HYDERABAD: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has demanded a 10-year audit of the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) by a third party and compensation for the heirs of pole-mounted transformer (PMT) blast victims.

“The compensation should be equivalent to what Hesco pays to its employees who die in fatal incidents in the line of duty,” MQM-P deputy convener Kanwar Naveed Jamil told a press conference at the local press club on Friday.

He announced a day of mourning on Friday for those who lost their lives in the PMT blast and fire incident. He condemned ineptness of Hesco in ensuring proper service delivery to consumers. He said Hesco’s incompetence was leading to repeated fatal incidents, adding that earlier three children died in Islamabad Mohalla as result of a similar blast in June.

He condemned non-availability of required medical and logistical facilities in Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) in Sindh’s second largest city of Hyderabad, adding that Khidmat-i-Khalq Foundation (KKF) facilitated transportation to critically injured patients to Karachi as the LUH had only two ambulances to shift five patients.

He regretted that Hyderabad contributed billions of rupees in taxes to the provincial and federal governments, but power utility and the health department failed to ensure service delivery to people.

He said Hesco did not have its own workshop and faulty transformers were privately repaired for installation. He said that poorly maintained transformers were being installed, which soon developed faults.

He said the Sindh government was not ready to provide facilities in hospitals.

He announced to move court in the wake of Thursday’s tragedy and raise voice in the Sindh and National assemblies. He demanded of Hesco to pay compensation to each deceased’s heirs equivalent to what Hesco pays to its worker in case of death. Each heir of the deceased should be given employment in Hesco, he demanded.

He urged Federal Energy Minister Hammad Azhar to visit Hyderabad to hold inquiry into Hesco’s mismanagement and meet elected representatives.

He said Hesco was recovering billions of rupees from power consumers, but not investing anything in its system and such incidents were regularly taking place. He said bills were regularly paid, but consumers were slapped with detection bills.

He asked Hesco to desist from playing with people’s lives, failing which people would be forced to take law into their hands. He said the Hesco staff forced consumers to pay money for getting transformers repaired and those repaired were privately done and the repair work was not up to the mark.

MNA Sabir Kaimkhani said the power utility’s system was not normalised after July 12 rainfall in the city and several deficiencies were pointed out to the Hesco management but in vain.

He said the utility’s fragile system did not cope even with moderate intensity rainfall or winds and often live wires fell on roads. He said Hesco’s system needed investment and an upgrade.

He said three inquiries were being conducted — one by Hesco, second by Pepco and another by Nepra. He said that being member of standing committee on energy, he would try to get an inquiry team appointed in committee’s upcoming meeting to probe Hesco’s affairs.

Rashid Khilji said the Hesco staff did not follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) during field work. He urged consumers to stay away from transformers during repairs. He said that pole-mounted transformers (PMTs) had fallen in the same area where tragedy occurred on Thursday.

Nadeem Siddiqui regretted that ambulances were not available in the LUH to transport burn patients to Karachi on Thursday. He said there was great delay in provision of medicines and transportation of patients to Karachi which endangered their lives.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2021