KARACHI, June 18: Desperate victims of prolonged power outages have urged the chief justice of Pakistan and top government leaders to help end the standoff between the management and the protesting workers of the Karachi Electric Supply Company and consequently improve the power supply situation in the city.Meanwhile, shopkeepers around Teen Talwar held a protest demonstration on the main Clifton Road on Saturday afternoon, causing a massive traffic jam that extended to Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road and beyond.

The KESC Mazdoor Ittehad union blamed the deadlock on the management which the union said was deliberating subjecting Karachiites to prolonged loadshedding “to serve someone else’s agenda”.

In a joint statement, General Secretary of the People’s Workers Union Lateef Mughal, who was part of a nine-member Labour Union team that held talks with the management on Friday, said that the workers had welcomed the talks with the hope that it would help resolve the issues and bring an end to unrest among the workers. He was joined in this statement by Akhlaq Khan, Usman Baloch, Aslam Sammo, Shoukat Sambal and Shah Saeed Khan.

He deplored that the management team avoided discussing the issue of paramount importance for the workers. They included the demand to end the surplus pool and take the protesting workers back on job and withdraw all cases of alleged victimisation.

The workers union leaders alleged that the KESC management was deliberately creating a crisis in the city because it had closed many of its power generating units for the last three years to save the cost on fuel and instead of producing 1,500 megawatts from its own sources, it was churning out only 500MW.

They criticised the management for blaming the trade unions for the power crisis and maintained that it was a baseless allegation. They said the workers were always ready for a meaningful dialogue because it was the only way out of the crisis.

Meanwhile, the day after the talks with union leaders broke down, the KESC spokesperson cited instances of alleged subversive activities by union activists and said: “Union has exceeded the limits of protest by exercising lawlessness and causing great hardships for the power consumers of Karachi whose benefit is the KESC’s first and foremost priority”.

The KESC demanded that the government vacate all offices, assets and installations of the utility from “the stranglehold of union miscreants”.

Meanwhile, members of a neighborhood committee of Ali Nawaz Baloch Road, Baghdadi, have urged the CJP and the Sindh Assembly speaker to provide them remedy against power outages and apathy of the power utility’s management.

In a letter addressed to the PA speaker, a copy of which has also been marked to the chief justice, they have suggested that the Sindh legislators pass a unanimous resolution for handing over the KESC to the army immediately to end the misery of the 20 million Karachiites.

They said they could not understand as to how a handful of miscreants crippled law and order of the entire city any time for such a long period and nothing could be done against them. “Where is the government writ?” they said.

The Consumers Association of Pakistan slammed the KESC management for subjecting Karachiites to more than 12 hours of loadshedding that had seriously affected economic activity.

It also criticised the KESC management for sending highly inflated average bills to consumers. The CAP asked the management to stop the blame game and shifting the responsibility onto the workers and warned that today the workers had besieged the KESC headquarters, but if it did not mend its ways, the public deprived of power supply might also join them in the protest.

Residents of Gadap Town complained that power outages in more than 25 villages continued on Saturday but the KESC had taken no steps to address the problem.

They warned that they would stage a sit-in before the Sindh Assembly on Monday if the problem was not solved.

The affected villages included Old Thana Village, Umar Bagh, Saleh Mohammad Goth, Bharo Goth, Jam Goth, Mulla Isa Goth, Sammoo Goth and Memon Goth.