KARACHI: The Jamaat-i-Islami warned on Tuesday that it would launch a protest campaign and stage demonstrations across the city if the K-Electric failed to stop the prolonged outages and unannounced loadshedding, which had increased with the rise in temperature and severe humid weather conditions.

Speaking at a press conference at the party’s headquarters Idara Noor-i-Haq, JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rahman said if the KE failed to rectify its mistake, demonstrations across the city would be held under a coordinated protest drive against the government, National Electric and Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) and KE “nexus”.

“Whether it’s the KE, the federal government or Nepra, they all have been exploiting the people in Karachi for long,” he said. “We demand that all these three responsible for this crisis end the exploitation to escape strong public wrath. We demand that the authorities halt the process of overbilling and loadshedding.”

He said the power supply situation in Karachi was alarming due to the announced and unannounced loadshedding both in the day and night. The situation on the ground suggested that 70 per cent of KE consumers were facing the power crisis one way or another, he added.

“On the other hand, the government has failed to provide any relief to Karachiites. The then KESC was privatised to end loadshedding, but in the 16 long years the KE could increase the production of electricity only by 11 per cent,” he said.

Hafiz Naeem said the government offered a private institution a massive subsidy of Rs95 billion and no one knew about the real owners of the KE while the judiciary had already raised many questions about the power utility and its owners.

“The man behind KE, Arif Naqvi, is a close friend of Prime Minister Imran Khan,” said the JI chief. “The government and former ruling regimes are hands in gloves with the KE. The KE is playing the role of a mafia while there is no institution to keep a check on electricity meters and the system. Some 30 million people in Karachi have no effective platform to lodge complaints against the KE. Amid the extreme humid conditions, the KE has been operating with three to four hours of loadshedding in those areas which are deemed exempted. The low-income areas are suffering the worst.”

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2021