KARACHI, April 22: The members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s coordination committee and the party’s former legislators have held the army and Wapda responsible for the failure of the KESC in coping with the power shortage and consumers’ complaints in the city.

At a news conference at Karachi Press Club on Monday, a member of the coordination committee, Kunwar Khalid Younus, along with the other leaders of the party, said electricity was a basic need of life, but the government had failed to handle the power issue properly.

Army personnel, who were inducted into the KESC during the Nawaz Sharif government, had claimed that not only would they eliminate corruption and theft from the KESC but would also facilitate the consumers, but they had failed to facilitate consumers and labour unions were also being victimized, they added.

Mr Younus said the army had failed to improve the performance of the KESC, stop the theft of electricity, eliminate loadshedding and to recover Rs150 billion from big defaulters. The KESC had the capability for providing more meter connections to consumers, which could bring in another Rs5 billion to it, but things were opposite of it which were encouraging Kunda-users (illegal connections) and contributing to unlawful incomes of corrupt officials, he added.

Referring to the complaints the coordination committee received in its different offices, the committee leaders said, on the one hand, inflexible attitude of the corporation was the main reason for the failure of its recovery drive, and the low-income groups were being compelled to pay huge amounts at one time on the other. Even people who owned 80 square yards houses had been and were being issued huge bills on commercial basis on the pretext that they were running business on their residential premises, he said, adding: “This is highly unfair.”

The Muttahida leaders said consumers were being harrased on one pretext or the other and raids were being conducted even at night to arrest them and make families to pay disputed bills by any means.

They criticized the average billing system and alleged there was no even- handed action against defaulters as big defaulters as well as those living in posh areas were being spared, but people with modest incomes were being targeted by the KESC with the support of armed forces personnel.

Talking about high power tariff of the KESC, they said it was all due to purchase of electricity through Wapda, not allowing the KESC to set up more power generation plants on its own, failure in checking line losses and transmission leakages.

“Those who pay their bills honestly are being made to pay for those who do not pay their bills or those who steal electricity,” the Muttahida leaders said.

They demanded that the KESC be allowed to set up power generation plants, new sources of electricity generation be explored and encouraged, Wapda and armed forces should have nothing to do with the KESC and illegal raids and arrest of consumers by army monitoring teams and KESC staff be stopped. They also demanded the restoration of labour unions in the KESC.

“Honest and responsible Karachiites pay Rs35 billion every year on account of electricity bills, but residential and official premises under the use of law-enforcing agencies have been exempted from paying electricity charges. More than 100 police stations, residential quarters in police headquarters and other offices where an estimated 300 people live without proper government permission do not pay electricity bills as if they were privileged to get free electricity,” the Muttahida leaders said.