PTI leaders demand end to K-Electric monopoly, scrutiny of meters

KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders on Sunday took K-Electric, Karachi’s sole power distributor to task, over unannounced, prolonged power outages tormenting denizens in the hot and humid weather in the port city.

Speaking outside the power distributor’s office, Fridous Shamim Naqvi, who is also the Sindh Assembly’s opposition leader, said troubling power cuts are going on since the advent of the summer season this year.

Stressing a need for finding a solution to the city’s power woes, he demanded that the government end K-Electric’s monopoly over the supply of power to the country’s financial hub.

Naqvi said the power distributor was also involved in overbilling, calling for third-party scrutiny of the power company’s meters.

MPA Aftab Siddiqui lamented that the power company has started overbilling in the city and claimed that it raked in a whopping Rs100 billion worth of profit during a period of ten years. He demanded the agreement reached with the company be made public.

He said people who have put themselves in quarantine in their homes because of the Covid-19 contagion had to suffer hours of physical and mental torment because of power outages.