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No conclusion at Nepra public hearing over KE’s monopoly status

  • September 21, 2020

Chor hai chor hai, K-Electric chor hai (KE is a thief) chants echoed as Nepra started a public hearing held by it on Monday to mull over ending the monopoly of KE as the sole power supplier in the city.

The hearing was adjourned for at least half
an hour after people started sloganeering against KE in protest for not taking
questions from members of the public. The hall was full. Majority in attendance
were business persons, residents, KE representatives and politicians, including
MQM’s Khawaja Izharul Hassan, Jamat-e-Islami’s Hafiz Naeem and activist
Mohammad Jibran Nasir.   

Nepra Chairperson Tauseef Farooqi, who was
holding the electricity court, said questions were taken from those who emailed
them beforehand. This public hearing was held on the orders of the Supreme
Court to look into breaking KE’s monopoly or “exclusivity”. The top court had
taken notice of the load-shedding problem in Karachi after people suffered days
of power outages.

Former Karachi Chamber of Commerce and
Industry president Siraj Kassam Teli asked Nepra to justify its earnings and
resolve the long-standing issue.

He said there should be three to four
competitors so there is heathy competition over price and quality.

“There remains a debate on the price of
electricity, but never on quality. When there’s electricity, there are issues
of fluctuation. People’s machinery and appliances malfunction because of it,”
he said.

KE’s Muhammad Aamir Ghaziani claimed the
power company has increased load-shedding exempted areas from 6% to 75% in the
last 15 years.

Bilal Khan, a resident of Phase 6, DHA,
however, said his area is apparently exempted, but power outages happen quite
often.

When Khan tried finding out why, he was
told the outages were for load management. “They have actually changed the head
(column’s name). Otherwise, load-shedding is still happening literally
everywhere in the city,” Khan said.

But not everyone at the hearing was angry
with the KE. Layton Rahmatullah Benevolent Trust and Indus Hospital
representatives praised KE for its “support” to the two welfare
hospitals. 

“KE did a great job in our area. We don’t
have any load-shedding,” said Mohibullah, a former chairperson of UC-42 (Macchar
Colony).

His comments sent the public into frenzy.

“I live in Macchar Colony and power outages
happen and children also die during rains,” rebutted a resident from the crowd
to Mohibullah’s comments.

Hafiz Naeem of JI said KE officials were
all lying about exempted areas. Naeem said that all parties – PPP, MQM, PTI and
PML-N have patronised KE in the past.

“When temperatures reach 34 to 35 degrees
Celsius, we have load-shedding. When it drizzles and when humidity rises, we
have power outages. These are the characteristics of Karachi and you should be
able to provide electricity in these circumstances. Even in winter, there is
load-shedding under the pretext of low gas supply,” said Naeem, who is a
petitioner against KE in the apex court.  

“We want a forensic audit and cancellation
of the license of KE,” he said.

Before a verbal brawl started between Naeem
and MQM’s Hassan, the latter also said that KE’s monopoly should end and MQM
has raised the issue in the assembly. 

“Karachi’s decision has reached the
parliament (through them),” Hassan said.

The verbal brawl between the two politicians
and a charged crowd compelled the Nepra officials to end the hearing three
hours earlier.

The Nepra chief requested the attendees to
settle down or they would have to end the hearing. He said they had already
honoured the apex court’s order to hold the public hearing. He soon left the
venue with his team.

KE’s stock was among the highest traded
stock on Monday with nearly 30 million shares traded. Its share price fell by
Rs0.03 to Rs4.22.

Article source: https://www.samaa.tv/money/2020/09/nepra-public-hearing/

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