ISLAMABAD - The nationalist parties of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday asked PESCO to stop cheating the consumers, by charging under fake extra units, and threatened to register criminal cases against the utility company and send the issue to NAB.
“I will personally go to NAB against PESCO chief for this cheating as they are fraudulently depriving the poor people of their hard-earned money,” Central Information Secretary of Awami National Party, Senator Zahid Khan, told The Nation here.
Zahid Khan said that he will also ask his party’s senators to take up the issue in Upper House of the Parliament.
The ANP leader was responding to the issue of 10 to 100 per cent extra units charged by PESCO from its consumers.
The PESCO meter readers are reportedly taking one reading for SDO and then get more revenues by adding from 10 to 100 per cent fake units for the Revenue Office.
“The chief of PESCO is the most inefficient and corrupt man and to save his job he is overcharging the poor consumers,” he said.
“As a senator and chairman of standing sub-committee on water and power I have started enquiry against the PESCO chief but when my tenure ended the investigation was shelved,” Zahid Khan said.
They jail the poor people for stealing electricity but there is no law to punish the officials of PESCO for charging 10 to 100 per cent extra units from the consumers, the ANP leader said.
“From lineman up to PESCO chief everyone is corrupt,” Zahid Khan added.
Zahid Khan said that the incumbent chairman of Senate standing committee on water and power hails from KP and he can tackle the issue in better way.
Saleem Khan, the central Information Secretary of the Pakhtunkhwa Qaumi Watan Party (PQWP), while talking to The Nation said that being a part of the ruling coalition in KP, his party will raise the issue with the federal government and will also take legal action against PESCO.
The PQWP is a Pakhtoon nationalist party, led by Aftab Sherpao, which has recently rejoined the PTI-led KP government.
“The PESCO officials need to mend their ways, otherwise, we will drag them to the court for stealing from the poor consumers,” he said.
“We are collecting data for the October electricity bills and in case of any cheating we will register case against the SDO of the concerned subdivision,” the PQWP leader said.
Saleem Khan said that KP is producing the cheapest electricity but its consumers are getting the electricity on high prices and the cheating by PESCO makes it even worse.
“We are producing electricity at the rate of less than two rupees per unit but we are buying the same electricity at the rate of Rs 5.79, Rs 8.11 and Rs 12 and Rs 16 per unit,” he said.
“The Ministry of Water and Power is always blaming the KP people for stealing the electricity, now it’s time they should take action against the corrupt officials of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company,” said the central leader of the PQWP.