KARACHI - Alarmed at the prolonged, unannounced loadshedding in the province, the Sindh government has convened a meeting of heads of power distribution companies, namely K-Electric, HESCO and SEPCO.
Minister for Energy Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh also directed the K-Electric official to bring a copy of an agreement, the company had signed with the federal government.
He also invited NEPRA chairman to visit Karachi so that the power issues could be resolved with mutual cooperation. “We are ready to cooperate with the NEPRA and other institutions for eliminating loadshedding from the province,” he said.
Sheikh accused the federal minister for power of trying to distract the legislators on the floor of the National Assembly from the real issues despite admitting that there was loadshedding in several parts of the country.
The provincial minister said that if Centre showed seriousness in resolving the issue, the Sindh government was ready to cooperate with it.
PPP workers protest against loadshedding
Meanwhile, workers of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) held a protest demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club on Sunday against excessive loadshedding in the city by K-Electric.
“We were against the privatization of the power distribution company from the very first day,” said the party’s Sindh General Secretary Waqar Mehdi and demanded the federal government nationalize the institution.
He also accused the PTI government of ‘safeguarding’ vested interests of the power utility after its owner funded the party’s campaign for 2018 general elections.
Parts of Karachi receive drizzle this morning
The port city received drizzle and light rain at some of its localities on Sunday morning.
Drizzle reported at Karsaz, Gharibabad, Liaquatabad, Nazimabad and SITE area in Karachi. Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) had earlier forecast cloudy weather and light rain/drizzle in the metropolis.
A cloudy weather has been predicted for most districts of Sindh today with likely rainfall with thunderstorm in coastal belt of the province including Karachi, Badin and Thatta, Sukkur, Jacobabad, Dadu, Khairpur, Rohri and Shaheed Benazirabad.
The maximum temperature to remain in between 34 to 36 degree centigrade in the port city today.
Currently the city is witnessing westerly, southwesterly winds at 18km/hour speed.
On Friday, the parts of Karachi received moderate to heavy downpour. The parts of Karachi which received heavy rain include Clifton, I I Chundrigar Road, Saddar, Gulistan-e-Johar, Korangi, Akhtar Colony, Mahmoodabad, Manzoor Colony, Malir, M A Jinnah Road, Sharea Faisal.
The met office has predicted mostly a hot and humid weather across the country on Sunday and rainfall with thunderstorm in upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, upper and central Punjab, eastern parts of Balochistan, Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan regions, while heavy rainfall at some places.
The weather office also forecast dusty winds and rainfall with thunderstorm at some areas of southern Punjab and upper Sindh.
Local government, K-Electric to blame for Karachi woes: JI
Jamat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi Ameer Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman said here on Sunday that ‘incompetence’ of the local bodies and the city administration had turned the provincial capital into heaps of filth and sewage.
He said despite forecast for rains by the meteorological department, all civic bodies failed to cleanse nullahs and the drainage system. “Resultantly, water levels in more than 550 nullahs of the city are alarmingly high,” he deplored.
Hafiz Naeem said that stagnant rainwater on roads and streets had made lives of people miserable, especially commuters, while the garbage accumulated on roadsides had endangered peoples’ health.
“According to media reports, around Rs229 million were given to the divisional commissioners for making arrangements to drain out the rainwater, but it appears not a single penny has been spent,” JI leader wondered.
He further said that reports of people dying from electrocution had become frequent now, but still no step had been taken to address the situation, leaving the citizens at the mercy of K-Electric.
He urged the city administration to take steps prior to the start of the next spell of monsoon rains, expected from either July 24 or 25.