Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Tuesday protested against extensive load shedding of electricity and hefty billing outside the K-Electric head office in Karachi and urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to at least take notice of long power outages during the coronavirus crisis. Addressing a press conference, JI leader Hafiz NaeemurRehman said that KE has failed to increase power generation as per an agreement and despite extensive load shedding of 12 to 14 hours, people are receiving thousands of rupees worth of bills. “We will be the voice of the people and will demand authorities to revoke the license of K-Electric for not delivering,” Rehman asserted. Lamenting that KE is deliberately shutting down plants to optimise its profits, the JI lawmaker said that the electricity provider has “replaced copper wires with aluminum wires to save money”. “Installation of aluminum wire is increasing load shedding [since aluminum is a poorer conductor of electricity than copper]”, he added. Rehman also condemned the provision of fuel by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to K-Electric. “[Prime Minster] Imran Khan is shutting down steel mills and giving Rs36 billion subsidy to K- Electric [at the same time],” Rehman noted. Meanwhile, JI lawmaker and Member of Sindh Assembly (MPA) Abdul Rashid while addressing the protesters, lashed out at what he termed KE’s incompetence and maintained that the institution comes under the supervision of federal and provincial governments. “There are power outages for long hours in [almost] all areas of the city,” he complained. JI lawmakers have urged KE to run power plants at full capacity in order to reduce the long hours of power outage in the city or else the party will come up with “Plan B” as the solution to the problem.
