KESC Shareholders Association, Choudhry Mazahar Ali, in a statement while criticising the utility’s management for negligence.

He said not a single megawatt of power had been added to the system of the company by the private owners during the past three years. He said that during this period loans of Rs47 billion had been acquired but no project had been started.

Mazhar said the Cogen plant of the DHA had delayed the supply of an agreed upon 84 megawatts to the KESC by more than six months, which accordingly increased the suffering of the citizens of Karachi. The DHA Cogen was supposed to pay Rs600 million as a penalty to the KESC for this delay, he claimed.