Key political parties criticised K-"inhuman Electric’s business approach” and questioned its performance after the power utility implemented severe loadshedding for more than a week despite low demand caused by the city’s typical chilly and gloomy weather.
One of the key coalition partners at the Center, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, expressed grave concerns about the KE’s practise of protecting its own interests at the expense of others.
The MQM-P recently released a statement in which it claimed that "it seems the KE has solely put its commercial interests foremost regardless of people’s sufferings.”
"Karachi was renowned for its lights and vitality, but it is quickly slipping into gloom and destruction. People’s lives have been made miserable by the city’s hours-long loadshedding, which has also put them under a lot of emotional and physical strain, the statement continued.
PSP, JI, PTI, and Muttahida express worry about the utility’s disregard for Karachiites.
The party requested that Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister, pay attention to the severe loadshedding and restrain the KE.
Also on Sunday, senior MQM-P leader Wasim Akhtar issued a warning that if the coalition parties, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party, failed to uphold the written agreements they had made with the MQM-P, his party would be free to determine its future course of action.
He declared during a news conference that his party will never back individuals who make fun of the country’s judicial system and military services.
The opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, which won the most votes in Karachi during the 2018 general elections, said that the government and the utilities company were engaging in a "blame game” with a hidden agreement.
Khurram Sher Zaman, the PTI’s parliamentary party leader in the Sindh Assembly, said in a statement that the federal government had placed the blame for power shortages, load shedding, losses, etc. on K-Electric, and the firm had placed the blame there on Islamabad.
“Both are deliberately making people fool as in reality they protect each others’ interests. The government on one hand claims that it has not received dues from KE for the past one year. Then why did it not cancel the licence of the company? It won’t…because they both are operating in connivance with each others.”
In contrast, "Karachiites are compelled to live in hell for the last one week,” he claimed that Finance Minister Miftah Ismail held not a single meeting with KE over the subject of prolonged loadshedding.
JI requests a forensic audit.
Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, the Jamaat-i-Islami city president, referred to his party’s fight against the KE as a big public movement because of the KE’s rapidly declining performance and recent allegations of corruption against its former leader Arif Naqvi of the Abraaj Group.
He urged that the government compel a forensic examination of the power utility’s records.
Under pressure from the public, he continued, "you would see every single political party criticising the KE. But you won’t find a single politician questioning Arif Naqvi and his Abraaj Group since all political parties and their leaders in Pakistan are beneficiaries of his dirty game.
"I’m curious as to why the ruling parties are applauding the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision against a certain party but aren’t prepared to take action against the largest mafia that Arif Naqvi formed. But it’s enough already. Under the guidance of the Jamaat-i-Islami, the people of Karachi have now learned how to speak up,” he stated.
He criticised the KE for making the city experience more loadshedding.
