KARACHI, July 9: A meeting of the National Assembly's standing committee on water and power on Friday turned into a free-for-all as passions ran high and the city nazim and the Sindh chief secretary poured scorn on the KESC for disconnecting the power supply of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board without sorting out the dispute in an amicable manner.
Incensed, the KESC managing director hit back at his critics and said that he would have no moral authority to disconnect the power supply of defaulters if he allowed government departments to accumulate outstanding dues.
While the federal minister for water and power, as well as the minister of state holding the same portfolio, absented himself from the meeting, the standing committee, headed by Sardar Saleem Jan Mazari, listened to a detailed multimedia presentation of KESC Managing Director Brig Tariq Saddozai before inviting comments from the audience, including City Nazim Naimatullah Khan, District Coordination Officer Mir Hussain Ali, IGP Syed Kamal Shah, Chief Secretary Aslam Sanjrani, MNAs and MPAs.
Brig Saddozai told the committee that in 1999 - the year the army took over the management of the KESC - the power utility was on the brink of financial collapse. "Loadshedding was frequent, and power theft rampant. There was also a great cash shortfall. All this has changed now," he claimed.
He explained that the KESC had resorted to loadshedding every day because of power shortage. "The power demand in Karachi totals 2,072 megawatts. The KESC generates 1,300 megawatts at its power stations. It receives 250 megawatts from independent power producers.
It also gets 500 megawatts from the Water and Power Development Authority. The power utility faces a shortfall of 22 megawatts every day which is overcome by loadshedding," he said.
Brig Saddozai incurred the opprobrium of the legislators present at the meeting when he spelled out the steps taken by the KESC to curtail power theft in the city. He added that currently transmission and distribution losses stood at 38 per cent.
"The KESC must stop looking upon the people of Karachi as power thieves. Is Karachi the only city in the country where consumers indulge in power pilferage? The KESC management must bear in mind the fact that Karachi generates 70 per cent of the country's revenue," thundered City Nazim Naimatullah Khan as other lawmakers, including Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, chimed in with identical views.
The nazim criticized the KESC for making the KWSB pay their electricity bills at commercial tariff. He added that the reason why the KWSB failed to pay up outstanding dues on time was that it had to pay commercial tariff.
Echoing the views expressed by the nazim, chief secretary Aslam Sanjrani deplored that the KESC made no attempt to settle the financial dispute with the KWSB on the negotiating table.
The KESC managing director explained that KWSB offices were charged commercial tariff, pumping stations industrial tariff and housing colonies bulk tariff. MQM's parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Dr Farooq Sattar pointed out that there was a disparity between Wapda tariff and KESC tariff. He urged the standing committee to make sure that uniform electrical tariff was applied throughout the country.
He wondered why the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority offered a relief to Punjab without offering the same relief to KESC consumers. Dr Sattar's suggestion about the immediate installation of barge-mounted transformers in the city met with approval as most participants of the meeting agreed that a 150-megawatt power generator would enable the KESC to meet the shortfall in the short run.
Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim put in an appearance and, in a brief speech, criticized past governments for striking such deals with independent power producers which caused huge losses to the national exchequer.
He urged the standing committee to bring down KESC tariff, pointing out that a reduction in PTCL rates had caused a rise in its revenue. Responding to allegations about fast electrical meters, the KESC chairman, Riaz Ahmed Khan, said the power utility received the measuring instruments from the manufacturers who supplied meters to Wapda.
He assured the audience that electrical meters were being changed in other cities of the country and Karachi was not singled out for anti-power theft operations. Mr Khan said Nepra offered a relief to KESC consumers as well, adding that the cost would be borne by the federal government.
IGP Syed Kamal Shah said police had to restore law and order every time enraged citizens took to the streets following prolonged power breakdowns in their localities.
Shedding light on the working of the decentralized 'Madadgar 15', he suggested that the KESC depute its staff at these complaint centres so that they could better coordinate with their colleagues.
The chairman of the National Assembly's standing committee on water and power, Sardar Saleem Jan Mazari, formed a task force - comprising the city nazim, local government secretary, KESC official and an MNA (Dr Farooq Sattar) - to sort out the issue of electricity tariff paid by the KWSB.
Mr Mazari also gave one month to all Sindh government departments to settle their financial disputes with the KESC. He asked the KESC to take action against those officials under whose areas power theft took place, adding that no consumer could pilfer electricity without the help of KESC officials. He also asked the KESC to depute staff at Madadgar 15.
The members of the standing committee, including Mohammad Sanaullah Mastikhel, Dewan Syed Jaffar Hussain Bokhari, Mian Mumtaz Ahmad Matyana, Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah, Sardar Shah Jehan Yousuf and Abdul Rauf Mengal, expressed their views about the performance of the KESC.